Joe DeFranco makes people fast. Really fast.
Here Keith Williams runs 9.144m (10 yards) in 1.48seconds, after doing prowler pushes.
Thanks to Phil for submitting.
Contrast Training – Heavy Pushes for Fast Sprints is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Here are Kroc Rows explained by the man himself, Matt Kroczaleski.
Kroc Rows with Matt Kroczaleski is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Meanwhile in China …
How about some closed kinetic chain exercises for weightlifters?
We have seen Lu Xiaojun doing Handstand Push Ups.
However I have not seen the weighted version with 40kg strapped to their backs.
Thanks to Phil for submitting.
Chinese Weightlifters Weighted Handstand Push Ups is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
If your awesome gym can call a prowler its own, give this variation a try.
Prowler Explosions
Great exercise for alactic power and alactic capacity development.
Prowler Explosions is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
The Cal Strength guys uploaded some of their old technique / tip videos (like the Upper Body Stretches & Lower Body Stretches for Weightlifters) to the CalStrength YouTube Channel.
We touched the Arch ups vs Curl ups matter before, but here is the video Glenn Pendlay & Donny Shankle did a few years back.
Personally, I like to do the straight back version at the end of my squat days and the curl up version as a finisher on deadlift / back days.
Straight Back Extension (aka Back Raise):
Curl Up Back Extension:
Greg Everett says about back extensions that they
When / How do you do them?
More: Check out Snatch Grip Back Extensions.
Back Extensions – Straight Back vs Curl Ups is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Because I am always eager to learn from people stronger than me, here is an awesome guest post with practical tips on how to increase your ever lagging Overhead Press.
I found it really helpful as John shares his training frequency, sets & reps and some tips you may haven’t considered yet.
If you enjoyed this article too, please share it with a friend 
.
Update: Discussion on Reddit.
My name is John Phung and I run a blog over at JohnPhung.com.
I’m 5’4” tall, weigh 200 lb, and can overhead press over 250 lb after a couple of years of training.
While not shattering any world records at this body weight, it’s probably a little higher than the average person lifting weights at the gym.
Gregor asked me to write a short blog post about my approach and success with the overhead press, so I’m going to share with you some of the different techniques, insights and approaches that have worked for me in the past. They have helped me overcome plateaus and consistently hit new PRs in the overhead press. They have worked for me, and they might work for you too.
Looking back at my training logs, there are a few things that stand out which have contributed to continued improvements in the overhead press:
You need a rigid torso to stabilize your body as you press the barbell overhead. If the torso is not rigid, your body will start to wobble which will then affect your ability to press the weight up, potentially leading to a missed rep.
Unlike a seated press where you’re sitting in a chair with a back rest to stabilize your torso while you press the bar overhead, the standing overhead press relies on you to stabilize your entire body to effectively push the bar up.
Here’s how I do it:
Everything from the ground up must be solid and tight, and that starts with the shoes.
Weightlifting shoes adds stability to all my lifts, and that includes the overhead press. The soles of my Nike Romaleos 2 are flat and have a wide surface area which keeps my feet welded to the ground.
Prior to initiating the overhead press, there are 4 cues that I use:
I also stick my chest up, which naturally contracts the muscles in the upper back and puts me in a better position to press the bar overhead.
Squeezing my glutes makes my hips rigid and flexing the quadriceps ensures that your knees are locked in place, and guarantees that a heavy overhead press doesn’t suddenly transform into a push press.
Flexing the abdominals keeps my upper body tight and helps prevent me from excessively leaning back.
To stabilize the core even further, I wear a belt during my heavier sets.
Personally I don’t train my core directly. That is, I don’t do any isolation exercises for my abdominals. What has helped me are L-sit chin ups and L-sit pull ups, which are excellent exercises that hits many muscle groups at the same time, killing many birds with one stone.
Another way to get in some lift-specific core work is quite simple: What I do at the last rep, last set is lock the bar up at the top, and then hold it there for as long as I can.
Usually your body starts shaking before you have to lower the bar.
The triceps are involved with upper body pressing movements utilizing the arms, so strong triceps are key to a big overhead press.
With the incorporation of reverse grip bench presses into my training, my triceps strength has improved. This has transferred well to the overhead press.
I ended up switching to the reverse grip bench press because I was experiencing forearm pain (of all things) with a conventional bench press. Also, I would periodically feel pain shooting down my arms from my shoulders.
The reverse grip bench press places a little more emphasis on the triceps compared to a regular bench press with a pronated grip.
