Assistance exercises for the overhead press

You can do the overhead press itself to gain size and strength in your shoulders and arms, but to gain strength in the lift more quickly, it's recommended to add assistance exercises for the lift. Adding assistance exercises to your regular overhead pressing can help build up the smaller muscles that are holding you back, and making your strength more well rounded.

Assistance Exercises For The Overhead Press

Bench Press

You can do benches in any way you want, whether full ROM, on the incline or in some kind of partial movement. Pressing standing up all the time can wear your back down, causing your pressing to suffer. Instead, do your pressing on the bench for an assistance exercise. It's great for tricel and chest strength.

Side/ab exercises

Strong sides and core muscles are needed to press big weights standing up. Side bends, and ab exercises will improve your ability to support big weights.

Push press

The push press is done like a standing overhead press, but using your legs to lift the weight up. With a short dip, drive the bar up and lock it out with your triceps. You usually want to use more weight on these than in your regular press.

Seated dumbbell press

To more fully develop your pressing muscles, do seated db presses for higher reps. It's good to use different set and rep schemes, so doing these in contrast to the other lifts that are done for lower reps and heavier weight will fill out your pressing routine.

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How To Overhead Press

The overhead press is one of the best movements for gaining size and strength in your shoulders and triceps. It can be done in a number of ways, seated or standing, with a barbell or dumbbells. This post is about how to do the standing overhead press. Also known as the shoulder press or military press.

- Clean the bar to your shoulders or take it from a rack and bring it to your shoulders

- Make your core tight with a deep breath and tensed abs. Stay upright and try not to bend your back, look upwards slightly and start pressing it over your head.

- Continue pressing the weight until it's locked out over your head. Then you'll need to lower it in a controlled fashion back down to your shoulders.

- Put the bar back on the ground, or back on the rack.

If you do the overhead press standing, it also targets your abs and core muscles. The best rep scheme for overall shoulder and tricep development is to do 5 to 8 reps per set.







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Shouldering The Bar For The Bent Press

Bent pressing is among the most technical and difficult lifts to perform. The best bent pressers of old and today spend a great deal of time practicing their technique and form. The bent press requires much more discipline than almost all other lifts. Most lifts can be done with fairly little in the way of practice, while the bent press typically requires years of perfecting.

Bent Press: How To Shoulder The Bar

Beforehand, you need to mark the very middle of the bar. To find the center of the barbell, attempt to one hand deadlift the bar a number of times until it's perfectly balanced when you pick it up. At that point, either make a mark with a marker or put a piece of tape at that spot.

Put one hand on the center of the bar and with your other hand, grab the bar on the far end, near the weights. You need to heave the bar until it's standing on its end in front of you. It's better to keep your hand on the center of the barbell the entire time instead of doing it after it's on its end because you may grip it improperly and not be able to complete your bent press.

Squat down, and pull the bar into your shoulder. Grab the barbell with your free hand on the far end near the weights, and with a heave you should end up with the bar balanced with both of your hands on your shoulder. At that point, you need to position yourself for the bent press. Bend over with your hip out, and begin bent pressing.

It takes time and practice to shoulder the bar properly, but you should get the hang of it with enough time and practice.

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Assistance Exercises for the Bent Press

The physical requirements to attain mastery of the bent press are numerous. Muscular strength, flexibility and technical skill are needed if you want to lift large amounts of weight with the bent press. There isn't a whole lot out there on bent pressing, and training for the bent press can be challenging if you don't know what lifts to do. There are many different ways you can train the bent press. Your choices will be based on your own needs and preferences. I can give you a list of the lifts that have assisted my own bent press training.

One Handed Snatch and One Handed Clean and Jerk

These two lifts are great for gaining strength and power in general, and particularly good as assistance lifts for the bent press. Arthur Saxon, the great bent presser, thought highly of these two lifts. You can do the one handed clean and jerk and one handed snatch with either a dumbbell or a barbell. If you use a barbell, you'll need to learn how to balance the weight properly as that can be the biggest problem for beginners. These lifts are done by reaching down and thrusting the bar or db clear overhead or to the shoulder and then overhead. The reason they're good for the bent press it that they're one handed lifts that use a lot of the same muscles, and can get you used to doing heavy lifts with one hand.

Side Press

The side press is somewhat similar to the bent press. To do the side press, you should take a dumbbell and press it overhead while bending to the side. It's a fairly simple lift and hits a lot of the same muscles as the bent press. It's very good for building side, tricep and shoulder strength. While you can do the side press with a barbell, it's better to do it with a dumbbell as the barbell can make it difficult to do many reps at a time. If you're new to any sort of one armed overhead lifts, then the side press with a dumbbell is your best choice for a bent press assistance lift.

Hand and Grip Strength

Hand and grip strength is very important for the bent press, as well as a number of other lifts. A lot of lifters avoid or ignore their grip strength. The reason you need hand, wrist and grip strength for the bent press is because the lift can put a lot of pressure on your wrists, and you need to have a firm hold of the bar at all times. Train your hand, grip and wrist strength can be done in a number of ways. Wrist curls, holding weights overhead for time, or thick bar lifts are good choices for hand strength.

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