There’s many things in a man’s life that can help us define ourselves. Eating our steak rare, that perfect rugby tackle or vicious right hook that connects perfectly, all the way to drinking tequila without the lemon or the salt. You can bet that pretty high up on that list is picking up something heavy and thrusting it above our heads. It is like our right of passage. Its a pretty safe bet way back in the Neolithic period that the very first thing primitive man did, once the tribe was fed, sheltered and warm, was to look at a large rock and with egos the size of the dinosaurs that pre-dated them, try to hoist it over head while the women at the time no doubt laughed in amusement!
The truth is that the Overhead Press, Strict Press or simply The Press and its many variations, are the go to lifts when trying to develop raw, functional upper body strength. Period. When executed correctly the Press will build that broad, thick, shirt filling look of a man. Please don’t think that shoulders is where this lift stops; no, pushing a heavy weight overhead will build the triceps and the core musculature like no other.
That’s only the first part. We’ve not even looked at the insane, ballistic power that can be demonstrated with a slight dip and drive of the legs. Staying flat on the heels and generating power through the floor, all the way up the quads, transferred through the core up into the bar is a sure way to add even more weight on the sleeves. Then, with good coaching and proper technique, adding the rapid directional changes and speedy footwork will allow for some pretty serious weight to be shifted. Just look at any national level Olympic lifter and you catch my point.
Women please don’t think this lift is restricted to us simple cavemen. The benefits of pressing a heavy weight over your head (remember ‘heavy’ is always relative) will help sculpt those round deltoid heads, which will help define that coveted hourglass shape even more. Please don’t get fooled into thinking you’re going to build shoulders that will put the Hulk to shame, remember us men, with all our calorie intake, struggle to put on masses of muscle and we produce around 20 x the testosterone that you do!
The press is the Deadlift of the upper body. Once that weight gets heavy enough, it will demand complete mental focus and aggression to power that weight to the lockout. There’s no stretch reflex to help you out, no eccentric phase and once racked properly; i.e. resting on the upper chest, there is very little room to half rep. You squeeze the bar tight, firing up every muscle fibre in your body, tense the glutes and quads to stabilize, suck in a big belly of air to create the valsalva effect and press all the way to lockout. That sequence happens regardless of whether it’s a strict press, push press or power jerk and the end result is always the same. That inner caveman feeling from 10,000 years ago sends endorphins around your body at a rapid rate in a pure display of strength and power. Lets face it, what else do we do this for if not to feel good about ourselves??
Stay tuned for the next blog where I’ll go into depth about the technique involved in both the Strict Press and the Push Press. The Jerk warrants its own entire article. For now, get to the gym and drive some big weights overhead to reap the benefits of this old school favourite!