Although depending on the equipment you have access to, whether you use a spotter or not, and your comfort level gripping a barbell backwards, unracking it and carefully moving the bar over your face, neck and chest without it slipping out of your hands, it may not be for you.
Alternatively, the close grip bench presses would work well to develop triceps pressing power.
Stronger anterior deltoids and triceps developed from heavy triceps-centric bench presses has helped me in grinding out the reps, push past sticking points and lock out the bar at the top of the overhead press.
The hardest part of the overhead press is the the first rep. If you’re performing the overhead press without pausing at the bottom and if you’re like me, you’ll find that the second rep is often easier than the first.
The reason why is that the first rep is pressed from a dead stop, but the second rep benefits from the stretch reflex of the muscles in the arms, shoulders and to some extent the hips and abdominals.
If you’re pushing for a 1 rep max, you may have the strength to press the barbell up if only it would clear your chin, but if you can’t get past the initial hurdle of the first few inches of the movement, you will miss the rep.
The trick to get over the hardest part of the press is to set up the exercise so that you can initiate a stretch reflex at the first rep.
I discovered this by making 2 adjustments: narrowing my hand position on the bar, and raising the initial starting position of the bar on my power rack.
When I first started, I used to press with my pinkies on the powerlifting bar markings on the bar.
Take a look at my “before” technique:
Although it was wider than what the Press instructions in Starting Strength has recommended, it felt more comfortable at the time and I still managed work my way up to a 235lbs overhead press.
The bar touched my upper chest as I unracked it, and I had to press from a dead stop.
After reading some articles on the press, reviewing the press chapter in Starting Strength 2nd edition and watching videos of people who could overhead press more than I could, I decided to experiment with a closer, more “proper” grip for the press.
After bringing my hands closer together, I noticed my elbows came forward and the initial bar position naturally rose up towards. So now instead of the bar touching my upper chest, it was now positioned at the middle of my neck.
This lead to the next adjustment I made:
Previously, I set the J-hooks of my power rack so that the bar was at armpit level, which coincidentally is the same position as my low bar squat.
Now, because the closer hand position caused the bar to start at a higher position, I decided to try raising the J-hooks on my racks so that I don’t need to dip down as much to unrack the bar.
While this is not necessary, it takes away any wasted energy from having to partial squat the bar off the J-hooks to get into position to press.
To initiate a stretch reflex on the first rep of the overhead press, here’s what you do:
Unrack the bar so that the initial starting point is at the Adam’s apple. This should be natural if you have your hands close enough together, just outside of shoulder width.
Step back into position, then when ready to press (see the mental cues earlier in the article), drop the bar down an inch or so towards the clavicles to initiate the stretch reflex.
You should find that the first repetition will feel much easier and more explosive compared to pressing from a dead stop.
Here’s what it should look like. It’s a little hard to see from this angle, but note the closer grip, higher starting position, and the slight dip of the bar before initializing the concentric part of the movement:
Now I know what you’re saying, it’s not a strict press! I know, but it’s still an overhead press nonetheless.
Some would consider this “cheating”, but I don’t think cheating is the right word. Even with a stretch-reflex, I am utilizing the same muscle groups to get the weight up.
My understanding of cheating in lifting weights when it comes to the technique itself is using momentum (ex. swinging the dumbbell in a dumbbell curl), using different muscle groups than the one intended to help drive the weight up (ex. leg drive in the overhead press), or changing your body position to help get the weight up (ex. excessive layback in the overhead press).
Would a touch-and-go bench press be considered cheating? Or a squat that does not pause at the bottom be considered cheating? These movements would get a bigger bounce than the overhead press simply because they start from the top of the movement. With the overhead press, the bar is at my Adam’s apple, then dips down a few inches towards my clavicles.
I’m not against a strict press at all, but I believe to limit yourself only to pressing from a dead stop will limit your strength gains.
I’m sure by using a stretch-reflex in the overhead, I would be able to press more during a strict press where the bar starts at the clavicles.
In the end, my goal is to become stronger. Using the stretch-reflex in my lifts is just one way I will do it.
The last thing I want to touch on are what helped me progress and sets and rep ranges that I’ve used in the past.
First of all, fractional plates are an important tool in my toolbox for continued progression in the overhead press, along with the other lifts I practice.
The overhead press was the first lift to stall during the initial stages of my training, and microloading with fractional plates allowed me to make tiny increases in weight, which then added up to bigger numbers over time.
Although not necessary, fractional plates are a worthwhile investment that I recommend. It is a valuable training tool that you’ll most likely use time and time again. And not just for the overhead press, but for any other exercises involving a barbell as well.
