MY TOP 6 EXERCISES TO INCREASE YOUR OVERHEAD PRESS 

Please excuse my friend in the back...he's dead tired.

1. Incline Bench Press 2. Pause Overhead Press 3. Behind the neck Press 4. Bradford Press 5. Push Press/ Close Grip Overhead Press 6. Cable Face Pulls got it

As someone who has focused for years on getting a great press (I have strict pressed 117.5kg at 90kg bodyweight with no hip drive), I'll give my insight. Bill Starr's advice is great when it comes to pressing. Basically do 6x3 twice a week. Increase the weights every time you manage to hit all six sets. If your aren't doing assistance work do a back off set of 10 about 20% lower than your work weight. If you can't hit all six sets, stay at the same weight until you do. If you are a relatively strong presser, it'll be difficult to move up by 2.5kg increments so I advise buying some micro-plates and increasing by half of this. It helps psychologically to do this and is the best way to manage progressive overload on the overhead press in my opinion. If you are weak at the start of the lift, you want to do press starts. Basically, after you've done your sets (so your shoulders are warmed up) add some weight to the bar so that it is heavier than what you can press but not too heavy - something you can push to about forehead level. Press it with the same bar bath until it stops then keep force on the bar and do a controlled eccentric, making sure to keep the bar path the same as in the press. This works the muscles associated with the start of the press. Best assistance movement for those who stick at the start. Controlled eccentrics are very taxing so keep the volume low here, 3 sets of 3 after pressing ramping up in weight. If you are weak at the end of the lift, do the push press. Again, keep the volume low - 3 sets of 3 - and use a weight that is about the same as your max strict press to start with, ramping up in weight. Behind the neck push presses are also a very good idea to work on locking out - you can get more leg drive and so handle more weight. Use the same grip as your OHP for specificity but lower the bar in front of you and rerack before unracking again to do another rep. The reason I say this is because if you are not an experienced lifter who knows what they are doing, you risk seriously hurting your shoulders otherwise. Beyond this, heavy weighted dips with a relatively narrow grip are the best assistance for overhead pressing. By heavy, I mean they won't significantly increase your strict press until you can add 100lbs for 3 reps. These work your front delts and triceps - i.e. the key muscles in the strict press hard. But more importantly, these are heavily taxing on the tendons and ligaments around your shoulder and elbow. This is ESSENTIAL. The body knows how strong connective tissues are due to receptors. If the tendons and ligaments are stronger, the body allows the muscles to contract harder as it won't cause injury. If the tendons and ligaments aren't strong enough, the brain won't let the muscles contract hard enough to move the weight even if they could in theory due to the body protecting itself from injury risk. This is an essential point for the overhead press because the shoulder joint is one of the most mobile and therefore unstable in the body - it needs to be protected. This is why extremely heavy dips that strengthen the relevant ligaments and tendons helps so much. For the same reason, the overhead press is sensitive to weight gain. Even gaining fat around the shoulder joint will increase your press and the main reason for this is increased stability. The best way to think of it is like this. If you try to do pullups but without using all of your fingers, it is significantly harder to complete the movement because your brain won't allow the lats and biceps to contract as hard due to the increased injury risk. For the same reason, if you lose weight your shoulders are less stable and you lose pressing power. This is why bench and OHP are so sensitive to weight loss or gain, fat or otherwise. Incline bench is another great assistance, but the incling should be on the steep if you want it to help your OHP. You also want to keep your upper back and traps strong for the OHP - think heavy upright cheat rows, stuff like that. Basically focus on pulling movements for muscular balance. Muscular balance and strong traps will improve shoulder health, stability and therefore allow you to press more weight. For very advanced lifters struggling with lockout, I advice using bands for the OHP, but anyone at that level should know what I mean.

Really diggin' the increased quality on these new vids Omar. Been "liking the damn video" every time for almost 2 years now. Your content is only getting better man.

Love it when you have a question and then you find a video that perfectly answers that question. Thanks

What would my life look like with out this guy? Thanks for your daily inspiration, keep it up‼️

Thank you Omar! Good information! I have to say that last week I put all your advices on my training session and that was one of the best workout of the week.

Awesome video, thanks Omar! Definitely going to start incorporating some of these

Omar all your videos are incredible helpful keep going with it !

These Overhead Press videos are awesome. Thank you!

This was so helpful, thanks! OH press is one of my faves, and this helped me break my plateau.

Another great one I have found, not for assisting the OHP but for shoulder health and a great compliment to the face pull is the dumbbell rear delt fly.

