Mastering The Overhead Press: Volume 2

Welcome back.

In the last addition, we discussed the many benefits of the overhead press. Now that you know the overhead press is the king of all upper body pushing movements, let's get into the real magic - the training progressions.

The first thing to consider is that your muscles need to be primed and mobilized before you start to pack on any weight. As with any compound movement, the best warm-up is to actually do the exercise - but we need to ensure the muscles and connections to the muscles are ready to start training.

Warm Up

Assuming your muscles are primed and ready to go your warmup will consist of entry lifts. One thing we need to emphasize on compound movements is that the warm-up should be completely specific to your workout.

In other words, if you're training for 5x5’s your warm-up should consist of 5 rep entry lifts, progressing up in either percent values or RPE’s.

Here’s an example of how you can warm up for a 6x4 training session, assuming your 6RM is 135lbs.

6 reps @ 50%

- Rest 2min

6 reps @70%

- Rest 2min

6 reps @90%

- Rest 3min before starting the workout.

This in no way should cause you fatigue, rather you are training your muscles to handle the load and become warm under the bar.

Reps/Set Range

The reps and sets that you train at will decide how your muscles are going to develop. On a very basic level, the lower the reps, the more you can stimulate hypertrophy. In this scenario,  difficulty does arise with overhead pressing.

The overhead press is a great exercise, but there is a high potential for injury in the overhead loaded position. This is why it becomes important to train at higher rep ranges, with lower weights.

Here are the three best rep ranges you can use to develop strength and power in the overhead press.

5 REPS X 5 SETS

This is the classic overhead press rep range. It provides a great perceived max, and with the higher amount of sets you can take moderate rest times to develop a greater cardiovascular response.

6 REPS X 4 SETS

Perhaps the most common overhead pressing rep range. In my opinion, 6x4 is the most effective as you can use it to train your 6RM and progress using simple set cycles with an 8x3.

6 REPS X 3 SETS

Although this may not seem to be very different than a 6x4, the exclusion of one set drastically changes the way you rest and work throughout the session.

Only having to complete 3 sets means you can really pack on the weight, take longer rest times and push out the reps without having to save energy for extended sets.

6x3 is a great choice for the advanced lifter who is trying to pack weight on before a competition.

Overhead Press Workout

Alright, now you have a basic overview of how you can develop strength and size in the shoulders through the overhead press.

Here is one last gift for you, a simple overhead pressing workout guide - try to implement this 2x a week.

Progressing in this workout scheme is all about increasing the weight or set cycling. You can find more information about set cycling here.