Muscle Growth Advice: The Forgotten Exercise

By Author: Tony Schwartz
Total Articles: 39
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In a quest to be cool, personal trainers have devised many new exercises using various equipment. These include things like stability ball push-ups and Bosu ball bench presses. In my opinion nearly all of these exercises are pointless if you are training to increase strength and gain muscle mass. Time and time again the old-school exercises beat-out the new exercises. There are various reasons for this, which we won't get into here, but if you need to be convinced then simply observe the muscle mass of those who train with these exercises.

The point is that while these new exercises are ineffective, they have caught-on in some circles simply because they are new. This isn't so terrible in itself, but many of these new exercises seem to have pushed the classic exercises from the gym altogether. One such old-school exercise is the overhead press. Now, the overhead press has always been somewhat of an endangered animal due to the overwhelming popularity of the bench press, but now it is nearly extinct in most gyms. So it's time for a reintroduction to this classic strength builder.

As mentioned, the ...
... bench press is by far the most popular variation of the press, likely due to the involvement of the chest. However, if you have become too bench press obsessed in your programming you have likely seen a stagnation in your strength and size gains. One of the best ways to get your bench press increasing again is to increase your strength in the overhead press. By focusing on the overhead press the deltoids, triceps, and traps will all get stronger and bigger, which will translate to a bigger bench press. I highly recommend that most trainees skip the bench press entirely for at least 2 months out of the year to focus on the overhead press. Do not worry about your bench press strength, it will be much better when you return to it.

There are many ways that overhead presses can be done. The first obvious choice is whether to use dumbbells or a barbell. You can then choose to be seated or standing. Here we are going to focus on the standing barbell variations as these will usually give you the most bang for your buck.

Standing Front Overhead Press

This is the classic version of the overhead press, with the bar in front of the head at the collarbones. The bar is pressed overhead until the arms are straight. The finished position is with the bar directly over the head, even with the ears.

Standing Behind-the-Neck Overhead Press

This variation is the same as the Front Overhead Press, except that the bar starts resting on the traps, just as you would for an Olympic back squat. From this position the bar is pressed overhead and then returned to the upper back.

Standing Bradford Press

The Bradford Press is a combination of the Front and Behind-the-Neck Presses. The starting position is the same as the Front Press. From this position the bar is pressed to a position just above the head and then brought down onto the upper back. From the upper back the bar is pressed as in the Behind-the-Neck Press, but only to a level slightly above the head and then brought back to the front of the body. This is one repetition.

Push Press

The Push Press is a variation on the Front and Behind-the-Neck Presses, although it is usually performed with the bar in front of the head as in the Front Press. From this position the motion of the arms is the same as in the Front Press. The only difference is that the movement is initiated with a slight bend in the knees followed by an explosive extension of the knees. This brings the leg muscles into play which will allow you to use more weight.

Use one or more of these overhead pressing variations in your training program in place of the bench press. If you do I know you will be pleased with the strength and muscle gains you experience.
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