Few exercises hit the sweet spot of being muscle-building, GOATed for strength, and generally sick-looking like the overhead press. Also known as the “standing strict press” and “military press,” the OHP is a classic barbell movement that not only looks cool and commands immediate respect from gym bros everywhere, but also translates incredibly well to everyday life and (over time) gives you Certified Boulder Shoulders. So, to help with the noble quest of increasing your overhead press, we rang up Sam Shethar, a strength coach and amateur strongman with an astounding—like, preposterous—405-pound OHP to give us some programming pointers, list off some common mistakes, and share a few insider tips on how to put up some serious weight.
So, whether you’re trying to impress your fellow gym rats, grow Death Star delts, or hoist the biggest boombox possible, here’s everything you need to know about putting more weight on your OHP, according to someone with a big-ass OHP.
What’s an OHP and why should you do it?
First of all, what exactly counts as an overhead press? “If I see the word overhead press in a program, I’m going to assume it’s like a standard standing military press,” Shethar says. “That’s started from the bottom, walked out of a rack or stood up off of pins, pressed to lockout and back down—without leg drive.”
But that’s not the only one you can do, he explains. “I think that there’s a lot of room to say this [variation] fits my body a little bit better, or this one is just a little bit easier for me to set up.” Whether it’s seated or standing, with dumbbells, kettlebells, or a specialty bar, the only thing Shethar suggests is that you pick a variation that fits your goals and stick with it for a while. “That can become your benchmark to make sure that year over year we’re getting stronger in some capacity,” he says.
But where the tried-and-true standing barbell overhead press shines is in its versatility: You can do it in any gym that has a barbell, plates, and a squat rack. (And if your gym doesn’t have these things, it’s probably time to find a new gym.) The OHP can also help preserve and increase your mobility, Shethar says. “I think that the overhead press where we have to really shrug up and let those scaps rotate upward at the top and go to a true overhead position is great because it helps people to preserve something that’s often lost over time, which is a true overhead position,” he says. “We also get some passive trunk loading, which I think is cool, and we get to push our head through to actually train a full overhead position where we finish with that bar over our midline, holding that weight up with our traps. That’s developmental in itself.”
Press more to press more
Strength is a skill, Shethar explains. “If we want to be strong at something, we want to do that thing to get better at it,” he says. “If you can handle it, a higher frequency tends to benefit the overhead press. If you’ve only been working on your overhead press on your shoulder day, upping it to two days per week might be the thing that you need to do to get it moving.” Shethar says you could even move it to three days: one day of heavier weight and lower reps, one day of higher reps and lower weight, and one day in the medium range. “That way, we’re not coming in there and banging our head against a wall on the same rep ranges every day,” he says. “On average, running up your frequency, if you can handle it, is one really powerful tool for the overhead press in particular. For example, I wouldn’t necessarily say deadlifting three times a week is a good idea, but I think for overhead pressing, it can work for a lot of people.” For most people, Shethar recommends you start with basic daily undulating periodization, which is a fancy way of saying you have multiple days of training per week in different rep ranges. For example, if you’re pressing three times per week, that would look something like this:
Source:
www.gq.com
