How much overhead press

For our purposes, not so much. The classic overhead press is a great lift for developing the shoulders, triceps, and even the upper back. However, we can greatly improve the strength curve by making the lift more explosive.

If you use some leg drive to throw the bar up—more like a push press—then you can blast through the sticking point and struggle through the rest of the lift, which is absolutely perfect for building muscle. If adding some leg drive into your overhead pressing allows you to safely clear your sticking point, go for it. The extra weight and reps will improve muscle growth.

When you first start doing the overhead press, the best way to get stronger is to practice. A good place to start is to do the overhead press 2—3 times per week. When your technique is solid, the best way to keep gaining strength is to bulk up the relevant muscles.

There are three approaches we can take to make those muscles bigger, in order of importance:. You can spread them out over the week. Maybe you do overhead presses and triceps extensions on Monday, push-ups and lateral raises on Wednesday, and the incline bench press on Friday. The trick when choosing assistance and accessory lifts, though, is to choose ones that help you strengthen the muscles that are limiting your performance on the overhead press.

For example, if your triceps are a limiting factor, triceps extensions will increase your overhead press. One-armed presses are a great assistance lift.

The movement pattern is nearly identical, making them great for bulking up your shoulders and traps. However, they also come along with some nifty benefits:. With a lift like a deadlift, it makes sense to use similar but lighter variations to make your workout routine less tiring.

It often makes sense to choose another heavy lift. Then think of which lifts strengthen those muscles. Also, think of which movements feel best on your joints, give you the best muscle pump, and give you the most soreness in the following days.

Those are good signs that the lift is helping you build muscle. For example, most people are limited on the overhead press by the strength of their front delts. The incline bench press and close-grip bench press are great for building bigger front delts.

They make great defaults. But if they hurt your shoulder joints, maybe the push-up or landmine press is a better choice. The incline bench press is another good lift for working our upper chests and front delts. A shallower incline emphasizes the upper chest, whereas a steeper incline bulks up the front delts. However, note that the close-grip bench press works these same muscles. And it has a deeper range of motion, working your shoulders under a deeper stretch. As we covered in our article on strength curves, our muscles grow best if we can load them fairly heavily at longer muscle lengths.

The close-grip bench press is the perfect fix for this. If we use a narrow grip, keep our arch modest, and bring the barbell down lower on our torsos just below the sternum, usually , then we not only get quite a good stretch on our front delts and upper chest, we also challenge them in that stretched position:. The close-grip bench press mainly works our front delts, upper chest, and, to a lesser extent, our triceps. The push-up is great for your chest, shoulders, and triceps.

Which muscles it emphasizes is going to depend on your anatomy and your technique. These are a great lift for bulking up your shoulders and upper chest while letting your shoulder blades roam wild. This makes them a great assistance lift for guys who are looking for more shoulder stability and strength.

Upright rows are a great lift for improving your aesthetics. The limiting factor is often your side delts or traps, and so they tend to get the best growth stimulus, but upright rows also work your forearms, elbow flexors such as your biceps , and rear delts.

However, these issues rarely ambush us out of nowhere. If we notice that upright rows make our shoulders cranky, we can either adjust our technique or stop doing them, preventing an injury from ever arising.

The good news is that our bodies are quite good at telling us when something is aggravating them. Also, keep in mind that our bodies adapt by growing both stronger and tougher.

If we can learn to do upright rows in a way that feels good on our shoulder joints, we can make our shoulder joints more robust. Pick a different exercise. Lateral raises tend to be the better lift for people with cranky shoulders.

With your accessory lifts, you want to choose lifts ideal for the various muscles involved in the overhead press. There are two approaches you can take. Your front delts will already be growing at full speed. How much can the average man expect to overhead press? If we take the data collected by ExRx over the past 70 years and expand it into rep maxes, we can make some estimations. These numbers line up with the strength standards used by Mark Rippetoe from Starting Strength.

The shoulders work through too great a range of motion , generating less tension and more of a chance for injury. On a bench press, the long head of the triceps works at its best length. A row works all three areas of the trapezius well. The whole shoulder works hard if you use both the bench press and the row. The middle deltoid serves as a stabilizer, meaning it works best with little no movement.

We know this since it moves the arm laterally. Slow twitch fibers meant for endurance comprise much of this muscle head. Its large size comes from the long moment arm between the shoulder and the hand, decreasing the leverage. This long lever makes even a light weight feel heavy when held away from the body, such as on a lateral raise.

The middle deltoid plays its role best with other muscles. A push works the first half of the middle and the front shoulder. A pull works the back half of the middle and the rear shoulder. The whole shoulder works together to remain stable on these exercises as well. Due to less range of motion though, which is best for the shoulder anyway, and since less of the whole shoulder activates as intensely at once, this will reduce the burn you feel.

The shoulder also works as intended any time you hold an arm a bit away from your side. The deltoid prevents your arms from obstructing your thighs while supporting the weight of your arm. It also prevents dislocation. Daily life works it more than you may think. Some state that the overhead press balances the anterior of the shoulder. If you have a horizontal push and pull then this already occurs. These work more muscle too, leading to other benefits such as the indirect effect or changing hormones for the better.

They are much safer too as long as you avoid too much range of motion , the real culprit that leads to problems on the bench press. The upper chest and the front of the shoulder may act as a shelf for the barbell on the overhead press. This compresses the active muscles, which can damage them.

Just because you can place your hand overhead fails to show that you should do so with a weight. Many muscles evolved just to move fast or hold positions. Performing otherwise will go against what your body expects. Consider an example with the hip flexors. When you run, raising your hips demands a fast action while handling only the weight of your legs. Moving your hand overhead exists for repositioning the arm against little weight. You cannot handle even this for very long either.

Talk with any baseball player or gymnast to learn about the stress their sports place on the shoulder. These are triceps, chest, and deltoids. But from different angles. Improve your upper back to perform the Bench Press more efficiently.

Fostering your upper-body strength affects your power. This leads to gaining muscle mass and improving endurance. The triceps is one of the important muscles to perform the Shoulder Press. Increasing its strength leads to honing your overhead position. Improving strength is advantageous for other lifting exercises.

Overhead Presses can be performed with different free weights. These are dumbbells , kettlebells , and barbells. You can alternate them to level up your strength power. You need a pair of dumbbells to perform the exercise. Push the weights upwards while standing.

Seated Overhead Press variation helps to get a bit of stress off your lower back. Such an option is more joint-friendly. Place a bench in a power rack where the bar is placed. The barbell is set so you can reach it when you sit.

Load some plates if needed. Unrack the bar with a pronated grip with palms looking out. Lower the barbell to the top of your chest. Then raise your arms overhead to lockout. Do reps per set.

Thrusters aim to do a full Front Squat with a barbell. Your legs are engaged to help you lift the weight up. This move makes the exercises a full-body workout. Stand up with a bar in front of the shoulders. Your shoulders are down and back. Your chest is up. Contract your core while standing. Your stance is wider than hip-width apart. Bend your knees to do a squat. Your thighs are parallel to the ground. Register Log In. Calculators Strength Calculators.

See All Calculators. Shoulder Press Standards Measured in lb. Weight Unit.