Press Form Check

[Adam Doyle]

I’ve struggled with progressing on the press. I’m in week 8 of LP and only up to 110 lb for a set of 5 and I’ve been going up in 2.5 lb increments since 95 lb, with a couple of stalls and repeats. I’ve been trying to work on a consistent Press 2.0 form and here is my latest (110x5):

YouTube

Notice that the bar path on first rep is further away from my face, and it was harder (previously I’ve done the press this way and i tended to stall out on rep 3 or 4). Reps 2-5 are much closer to my nose and forehead and also felt easier and smoother. However, looking at the video, it appears my bar path is not exactly vertical. It looks like I’m moving it back over my head. Looking through the press section of the book tells me this isn’t ideal. Figure 3-16 appears to show laying back more to achieve this vertical path. Do I need to try and exaggerate my hip movement and layback more? I feel like during lighter warmups I can get that motion of snapping my head under the bar, but it gets really hard to replicate that at my work set.

How’s my form overall? What should I work on? If the info matters, I’m 35, 5’10”, and 190 lb.

By the way, Nick’s recent video really helped me, where he showed the purpose of the hip movement in the press 2.0 was to bounce the bar vertically to help you get it out of the bottom.

Thanks so much for your time!

[Brent Carter]

Keeping the tips of your elbows just slightly in front of the bar is key to having a vertical bar path. The first rep this didn't happen. Reps 2-4 it did. Final rep was a little bit out in front of you. If you can layback go ahead and use it. It's not that heavy to need an exaggerated layback but you might find it helpful.