Shoulder mobility is crucial to keep your joints healthy and for full range of motion while performing overhead movements. Overhead can improve strength range of motion, and mobility, to avoid injury and improve athletic performance. Function, means purpose, therefore, functional training is training for a specific purpose. That purpose being to build more strength, balance, and stability recruited to perform common movement patterns while performing everyday activities.
Overhead press can greatly benefit function, core strength, and stability specifically applied to overhead movements and lifting. We believe that everyone can optimize not only their athletic performance but their human potential. The way we believe we can optimize performance is through transparency, clinically effective doses, and clinically proven ingredients with evidence-based outcomes. We provide the nutrients you need to power your active lifestyle. Get exclusive access to discounts and the latest on fitness, nutrition, and wellness delivered straight to your inbox.
Your email. Create your account Lost password? First name. Last name. Increase Your Bench Press. Overhead press strength carries over to the barbell bench press. This is because the overhead press trains most of the muscles trained when bench pressing, but with a different focus. It focuses on the shoulders and triceps, which are assistance muscles for benching. Additionally, the lockout strength see above carries over to the bench press. Related: read these bench press tips for more info on increasing bench press strength.
Safeguard Your Shoulders. This exercise offers the benefit of improved shoulder health and protection against injuries when done correctly. First off, it makes the shoulder muscles stronger in general. Second, and most important, it trains the anterior deltoid , lateral deltoid and posterior deltoid relatively evenly, which helps maintain proper muscular balance. That said, the posterior delts will probably still lag.
So I advise doing additional exercises like face pulls and rear delt raises. 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. Most people already have enough muscle mass to overhead press more than 85 pounds. But with a few weeks of practice, the average novice lifter can overhead press around:. As you continue gaining muscle size and strength, your overhead press numbers will climb ever higher. After a year of serious training, the average man can lift:. And if you keep pushing closer to your genetic potential, after 5—10 years, the average man can expect to overhead press:.
These numbers are typical for advanced lifters who train seriously and get near their genetic muscular potential. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, at the shoulders, with an overhand grip. Thumbs are on the inside and knuckles face up. This exercise works the deltoid muscle of the shoulder. In addition to increasing shoulder strength, the standing dumbbell overhead press engages the core for stability throughout the movement.
While you can do an overhead press with an exercise machine, barbell, or kettlebells, using dumbbells offers unique benefits. For instance, research has found that using a dumbbell provides more activation of the anterior front deltoid than using a kettlebell. Performing this move also helps identify whether you have an imbalance in shoulder strength. One sign is if you can lift a certain amount of weight more easily with one arm than the other.
Muscle imbalances can affect how you move, limiting your mobility and movement efficiency. In daily life, you may need to place objects on shelves above your head or your luggage in the overhead compartment on a plane. This exercise helps build the strength you need to do these types of tasks safely.
You can perform this exercise in several different ways depending on your fitness level and goals. While the standing overhead press is a classic move, you can also perform it seated. A seated dumbbell overhead press is a better option for individuals who are getting started in strength training or for those with back issues or injuries. A sitting position helps stabilize the back.
To do the overhead press in a seated position, sit on a bench and follow the same steps. You can also do a seated overhead press while sitting in a chair this option also offers more back support.
Or, for more of a challenge to the core muscles, sit on an exercise ball. Another variation is to alternate your arms. Press up with one arm and then the other instead of working both at once.
Research shows that this option is better at activating the core muscles —especially when the exercise is performed in a standing position. This dumbbell overhead variation, sometimes called a hammer shoulder press, involves changing your hand position into a hammer grip palms facing each other like you do in a hammer curl.
A hammer grip is also called a neutral grip. Changing the grip activates different muscles in the shoulders.
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