How to Build a Bigger Overhead Press (7-step Blueprint)

Everyone wants a bigger Overhead Press. Of course we all want a bigger Squat, Deadlift, and Bench Press too. But there just seems to be something uniquely cool about standing out in the middle of the floor – just you and the barbell – and pressing it over your head.

I remember Mark Rippetoe once saying at a Starting Strength seminar a number of years ago that the first thing the cavemen did when they found the first set of barbells was pick it up and shove it over their heads. It just seems like something you should do if you want to get strong.

For starters, there just aren’t a lot of guys with big overhead presses. It seems like nowadays 500-600 lb Deadlifts are a dime-a-dozen, but you still don’t walk into most commercial gyms and see anyone repping out 225 overhead on a strict overhead press.

So let’s figure out how to do that, so you can be that guy.

 

Big Press Rule #1: Don’t lose bodyweight

More so than any other lift, the overhead press is extremely sensitive to changes in your bodyweight. Five to ten pounds of weight gained or lost can affect your progress on the press significantly. When we lose weight, we lose some combination of fat, water, and muscle mass. How much of each depends on the individual and their nutritional plan. A proper nutrition plan can help to minimize muscle loss, but if you try to cut significant amounts of weight you are probably going to lose a little bit of muscle unless you are using anabolics (I am life time drug free as are my clients).

But mainly (on top of the fat that you want to lose) you are going to lose quite a bit of water in and around the muscle cells. A loss of water weight changes leverages around your joints – usually to your detriment when it comes to strength.

This is why many power lifters aim for “The Bloat” prior to a contest. A single (or several) high sodium / high carbohydrate meals can add several pounds of water weight to a lifter in a short period of time. This extra water weight stored in and around the muscle cells creates better leverage around all the joints and will increase your lifts. (Great “bloat” meals include things like McDonalds French Fries or an order of Pancakes and Sausage – remember high carb + high sodium combo).

The more muscle mass you have in a lift (think Squat or Deads) the less a small loss of water weight is going to affect you. But in a Press we aren’t using very much muscle mass to move the barbell (delts and triceps). Even small changes in leverage are very difficult to overcome when you don’t have a lot of muscle mass to make up for it.

Sooooo……if you want to prioritize your Press, don’t try and prioritize weight loss at the same time. Pick which goal is more important to you and get that done first.

Big Press Rule #2: Train the Press with Lots of Strength Volume

Presses like strength volume. You may be asking – what the hell is strength volume? Strength volume is a term I made up (I think) that differentiates between different types of high volume training. To me “strength volume” is work done in the 75-85% of 1RM range, generally with a rep range between 3 and 6 and a set count usually between 4 and 6. So set/rep schemes such as 5×5, 4×6, 6×4, or even 8×3. This is “strength volume” training and Presses seem to respond very well to it. The other barbell lifts do too, obviously, but Presses are particularly dependent on this type of volume work. Be sure to include a strength volume day at least once per week if you want to prioritize Pressing (recommended 18-24 total reps between 75-85% of 1RM).

Big Press Rule #3: Train with Higher Reps (8-12) Too

Although the meat and potatoes volume work should be “strength volume”, Presses also like a little bit of dosing in the higher rep ranges as well. You don’t need to dedicate an entire training session to higher rep training, but I recommend the occasional back off set or two in the 8-12 rep range. You can do these back off sets after your strength volume work or after higher intensity sessions. It really doesn’t matter, but once a week or once every two weeks I’d aim for a max effort set(s) between 8-12.

This type of training will do a couple of things for you. First, it helps with size. As we discussed earlier, the delts and triceps are the primary movers in a Press and neither muscle is particularly large when we compare them to quads, glutes, hamstrings, etc that we use in the Squat and Deadlift. Even a small increase in muscular size (even if it’s mainly just swelling of the sarcoplasm) will help to improve leverage for the heavier lifts. Second, it will increase your endurance and work capacity on your “strength volume” work. Doing very heavy 5×5 sets is not easy. Often the limiting factor on your later sets is muscular endurance. You simply gas out early and can’t perform all your sets at the prescribed loads. Or you have to take 10 minutes between all your sets and it takes you an hour just to press. Also not ideal. Triceps especially tend to gas out rather quickly and training some high rep presses relatively frequently will keep them in the game longer.

Big Press Rule #4: Train Frequently with Heavy Singles

As discussed, volume work is exceedingly important for driving up your Press. But if you want to Press heavy – eventually you have to press heavy. You need to learn how to grind through a very heavy load, you need to learn where you sticking points are, and you need to train your nervous system to handle heavy loads. Singles across is my favorite method of heavy press work. And I like lots of heavy singles across. Generally a minimum of 5-6 and often times up to 10 heavy singles across. Often times you will find that as you perform your singles across workout, the first 3-4 sets are very difficult and then all of a sudden things get easier and you can crank out a ton of singles with a nice smooth bar path. If I notice this start to happen we’ll do up to 8-10 sets of singles. If not, then we usually cut things off at 5-6 as to not overtrain the CNS. Heavy doubles and heavy triples are fine as well, but I’d make the vast majority of my high intensity press sessions “singles across”. Singles on one day and fives on another day go together like steak and potato. The best combo for strength in my opinion.

