Help with shoulder strength

[kjjako]

I'd appreciate some advice on how I can get my strict press to progress.

Background - I'm a 51yo male, 6'1" and 190lbs. I have lifted weights since I was 20 but never particularly successfully (wish I had read SS when I started). I had surgery on my right shoulder in April 15 (reattachment of labrum and microfracturing of the joint) and have been using the principles and exercises of SS since August 15 when I recovered sufficient mobility to be able to do the exercises with correct form. I don't just lift weights, I do other stuff like Crossfit to help me stay fit to play cricket in the summer but I do set aside two nights per week for strength work. I'm realistic, I'm not expecting the same gains as someone who does strength work 100% of the time.

I have made good progress on squat, deadlift and bench press, starting with low weights due to my enforced lay off but have now gone 20kg past previous PRs on each. I can now do 5 pull ups per set too now. However, my shoulder press just doesn't improve. My 1 rep max is stuck at 47.5kg and I have yet to get past 40kg when doing 3x5. It's getting past those first few inches at the bottom of the press that is the problem.

I think my food is about right. I've put on 10lbs of muscle since August adjusting calories to suit as initially the weight just went on my waist.

Any suggestions on what I might do to improve the strict press? Thanks

[Adam Skillin]

I'd appreciate some advice on how I can get my strict press to progress.

Background - I'm a 51yo male, 6'1" and 190lbs. I have lifted weights since I was 20 but never particularly successfully (wish I had read SS when I started). I had surgery on my right shoulder in April 15 (reattachment of labrum and microfracturing of the joint) and have been using the principles and exercises of SS since August 15 when I recovered sufficient mobility to be able to do the exercises with correct form. I don't just lift weights, I do other stuff like Crossfit to help me stay fit to play cricket in the summer but I do set aside two nights per week for strength work. I'm realistic, I'm not expecting the same gains as someone who does strength work 100% of the time.

I have made good progress on squat, deadlift and bench press, starting with low weights due to my enforced lay off but have now gone 20kg past previous PRs on each. I can now do 5 pull ups per set too now. However, my shoulder press just doesn't improve. My 1 rep max is stuck at 47.5kg and I have yet to get past 40kg when doing 3x5. It's getting past those first few inches at the bottom of the press that is the problem.

I think my food is about right. I've put on 10lbs of muscle since August adjusting calories to suit as initially the weight just went on my waist.

Any suggestions on what I might do to improve the strict press? Thanks

Are you doing the strict press, or the "press 2.0?"

Starting Strength

[Chebass88]

If you would like to press more, you should press more. (reference here)

There are quite a few things to do to improve your press.

1. Do your presses first, before squats. Yes, this isn't what the Starting Strength program recommends, but the text also recommends doing the most important thing first. Get your presses done, and you'll still have enough energy to do your squats.

2. You may need to press more frequently. If you are lifting twice per week, alternating the bench & press, you are only pressing overhead once per week. It IS possible to make decent progress with pressing only 1X/week. The key is to provide enough of a stimulus that takes an entire week to recover from (or at least enough to last until you do bench press). This might mean you need additional volume, if you want to only press once per week. In the Starting Strength Novice program, the bench and press are both trained 3X in a two week cycle. In THAT routine, 3x5 is sufficient to drive progress. If you only bench & press 2X/2 weeks - 3x5 volume might not be enough. One thing to consider - when the press was a competed lift (it was an official Olympic lift until 1972), weightlifters trained the press every session, up to 4 or 5X/week. The press takes a LOT of work to progress.

3. Since your time available for lifting is limited, make sure that you make progress. If this means adding a rep or two or three each session before increasing weight - do it. Doing more reps means you are stronger. I know the Starting Strength method calls for increasing weight over increasing reps, but both methods work. Don't worry about testing your 1RM for now. As long as the weight is increasing, or the number of reps is increasing, you're on the right path.

4. As you are relatively new to training the lifts, I would stay away from assistance lifts for now. There are a ton of great assistance lifts, but in my opinion, you can make excellent progress without the assistance lifts. In your situation, the best alternative would be doing kettlebell or dumbbell presses. They are great when done strictly (i.e., no hip or knee motion). Pure brute force makes them go up.

[Meshuggah]

A little bit of direct tricep work might help.

[Ericreichelt81]

Volume I'd such a huge driver.. Im a former rkc who pressed for what seems like 1000's of reps. Mostly doubles. Getting tall and driving off the upper chest was solid for me. And yes, kettlebells are brute, they're always heavier than they say. Ladders worked great, but to many people on that community lost sight of using heavy. Shit, one other guy, Adam glass was at my cert and he was the only other guy using 32's and more.

[kjjako]

Strict press I think. The one in the book where you push your hips forward and then drive upwards as they come back.

[kjjako]

Thanks. That makes good sense to me. I can certainly find the time to press more frequently particularly as I have had to stop benching in the last few weeks (I was getting really sore around my shoulder blades which is something I've never suffered before). I'll start again soon but for now I'll do presses instead.

[kjjako]

Great. They have lots of kettlebells at the box so I could add in the extra shoulder work with them.

[Chebass88]

Strict press I think. The one in the book where you push your hips forward and then drive upwards as they come back.

This is known as the "Olympic Press", or since we need to provide new names, the Press 2.0.

A strict press is done with no hip or knee motion at all. Back when the press was a contested Olympic lift, the objective was to lift the most weight. As long as it was a contested lift, the rules and application of those rules were debated. Lifters from some countries interpreted it as the "military press" (body is held in strict military attention position, and the barbell is pressed overhead, with no motion of the knees, hips, or trunk musculature), while others allowed some body English to creep in. Throughout the time, the main rule was to avoid knee motion (so the lift was not a push press). Hip motion was allowed, and so, the Olympic press was born. After the bar was cleaned from the ground to the shoulders, the Olympic press allows a fast hip motion to start the upward movement of the bar.

In order of weight that can be lifted, the presses are in this order:

mlitary press < strict press < Olympic press < push press