{"id":30327,"date":"2013-02-11T21:16:08","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T03:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artofmanliness.com\/?p=30327"},"modified":"2021-06-01T11:13:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T16:13:57","slug":"overhead-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/health-fitness\/fitness\/overhead-press\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Lifts: Overhead Press"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30328 size-full\" title=\"Overhead press. \" src=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2013\/02\/Overhead-Press-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration guide showing how to do overhead press.\" width=\"900\" height=\"593\" srcset=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Overhead-Press-1.jpg 900w, https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Overhead-Press-1-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Overhead-Press-1-320x211.jpg 320w, https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Overhead-Press-1-640x422.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Start<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Grip the bar so that forearms are vertical.<\/li>\n<li>Look forward; head neutral.<\/li>\n<li>Bar gripped in the base of the palms, directly over the forearms.<\/li>\n<li>Chest up and expanded.<\/li>\n<li>Feet hip-shoulders-width apart.<\/li>\n<li>Bar about clavicle level.<\/li>\n<li>Hands don\u2019t touch shoulders.<\/li>\n<li>Wrists in-line with forearms.<\/li>\n<li>Elbows in front of the barbell.<\/li>\n<li>Squeeze glutes to avoid arching your back.<\/li>\n<li>Weight heavy in heels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lift<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Press the bar straight up.<\/li>\n<li>Tuck chin back and press bar straight up and overhead to full extension; return head to neutral and bring torso forward once bar clears the face.<\/li>\n<li>Lock elbows out.<\/li>\n<li>Squeeze shoulder blades while extending arms overhead until full extension is reached.<\/li>\n<li>Keep upper back, glutes, and abs tight.<\/li>\n<li>Straight line going from the bar, down through your shoulder blades, and through middle of feet.<\/li>\n<li>Drive through heels while pressing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnow Your Lifts\u201d is an illustrated guide series that shows how to perform basic weight lifting exercises. Check out our previous guides on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/articles\/know-your-lifts-the-back-squat\/\">High-Bar Back Squat<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/articles\/know-your-lifts-deadlift\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Deadlift<\/a>. On the docket today is another essential and beastly lift: the Overhead Press. The overhead press (or shoulder press, or strict press, or just &#8220;press&#8221;) is superior to the bench press in that it works the whole body and is a much more functional exercise (most of the time when you&#8217;re lifting things you&#8217;re on your feet, not lying on you back). It&#8217;s also feels pretty manly to hoist a heavy barbell above your head.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Barry Schroeder and Jim Schoenberg&nbsp;of&nbsp;CrossFit Sandstorm&nbsp;for consulting on this post.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Know Your Lifts Series:&nbsp;<\/strong><br \/>\n<a title=\"Know Your Lifts: The High-Bar Back Squat\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/articles\/know-your-lifts-the-back-squat\/\">High-Bar Back Squat<\/a><br \/>\n<a title=\"Know Your Lifts: Deadlift\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/articles\/know-your-lifts-deadlift\/\">Deadlift<\/a><br \/>\n<a title=\"Know Your Lifts: Overhead Press\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/articles\/overhead-press\/\">Overhead Press<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Like this illustrated guide? Then you\u2019re going to love our book&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Illustrated-Art-Manliness-How-Self-Defense\/dp\/0316362654\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1504116462&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=illustrated+guide+to+art+of+manliness&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=artofmanliness03-20&amp;linkId=72823c21096e9c65d26a1b386e11963b\"><em>The Illustrated Art of Manliness<\/em><\/a>! Pick up a copy on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Illustrated-Art-Manliness-How-Self-Defense\/dp\/0316362654\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1504116462&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=illustrated+guide+to+art+of+manliness&amp;linkCode=sl1&amp;tag=artofmanliness03-20&amp;linkId=72823c21096e9c65d26a1b386e11963b\">Amazon<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Illustration by&nbsp;Ted Slampyak<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Watch the Video<\/h3>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CnBmiBqp-AI?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Start Grip the bar so that forearms are vertical. Look forward; head neutral. Bar gripped in the base of the palms, directly over the forearms. Chest up and expanded. Feet hip-shoulders-width apart. Bar about clavicle level. Hands don\u2019t touch shoulders. Wrists in-line with forearms. Elbows in front of the barbell. Squeeze glutes to avoid arching [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,7,229],"tags":[42243],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-30327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness","category-health-fitness","category-illustrated-guides","tag-exercises"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Overhead-Press-1-538x280.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Overhead-Press-1-768x506.jpg","aom":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Overhead-Press-1-372x230.jpg","reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Overhead-Press-1-320x211.jpg","reactor-640":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Overhead-Press-1-640x422.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30327"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127341,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30327\/revisions\/127341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30327"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=30327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}