Standing Overhead Press
Trains the Shoulders.
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Set a barbell in a rack at roughly collarbone height, or clean it to your shoulders from the floor.
- Grip the bar just outside shoulder-width and unrack it so it rests across the front of your shoulders, elbows pointing forward and slightly down.
- Stand with your feet about hip-width apart. Squeeze your glutes and brace your stomach — this is what stops the movement turning into a standing back arch.
- Tuck your chin back so the bar has a clear path past your face.
- Press the bar straight up. As it passes your forehead, push your head back through so the bar finishes directly over the middle of your feet rather than in front of you.
- Finish with your arms straight overhead and your shoulder blades rotated upward, so your biceps end up near your ears. This is the position that trains the serratus anterior and lower trapezius as well as the deltoid.
- Lower the bar under control back to your shoulders, and re-brace before the next repetition.
Common mistakes
- Arching the lower back to get the bar up. When the shoulders cannot get the arms overhead, the spine makes up the difference by leaning back, which turns the movement into an inclined press. Squeezing the glutes and bracing hard removes most of it; the rest is a matter of the shoulder blade rotating far enough, which is lower trapezius and serratus anterior work.
- Finishing with the bar in front of the head. The arms end up vertical but the bar is forward of the shoulders, so the load sits where the deltoid is at its worst leverage. Moving the head forward once the bar clears it, so the bar finishes over the middle of the foot, is the fix.
- Pressing before bracing. Without a tight stomach and glutes there is nothing to press against and the effort leaks into the torso. Set the brace before the bar moves.
- Stopping short of a full lockout. The last part of the range is where the shoulder blade rotates upward, and it is the part that makes this exercise worth more than a machine press. Arms straight and ears between the elbows.