A fitness coach breaks down the strict military press: hands just outside shoulder width, stable pelvis, straight legs, no knee drive. If your lower back is tight, do a seated dumbbell press instead to reduce strain.
In this video, I'm going to show you the correct way to do a military press. We've got Kristen here, she's going to grab the bar and set up position. So first of all, we want our hands— where she's set up is perfect right now— to be just outside of shoulder width. A lot of clients will make mistakes bringing their hands far too close. So bring your hands too close, right? And then I just want you to— that's probably too, too close. Now just, just, yeah, bring, bring it out. I just want to show so you can see here how now that's a really uncomfortable position for the wrists and the hands are on top of shoulder. So put that back in. All right, set up as you would, so outside of shoulder width. And you can see in this position how the hands now are not sitting on the shoulders. So pushing up straight overhead. Considerations for a military press that you always want to consider is lower back strength. If people get into excessive lumbar flexion, they may hurt their lower back. A quick screening tool that you can use to see if the military press is for you— I'll get you to rack that— the way she's doing it perfect is hands on hips, and I'm gonna get you to do a backbend. So if you find that you are limited— perfect range— if you find you are limited here, say for example, come just to my hand, if your range is there, a military press is not for you because it's going to create much too much force on the lumbar spine. I'll get you to grab the bar and just do one more demonstration here just for the folks who are watching, because when you come up, what you're really aiming for is your bicep and will cover your ear. So as she comes up, her bicep— I cannot see her ear from the side— and come back down. You can see her pelvis is stable, legs are straight, there is no force being generated from her knees, and that is a picture-perfect military press. Now, if she did bend her knees, that would then become a push press, which is not what we're looking for in this exercise. So I'm gonna get you to rack it. If you are working with a client, or perhaps yourself, and you do have a lower back consideration, we're going to go over to the dumbbells And where I like to start clients for lower back considerations, and we'll just use— grab us the 7.5s, and you can take a seat here— is we use a seated shoulder press. Now, hand position, I actually like the Arnie press variation. So sitting down, hands in front, and pushing all the way up. So, so we'll just do that one again. I'll just guide you through. You're coming through to here, all the way, a little bit lower. There. Now push up straight up overhead. And again, so you can see here what we want is there, and I want you to push your body forward into it as you do it. So I do like this, and obviously the weight can be lowered for clients actually struggling with this one a little bit, but that's where I like to start if there is any lower back consideration. So if you want more great tips just like this one, make sure you subscribe for more great videos.