Love the vide dude! Keep up the series! \m/

Great Video as usual Bromar

Awesome Video Keep up the Great Work

These videos helped me dude. Thank you.

Brilliant exercises for shoulder strength......Them Bradford ones r killer for finishing off ya pressing moves.,.....👍

Thanks for the tips !

BEST FITNESS CHANNEL ON RU-vid

great videos Omar bring part 5 buddy

great series omar, next video about increasing mobility for ohp? i know alot of people who cant get their hands directly above their heads!

can you do a video about internal and external rotation of the shoulders? I hear about it all the time but I don't really know what it means.

I found the Strict Standing Overhead Pin Press, with pins set around the sticking point to be helpful in breaking though a plateau

I like the love that the press is getting on this channel.

Love the vid!!

Face pulls have helped my shoulders. Thanks!

Great vid again and liked as always. (yes I pressed the like button) Q. Do I couple these on shoulder days or keep one day for assistance?

i love these overhead press videos :D

Awesome content

Great content

That bicep lighting though👌🏾

I had a weak bench at 135 - 155. Overhead pressing is fixing that problem. Now I actually feel as if I will progress overall.

omar, i noticed on your behind the head OHP you have a crucial resistence thats been helping you achive these constant PR's.. Some might even say you can no longer be considered a "natty" after this.. On the initial push you have added IMO what is a stratigised resistance from the man bun you have going on there for adding additional gains. LOL! Vids are very informitive and also entertaining! You got my like and hope to continue seeing these quality vids! PEACE!

You recommend Push Pressing without your delts around the bar? Also, what about the Zydrunas Press? That might be a good BTNP substitute to enforce tall posture without the extra risk to the shoulder.

EVERYONE LIKE THE DAMN VIDEO

It's really work , my overhead press increase 20 kg for your tips. Thanks bro from India

thank you for sharing this knowledge. #wisdom

For the close grip overhead press you can also use a preacher curl barbell and hold it at the closer grips, that's how I do mine.

cheers Omar

I know it’s an older video but I added overhead carry’s to these others and it made big changes for me..

Overhead tricep extension (barbell, ezbar, cable, whatever...) helps me the most.

Hey Omar, i'm doing a over head JM press, where i point my elbows out in front of me, and slightly narrower than shoulder width, and i ''cock'' my wrist, like a wrist curl, and sort of french press it up, from behind my head, but with my elbows pointing almost strait out in front, that mimics the OHP, but puts emphasis on the triceps.

Nice brother keep workout 💪😁

when do you perform these exercises? The same day you work out your shoulder (after doing your main overhead press)? Or you do leave days in between assistance lifts and your main lift?

Heavy weighted dips are an amazing assistance exercise for the press. Most of the old school olympic lifters who competed in the press used them. You need to be able to use a decent bit of weight on the dips before they'll help the press though. I believe Bill Starr said you needed to be adding 100 pounds for several reps at least for it to help.

nice video, please consider doing similar videos on bp squat deadlift bent over row? :)

If you train at home and don't have a cable machine you can mimick a face pull by doing incline dumbell cleans.

The over head pin press is a great exercise to overload and help top of lift

I gave the 10,000th like!

Gave a huge 👍

Hey Omar do you feel like overhead press is a movement that is inherently hard to do submaximally (i.e. leaving 1-2 reps in the tank).... your amrap was impressive as hell but you did seem to have to grind the last rep, also it seems that ohp if you slow down on in between reps one can miss out on a rep or 2 potentially .... curios what you think , cheers

Good tipsa

You find it easier/more comfortable to OHP with Oly shoes?

Hey man, in this video for your cable face pulls you have the cable starting at around forehead height whereas in your standalone face pull video from a little while back you said to put it at around chest height. When doing face pulls should I change to having the cable up high like in this video? Cheers!

The dead stop at the bottom of my overhead press comes naturally. I definitely don't want to be bouncing a heavy barbell off my collarbone. But behind the back will jack up my shoulders with a couple of reps.

Have you done a video on overhead press programming? Would be awesome.