Big Press Rule #5: Use Dynamic Effort Sets (Speed Work) to Bust Plateaus.

All lifts eventually get stuck and we need to have tools in our tool belt to unstick them. I don’t use Dynamic Effort Presses year round with all my trainees, but I do use them for short blocks of time to get a stuck press unstuck. Usually I start by adding in Dynamic Effort sets in place of the high intensity day for about 4-6 weeks. So if we were doing 5×5 on Monday and 5×1 on Friday, now we do 5×5 on Monday and 12×2 on Friday. I find that for Presses, the optimal bar weight is about 60-70% of 1RM. I like to do a “pyramid” type of workout with Dynamic Effort sets. As an example:

Lifter with a 225 lb Press:

Set 1-2: 2 x 135 (60%)

Set 3-4: 2 x 145 (~65%)

Set 5-8: 2 x 155 (~70%)

Set 9-10: 2 x 145 (65%)

Set 11-12: 2 x 135 (60%)

Rest time between sets is kept to about 1 minute and emphasis is on max bar speed. This is a new type of stress for the system which has become used to slow grinding reps on both volume and intensity days. On multiple occasions I have seen the speed stimulus get a lift moving again after just 1-2 workouts.

After 4-6 weeks go back to the use or regular strength volume work and high intensity work or use the speed sets on your volume day and press heavy singles across on the other pressing day of the week.

Big Press Rule #6: Train the Incline Bench Press and/or the Close Grip Bench Press

If you want a big overhead press you need to keep bench pressing as well. Bench Presses allow our upper body to handle significantly heavier poundages than does the overhead press and this is important for the development of the overhead press. If you want to press 275 overhead one day – you probably need to bench it first.

However, don’t forget about the incline bench press and the close grip bench press. Both of these lifts still allow us to use heavier-than-press weights, but they also are a little more specific to the press than is the regular bench press. Close grips obviously allow you to overload the triceps and press very heavy weights with a “press grip” – or at least somewhat close to a press grip. Inclines work the upper chest and front delts much more so than does the flat bench press. A very heavy press with a lot of layback sometimes winds up looking like a standing incline press – even if only by accident. The point being that the angle of the incline is quite beneficial for training the musculature used in the press. The incline bench press is particularly useful if you are weak out of the bottom of the press (something you won’t know unless you frequently press singles by the way).   Several years ago when I pressed 285, I had been stuck at 265 for quite some time. My press didn’t move until my incline press moved. When I moved my best incline from 295×3 to 315×3, all of a sudden I pressed 285 with relative ease. The focus on the incline was the only major factor I changed in my programming.

Big Press Rule #7: Train the Triceps

The best exercise for the Press is the Press. There aren’t a whole lot of Press-variations that I have found to be useful as assistance exercises (other than the bench press and its variants). The best assistance exercises for the Press are those that train the triceps – particularly the long head of the triceps on the inside part of your arm. While you can’t “isolate” a particular head of the tricep, you can and should emphasize a particular area of the tricep. Which head of the tricep is most active in an exercise largely depends on the position of the shoulder during the exercise.

Maximal shoulder extension would be on an exercise like Dips or Tricep Kickbacks. Kickbacks are totally worthless so throw those out, but Dips are useful for triceps training, although their focus is mainly on the outer head of the tricep, or what Louie Simmons likes to call “the lazy head.” I love dips and I recommend that you do them because of the total amount of overload they place onto the totality of the triceps, but don’t just rely on Dips.

The long head / inner head is best trained by movements where the shoulder is in full flexion (i.e. extended overhead). French presses with an ez-curl bar or a dumbbell (unilateral is best) are the best exercises for the long head of the triceps. Lying triceps extensions and rolling dumbbell extensions are also good builders of the long head.

Do a mix of tricep exercises 1-2 days per week for 3-6 sets per exercise in a rep range between 6-12. Occasionally do some very heavy dips or lying tricep extensions in the 4-6 rep range, but don’t abuse your triceps with too much frequency on the heavy stuff. Your elbows won’t hold up to too much isolation type work dropping below about 6 reps.

 

Need an Example Press-Focused Program?

Check out the Strength Lifting Template in one of my downloadable programs:

The KSC Method for Raw Powerlifting.

Inside you will find a Strength Lifting template that focuses on the Overhead Press rather than the Bench Press. I’ll show you how to implement most of these 6 of the 7 steps (Dynamic Effort Sets not shown) into a comprehensive program to build your Press.

• How to Cycle Strength Volume Work
• How to Program Heavy Singles Across
• How to use High-Rep Back Off Sets
• Programming the Bench Press, Incline Bench Press, and Close Grip Bench Press to aid the Press
• How and When to Train your Triceps

The KSC Method for Raw Powerlifting

Good luck guys! And remember don’t lose weight when prioritizing your Press! Pancakes & Sausage!