We're here again with an in-depth look at Movements + Good Habits focused on the OVERHEAD PRESS (in this case, the strict/no momentum version). Putting the queues we outline below into your warmpus and lifts will help to improve your power and strength, stability and ultimately intensity of your workouts. In applying this to your daily life (think, putting a heavy grocery item on a tall shelf or pulling kid off a high playground equipment or putting a heavy carry-on into an overhead bin), you can save your body and stay healthy, too.
If you are not familiar with the 'BRACING' or 'PUSHUP' videos, please go back and re-watch as it directly applies to the OVERHEAD PRESS.
Set your feet With the equipment you're using (dumbbells, kettlebells or barbell, etc.) in position on your shoulders, grasped by each hand firmly but not white-knuckled), start your focus on your feet. Stance should be hip-width apart, weight distributed evenly flat on the ground. The next few steps will resemble the BRACING queues.
Rotate your feet out Build tension by outwardly rotating your feet opposite each other and engaging your quads, keeping your legs long.
Squeeze your butt! Rotate your hips underneath you and squeeze to maintain this position.
Keep your ribs "quiet" Pull the bottom rib toward the top of your hip bones. Try to limit the amount your ribs flare from the bottom and think about tightening your bellybutton through your spine, but not sucking in, just tightening.
Breath deep into your BELLY Use your outward breath to increase the abdominal squeeze while still being able to breath.
Press to locked-out overhead position. First, pull your head back slightly out of the way by giving yourself a double chin. Press your equipment over head to a full locked out position with arms in line with your ears. Keep bar path close to the centerline of your body by not pressing OUT and AROUND your face. Head can come back to a neutral position at the top once you've locked your arms into the top position. Notice Steff's shoulders are not pressed UP, but rather locked DOWN so not to overly engage her traps. For those of you with headaches, this is an important step.
Stack your joints. At the overhead position, consider that you are stacking your joints vertically; wrists over your elbows, elbows over your shoulders, shoulders over your hips with core engaged, hips over your knees, knees over your ankles. When we do not stack vertically, we put additional forces (not the good kind) on our joints which can cause injury over time.
Retrace your steps. Pull your head back out of the way as you begin your decent with the bar path tracking essentially straight downward. If you are performing multiple reps, come to your chin line and without losing tension, press the weight back up to overhead. If not, come to a rest again at your shoulder, letting your head come back to neutral. Core stays engaged as you re-rack or lower the weight to protect your back and body.
A strong base helps improve an overhead position, so we certainly are using more than just our arms in this movement sequence. We sometimes queue, "make your body stable like a tree trunk"; whatever you envision, let it be strong and stable. An overhead press can be completed with lots of pieces of equipment from dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, jinglebells, plates, wallballs, groceries, small children, furniture... you get my point.