Omar - have you considered swinging the hips forward more actively just before each press - like the old Olympic style/tommy Suggs?

omar loves the face pulls. i cant get them to feel like im really activating.

good disclaimer for the behind the back press. when I did my shadowing for pt the most common exercise that caused patients' injuries were behind the back presses and pull downs, even more than deadlifts. if you have shot shoulders and rotators avoid that shit

Don't worry Omarisuf. Ignore the calve haters bro and just keep doing your thing. Once you lift for 10 years your muscle maturity gains will come and then you''ll get an extremely lean and ripped and also have huge arms. For example, you'll look something like Gokuflex with 17 inch guns and ripped to the bone. Once that happens everyone will be mirin' and calling you out for roids - even though you are 100% natty. I myself have 2 years under the belt. All I have to do is lift for 8 more years then I'll look like Gokuflex - I'll stand out from the crowd and be the biggest guy in the gym. #10YearAnniversary #BodybuildingMastery #TeamHugeCalves

try standing alternating db shoulder press (not staggered, db resting at the top)

what about pin presses at various heights? i found doing them at about nose level helped me with my sticking point (which was at that area)

Omar for your Kizen 6 week bench program are the percentages based off an absolute 1rm or do you recommend basing it off 95% of the 1rm?

Hey Omar, can you help me out? When doing face pulls something on the back of my left shoulder 'pops', which is quite annoying. I've had shoulder impingement syndrome, but that's been solved. I only seem to have this issue when pulling with my wrists above my shoulders. Any suggestions or alternatives to face pulls? Maybe wide-grip seated rows pulled towards my chest?

yo omar, should I try each and every assistance exercises for my "OHP day" or just one is enough? :/ thanks +omarisuf

Omar, what sort of loading schemes do you use for these support movements, as percentage relative to max goes?

It's not a successful week without a video about the OverHead press 😂

Smith machine for behind the back press? Would that be a better option if you're scared of injuring your shoulder from barbell?

Hey, I tried the football bar overhead press for the first time today and I noticed I was weaker than the classic overhead press. Is it normal to face some difficulty with that movement ? Is it just me or that special bar feels heavier than 20kg ? Cheers

what do you think about paused close grip incline bench as an accessory? It has longer rom than regular grip and the pause will recruit more chest. In this case upper chest.

My triceps are so weak :( I LIKED THE DAMN VIDEO so looking forward to part 5!

Any tips on improving or strengthening weak knees?

i would put in there before the z press(which is the best) and landmine press

Thing is, how do you incorporate all this into a logical routine? Am I right in thinking that if you're already on a routine and you wanna focus primarily on getting a OHP PR, you simply prioritize exercises that help you with your weak points e.g. on upper day, substitute assistance exercise like DB flat press for incline press if you have a weak start point. Substitute dips for pause OHP simply to get directly stronger at the movement? Eh, I think I've thought it through.

On my way to a 225 rn thanks for the vid legend👌

omar do you still do lateral raises and fluffy shit like that?

Hey Omar is the trap bar shoulder press a good substitute for the close grip ohp?

No pin press to overload the lockout?

Lets get fuuuuarking shredded brahs!

I honestly don't see how the behind the neck press has a longer range of motion. When doing a regular overhead press the bar comes down to right below the sternoclavicular joint, when doing behind the neck presses the bar only comes down to the upper traps. The vertical distance of those 2 points is at least 10-15 centimeters with the regular overhead press clearly being the lowest point of the two.

face pulls are amazing must to

What do you think about Floor Press, in order to develop this top portion of the OHP?

100, 000 likes. Calling it now.

For how many reps do you hold a single breath when OH-pressing ?

Could you make a video about hamstring growth :D ?

I have started to feel pain right under my lats during shoulder presses, have I hurted my lower back?

I gave it a like before the Ad in the beginning even finished because we already know daddy Omar drops nothing but the straight TROOF on us peasants.

Omar what about when I feel back stress during pressing? Im squeezing the glutes and bracing abs

Yo Bromar Isotope, you post very informative videos on the daily. You're alright

My shoulder feels good while low bar squatting. I try high bar and my should hurts so bad I can't even do the movement. Any suggestions

Would a close grip bench press on an incline bench work too?

I love that shirt

Need advice from the sexiest manbumhut on youtube! If I am strugling with balance when catching the bar over my head in snatch position. What shoule I do? are you still doing weightlifting?

im crap at the overhead press usto be good at them I do boxing and mma and I was sparing and basically my liguments in my left shoulder poped took while to heal I was adviced to rest but I did opposite stuck to light deadlifts and use the strech bands to strech them aswell but feel so uncomfortable doing them so had to do seated presses I find saved me shoulders

yeh no more problems with pain but just feels awquward doing these now sqaut bench deadlifts going great

what's up Omar!

Does Omar's bench program incorporate the OHP?

Lets say i want to get 3 sets of 6 reps with a certain weight on overhead press, and i get 6 on the first two sets, but only 2-3 on the 3rd set. would doing pushpresses to finish the set help me get to 3 sets of 6?

Omar what's your thoughts on ZMA?

Can rear delt bb rows or db flys take place of face pulls?