How To Overhead Press For Bigger Shoulders (5 Mistakes You're Probably Making)

Well developed rounded shoulders are one of many key features that dramatically improves and completes a powerful looking upper body. And in order to best grow this muscle, there's no doubt that the overhead press should be a staple in your routine as it not only enables you to effectively target the shoulders and the several other upper body muscles as shown here, but it also enables you to easily overload and lift the most weight overhead when compared to other shoulder movements. However. However, despite the seemingly straightforward movement pattern of the overhead press, if you want to maximize your shoulder development while reducing your risk of injury, then there's a lot more that goes into it than simply lifting a bar overhead. Therefore, in this video, I'll cover the five most common errors people make with the overhead press, and more importantly, I'll show you how to easily fix them right away. One common overhead pressing mistake is flaring the elbows out during the movement, which from the front view looks like this, where your elbows are pointed directly out to your sides throughout the press. This is often mistakenly done by gripping the bar too wide, which causes the forearms to be misaligned with your hands as shown here. What you want to do instead is grip the bar such that your thumbs are positioned just outside of your shoulders, enabling your forearms to be positioned directly under your hands like so, leading to a stronger and safer pressure. And in addition to this, at the bottom position, you need to be initiating the press in something called the scapular plane, such that at the bottom position your elbows are pointed slightly forward, or in other words, at roughly a 30 degree angle from directly sideways. Then only as you press up should you naturally allow your elbows to turn out to the side and then return back to the scapular plane as you descend back to the bottom position. This has been shown in multiple biomechanical analysis studies to not only be a saf comfortable position for the shoulder joint to be in, but also more effective for overhead pressing, which you'll likely immediately notice after implementing this fix. In order to perform the overhead press most efficiently, the barbell path needs to be as short as possible, meaning that it needs to travel in almost a vertical line from start to finish, rather than in a curved path around your head. But to successfully accomplish this, you need to create space for the bar as you press. This is done by first very slightly leaning back by sticking your chest up and out before you initiate the press. Then you want to also pull your chin back such that the bar is able to travel straight up as you begin to press. Then as the bar passes the top of your head you pull your chin back forward into its neutral position, such that at the top position, the bar is positioned directly over your shoulders, hips and feet in a straight line. Avoid excessively sticking your head forward when doing so, and also avoid positioning the bar too far back at the top. Instead, focus on moving the bar vertically, as this will keep your center of gravity in an optimal position and enable you to lift the most weight possible. Keep in mind, though, that this mistake may also be due to various mobility restrictions that your body is compensating for, which will be addressed in the next mistake. Excessively arching the lower back is probably the most problematic mistake that lifters make when it comes to this movement. Not only does the literature emphasize that this mistake often leads to acute back injuries and lower back pain, but it's also been shown to significantly reduce overhead force and your ability to press heavy loads, which is obviously detrimental to your shoulder development in the long run. So instead, you want to keep your lower back as neutral as possible throughout the lift. But if you're struggling with this and you're not using a weight that's too heavy for you, then there's a couple of things you need to do. First, you need to ensure that your body is as stable as possible throughout the movement. And to do this, before you even initiate the press, you need to first actively squeeze your glutes, quads and your abdominals. Contracting these three muscles before and during the press will provide your body with the stability it needs to prevent your lower back from arching during the press. However, in addition to this, hyperextending the lower back is often a compensation for a lack lack of mobility in other areas. One such area is the lats, since one of the key attachment points of the lats is the back of the upper arm. When this muscle is tight, which it often is, it actually restricts your ability to lift your arm overhead, which your body then compensates for by arching your lower back during any overhead pressing movements. So to improve this, shortly before you begin your sets of overhead press, simply foam roll side to side along both sides of your lats. Do this for a few minutes in order to loosen them up, and afterwards you'll likely notice your press feels a lot smoother and easier to execute properly. Now, another problematic area is something called thoracic extension, or in other words, your upper back mobility. Again, similar to the lats. And as stated in this study from the Journal of Orthopedic Sports Physical Therapy, the higher you raise your arms overhead, the more thoracic mobility is needed to maintain proper Shoulder alignment. Therefore, without sufficient thoracic mobility, your body will tend to once again compensate by arching your lower back to get your arms fully overhead. So to improve this, after you finish foam rolling your lats, you can then place the foam roller on your mid back like so. With your hands placed on your head, you want to simply let your upper back extend over the foam roller as you exhale, while avoiding excessively arching your lower back. Hold this for five deep breaths and then repeat this a couple more times further down your upper back. Another common movement error is excessively bending the wrist during the press. This not only strains the wrist, but will also limit your pressing strength since the wrists are now at a mechanical disadvantage. Instead, you want to keep the wrists in a neutral position and in line with your forearms as you press, and I find that the best grip to accomplish this is something called the bulldog grip, where you first place the bar such that it sits across the base of your palm and then rotate your hands inward and then grip the bar. If you've never used this grip before, you'll immediately notice that it feels a lot more secure and easier to keep your wrist neutral as you press overhead. During the overhead press, your body should be thought of as a stable pillar with your arms moving overhead to press the weight. However, what a lot of people do, especially when they begin to fatigue, is start to incorporate more of their legs into the movement by bending, then extending them in order to push up more weight or more reps. And although this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is a completely different movement and it's actually something called the push press, which shifts some of the tension away from the shoulders. So if you tend to do this, it's simply an indication that you should lighten the weight up or implement the previous fixes discussed such that you're able to perform your overhead pressing sets with no cheating whatsoever. Do keep in mind though that performing the push press separately can be an effective way to improve your strength. Strict overhead press but it is a separate movement that involves more of your lower body and less of your shoulders when compared to the overhead press. And therefore it shouldn't be used simply as a compensation to lift more weight when performing your strict overhead pressing sets.

So to sum the video up, here are the main points. As I've said before, choosing the right exercises is one thing, but performing them optimally and safely is really what makes all the difference in the long run.

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This all really does help me out.

Anyways, that's it for today. Do let me know if there's any other exercises you'd like to see me cover in future videos and I'll do just that and I'll see you next time.