Originally Posted by
Mark Rippetoe
You're probably trying to take 5 lb. jumps on your press progression, and this only works for big guys for a while. Small jumps are essential for the press. First thing to be sure about is your technique: are you getting stuck because the bar is too far from your shoulders as it leaves the start, creating too long a lever arm between shoulder and bar? If it's close enough and you're not pushing it away, back up to a weight that permits all your sets of 5, and then start back up in small enough increments - no more than 2 lbs. - that you can adapt to the load between workouts and sustain your progress. If you start pushing the last 2 reps, it will be about 3 weeks until you're pushing the last 4. Push presses are fine as assistance for the right lifters, but progress will quickly stop if you start relying on a push for all your presses. Use a push for backoff, or make them a separate day, but hang your progress on strict presses and make them go up in as small an increment as necessary to sustain progress as long as possible.