Initially, as part of the standard Texas Method template, I alternated bench presses with overhead presses every other training day.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Texas Method, generally there are two different training
weeks. When it comes to bench press and overhead press, it looks like this:
Week A
Week B
I continued alternating bench presses with overhead presses with different rep ranges over time, but eventually I wanted to improve my bench press so I decided to bench twice a week (Mondays and Fridays) and overhead press once a week (Wednesday).
This simplified my training so that all weeks are now the same (in other words, there are no “Week A” and “Week B” when it comes to bench press and overhead press).
Since I train the overhead press only once a week now, I’ve combined elements of an “Intensity day” along with a “Volume day”.
Generally, I work my way up to a heavy set, and then add a back off set or two (or more).
For the back off sets, I’ll try to hit some repetition PR’s if possible. That is a 2RM, 3RM or 5RM.
Currently I’m experimenting with back off sets of 8-10 (and possibly more) reps. I find that at higher reps, my limiting factor is my ability to stabilize my torso.
I find that working up to a heavy set, followed by a bunch of back off sets provides me with both the intensity and volume I need to drive up progress while only hitting the overhead press once a week.
If you’re struggling on improving with the overhead press, give these techniques and strategies a shot. Through experience and trial and error, they have helped me reach a 250 lb+ overhead press.
Keep breaking PR’s, and keep adding weight to the bar!
I’ve “lifted weights” and worked out on and off for many years before seriously engaging in a structured training program. I’ve done Starting Strength from November 2011 to March 2012, and have been running Texas Method ever since. I train at home, alone, in my basement home gym.
Find out more about me at my blog over at JohnPhung.com.
3 Ways To Increase Your Overhead Pressing Strength is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Alright bawbags, if ya cannae push press right here’s a quality wee video, ya ken aye?
Subscribe to the Speed Power Fitness YouTube Channel.
Marc Keys started to publish tutorial videos on his in which he talks you through the important points of our favorite exercises.
See his Back Squat video here & Bench Press here.
Here are his thoughts on the Push Press.
Update: Discussion on Reddit.
Pointers:
Want to see a huge Push Press? Check out Igor Lukanin’s 215kg Push Press right here.
Thanks to Phil for submitting.
Push Press Tutorial is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
These can’t be that hard, since a little girl can do them right? Well …
Give these Rope Climb variations a try:
Different Leg Positions for Rope Climbs is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Marc Keys has been busy uploading tons of tutorials to his Speed Power Fitness YouTube channel.
Today he adds a twist to the GHD Sit Up.
In this diabolic variation your buddy holds a stick and you move your body in a circular motion around it.
You know how some exercises have a country name in them? That’s why from now on these shall be called Irish Twists.
Of course, you can do the same circular motion with back extensions.
Also check out his Push Press Tutorial here.
GHD Sit Ups “Around The Stick” is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Emevas explains why he deadlifts the way he does.
For more information on the ROM Progression Method he uses for Deadlifts look here.
Deadlift Tips from Emevas is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Chad Vaughn keeps on growing his weightlifting exercise library.
Today he goes through the Snatch Grip Squat Press (sometimes called Sots Press, even though I heard the original Sots Press had you press the bar from the front, like Kevin Cornell did here with 110kg).
Probs to everybody who can do it without elevated heels.
Snatch Grip Squat Press is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
We talked about Dead Squats before.
But how about dead quarter Squats to overload the part of the movement where you usually get stuck?
Below is D’angelo Osorio doing it with 276kg (607lbs) for 3.
Have you used it? Maybe D’angelo somehow reads this and can comment on it.
Update: Some of you think it is not useful for weightlifters. Here is what Chad Vaughn said about partials:
I was and always have regularly done extra, overload partial movements and holds particularly with overhead and front quarter squats with 10-20 second holds on the last rep of each set, as a few examples.
He recently posted his 220kg Front Squat
Dead Quarter Squats is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Prepare for some DOMS, because Marc Keys has another GHD core exercise for you.
GHD Russian Twists or Wood Choppers as he calls them.
GHD Russian Twists is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Eric Cressey takes a look at the Band Pull Apart.
Emphasize the motion of your arms before retracting your scapulae.
Better Band Pull Aparts is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Chad Wesley Smith (317.5kg x10 Squat) shares some tips to improve your power out of the hole when squatting.
Squats: Improve Strength Out of the Hole is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Here is a training session of Russian +105kg lifter Andrey Kozlov.
