Bradford Press
Trains the Shoulders.
- Equipment
- A barbell and a rack
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Set a barbell in a rack at shoulder height and take an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders.
- Unrack it to the front of your shoulders, elbows under the bar.
- Press it up just far enough to clear your head — not to a full lockout.
- Lower it behind your head to the base of your neck, going only as far as the shoulders comfortably allow.
- Press it back up just over the head and lower it to the front again.
- That front-to-back-to-front cycle is one repetition.
Common mistakes
- Pressing to a full lockout each time. The bar travels just far enough to clear the head, which is what keeps constant tension on the shoulders — locking out gives them a rest at the top of every half.
- Taking the bar low behind the neck regardless of what the shoulders allow. The behind-the-head half asks for external rotation and abduction at once, and how much of that is available varies a great deal.
- Loading it like an overhead press. The range is short but continuous and the behind-the-head position is less strong; the bar is light.
- Rushing the transitions. The bar passes over your head twice per repetition, and that is the part worth doing slowly.