Go outside, clean the bar, and press from your clean rack position. There are no subs.
Member
press alternatives
Canceled my membership at the giant corporate gym and joined a small, private gym whose members are all pretty serious powerlifters. The gym is a very well-equipped addition to the coach's house.
The problem for me is that the ceiling is a little more than 8' high (best guess). I'm 6'8", and I'm worried that if I do the traditional standing press I'm going to put a plate through the ceiling drywall. Not a way to make friends.
This gym is an interim solution so I can continue workouts while I build my gym at home. I want to stay on the novice program for as long as I'm making progress. What alternative(s) to a standing press would you recommend?
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Mark
TMPHBITEU
Go outside, clean the bar, and press from your clean rack position. There are no subs.
Member
Well, duh on my part...guess "novice program" means knowledge as well as ability. But my stupid question allowed me to learn something, so thanks for enlightening me and putting up with my ignorance.
Off to press in the fresh air...
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Mark
Member
I know a seated press is not ideal, but are there serious drawbacks to the seated press that I am unaware of? Are they more injury prone or dangerous? I've been doing seated presses because I don't have the ceiling space in my basement. I have a nice gunrack / squat rack that I use to rack / unrack from the overhead position.
TMPHBITEU
They're not particularly dangerous. They just don't work the same way since your hips cannot contribute to the movement.
Member
Just use smaller plates! I have 7' ceilings in my basement gym, but I'm a foot shorter than you so it pretty much works out. I can press 25s without hitting my ceiling (but only just!), so I bet you could too.
Member
His arms will be quite a bit longer than yours.Originally Posted by plugchop
Member
Not sure if this adds to the discussion, but I once tried seated press when all the other barbells in the place were taken up. (stupid, in retrospect, and obviously so).
I wound up tweaking my shoulder, an area where I've had problems in the past and have zero desire to repeat that.
What happened was that by following good form per Rip as best I could, when I got the weight past my face and then moved under it properly, one side of the barbell brushed one of the hooks on back side of the seated press rack (which of course I couldn't see), leading the whole barbell to assume about a 30 degree angle in my hands, leaning down on the right. I was able to prevent a wreck, but at the cost of mildly hurting my shoulder. Such a thing would never happen with my regular presses, since I'm able to stand well away from anything that might catch the barbell or interfere with its path.
Never again.
In fact, when I felt comfortable pressing again about a week later, and found myself in the same situation (morons curling and doing quarter ROM leaned rows in all the squat racks), I simply found an empty space and cleaned the weight up and pressed from there...
Member
38" sleeves.
Did a controlled test run indoors with 10lb plates. An energetic press with a proper shrug at the end would have put them through the ceiling, or taken out a light fixture. 25 lb. plates are basically a "no way" scenario. Took Rip's advice; took the bar and a bunch of plates outdoors, racked the bar and pressed from there. It was a cool morning, fresh air (before all the smoke from the forest fires in Arizona rolled into Albuquerque), and a good session. Looking forward to getting my (outdoor) home gym built.
It's an ongoing problem -- buying clothes, houses, cars, etc, is just a PITA. You learn to just deal with it, and an outdoor home gym is my solution. Picking up a refilled oxygen cylinder for the welding kit this afternoon -- time to get busy!
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Mark
Member
Yeah, there are no alternatives to pressing. Only better and worse presses. After learning to power clean, I try to find as many reasons as possible to power clean.
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