Snatch: 2x 150kg, 2x 150kg, 2x 160kg, 2x 160kg
Snatch Pull from Knee Height: 4x 200kg, 4x 210kg
Power Jerk: 2x 180kg, 2x 200kg
Snatch High Pull: 2x 190kg, 2x 195kg
What’s interesting are the Snatch High Pulls to the stick at shoulder height (seen at 2:00).
Jim Schmitz wrote something about them here: Tommy Kono High Pulls to a Stick.
The main purpose of pulling to a stick is that it keeps you honest. As you know, if you are doing pulls after you’ve done snatches or cleans, you might be tired and “dog” it a little and not quite finish your pull.
Thanks to Phil for submitting.
Snatch High Pulls to a Stick Andrey Kozlov is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Mike Burgener talks about the 1¼ Squat.
He says:
Weight of a max one and a quarter Squat = Weight of a max Clean
Get your bounce on.
One and a Quarter Squats with Mike Burgener is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Marc Keys talks you through a neat little drill for staying on heels in deadlifts.
Attach a band to your belt and have it pull you slightly forward.
Since you have to counter that forward pull it will ingrain the need for staying on your heels and opening the hips at the nearest moment.
Deadlift with Band On the Hip is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Giles Greenwood has an exercise to help you keep the bar close.
This exercise makes a nice warm up for snatching, I like to do 3 sets of 10 reps, and it n needn’t impact on the rest of your workout so can be added into your training at any time.
The idea is to pull the bar nice and fast to the fully extended receiving position. This isn’t the same as a muscle snatch and isn’t an exercise to load up with weight. Empty bar is all you need.
The idea is to keep pulling the bar throughout the movement and the receive position sees you stopping the bar from being thrown in the air rather than being a press out.
If you’re swinging the bar around too much you’ll have to step forward (as I do on the 9th rep in the clip) or you’ll flop back on your heels (reps 1, 4, 7 and 8 for me in the set on the video) so you know when you’re not quite right.
Update: To all special experts: I wonder what your comments would have looked like if Lu Xiaojun was doing this exercise… I would first give it a try before commenting with stupidity like “Looks like a normal crossfit snatch.” Ask yourself this: Would you dare to say the same thing to his face? Ridicule a coach who wants to help his lifters? Sad!
Chances are you might want to listen to someone who snatched 180kg and coached hundreds of lifters.
Update 2: Giles took the time to comment on the exercise.
What I think this drill did for me was give me a good practical understanding of the relationship between various parts of the pull and where the bar ends up above my head.
As such it’s more of a proprioception exercise than a pure technique exercise but it should be done as a snatch pull so it does resemble the classical lift. I thought it helped me a lot when I learned it and seemed to translate to better technique as
I became more aware of the importance of my position at various parts of the pull and better at adjusting them to get the desired result. I thought that these skills translated to my lifting, particularly to finishing with a strong leg drive instead of just swinging at the bar with a big hip extension but also how all the positions from the start up contribute to this. It also does it in a simple way without complicated instructions – snatch pull to arms length and don’t step back or forwards when you catch the bar, simple. I’ve found it very good for people who bounce the bar on their thighs and go straight under without finishing the pull first.
I wouldn’t try to weight the movement as it’s not a strength exercise, empty bar is plenty, broom handle would do. It is important that the weight is pulled right up to the high receiving position and not pressed or caught with bent legs, it is quite easy to do wrong.
Really it’s purely a high pull with the weight so light that it goes right to arms length – the receiving position, on your toes, hips in, just tells you if the bar is traveling horizontally too much as you stagger around if it is.
As a fun warm-up / technical drill I think it’s a nice way to start a session.
I get a sense of achievement when the bar hits the top position hard but I don’t lose balance. It’s has helped me and others who I’ve trained to control excessive bouncing / swinging of the bar. Like most of these things – not the be-all-and-end-all but hopefully another useful tool for the kit bag.
Hope I’ve explained myself a bit better.
Snatch to Toes – Keeping The Bar Close is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.
Over at JTS Strength Chad Wesley Smith (himself a former Shot Putter) shares various explosive exercises.
I don’t know about you, but I have neglected explosive work (like Plyometric Push ups / Throws) for too long. Time to get better at them.
As always use with caution and read his article for the details.
It is important to progress through these drills from least (box push ups), to most (rebound push ups) advanced, giving your body at least 3 weeks with each variation.
Then he linked to the famous Werner Günthör training video. This is just too awesome not to show it again here.
If this display of explosive athleticism doesn’t get you excited to do some jumps, I believe nothing will.
Explosive Exercises (Not Only) for Throwers is a post by Gregor from All Things Gym.