Pressing Trouble

[DanO_123]

Rip,

I have my 64 year old dad on SS. He had been screwing around with Gym trainers for years and really getting nowhere. Making great progress so far except for the press.

He seems to want to keep leaning back progressively farther after each rep. Instead of his hips going slightly back and coming into the bar he pushes his hips forward and the upper back backwards and gets into a more pronounced lean back. He does not do this intentionally and I think it's just a lack a sense of where his body is. I am having a heck of a time coaching him with this lift. He's taken very well to the other main movements and is doing great. Tight back, chest up, tightness in the abs, valsalva etc... It's like his brain gets all screwed up during the press.

Do you have any good cues to help assist someone that can't seem to get the motion right. I even tried to put a belt on him to give him some kinesthetic awareness but it's like watching a kid drive a manual trans car for the first time... very awkward.

Maybe we just need to spend more time practicing with the bar until the form gets cleared up? It seems so simple to me but everyone has their issues.


Thank you

[Mark Rippetoe]

I'd need to see it, but he may be doing it just like I do.

[borzoi06]

Just a note on this type of situation: I've had both shoulders fixed due to cronic dislocations. Since the surgeries I've had some range of motion issues that mostly affect the press. I can now push over 150 but I have trouble getting the lockout behind my head. I do have to lean back a bit to get it up. Standing presses are much easier for me than seated presses because of this, which I've used exclusively for the year or so now. I might look a bit weird in the initial phase of the press, but I've worked out a lot of the excessive lean, and surprisingly, this exercise does more to improve my shoulder stability than any other I've used. And believe me, I've tried all sorts of techniques and exercises for just this purpose.

I know Rip advocates the press quite regularly here, so I just wanted to share a bit of personal experience on this and reinforce its efficacy. As a tip, though, I normally use a back-off set at about 80% of work sets to help reinforce a positive range of motion if I feel like I was struggling with my work sets.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The bar does not lock out behind your head -- it locks out directly above your shoulder joint. And seated presses eliminate the necessary whole-body movement aspect of the exercise.

[DanO_123]

He's totally healthy and has no shoulder problems at all. Probably lucky but he's a very healthy guy for any age really. No surgery of any kind. We are getting ready to do a workout and I'll have a video up soon.

[DanO_123]

Good news tonight. It seems we were able to get the press form issue resolved. I think what was happening was as I gave him the cue to keep the elbows out in front of the bar and to accomplish this he was leaning back some what to do it along with moving the elbows forward. Each new rep the elbows would end up behind the bar so I would cue elbows up and this would repeat and the lean back would get worse. We started over again with the bar tonight and slowly added weight to make sure the form would stick. Everything is looking great so far.

[borzoi06]

The bar does not lock out behind your head -- it locks out directly above your shoulder joint. And seated presses eliminate the necessary whole-body movement aspect of the exercise.

Rip, Thanks for the input. I do still feel as though I'm not locking it out far enough back. I can get it pretty close to centered over my shoulders--just not quite. Certain ranges of motion still feel akward even a couple years past my last surgery. Anything that approaches a previously weakened range just doesn't feel right. And to clarify my previous: I only do standing press. Hands down, this lift has had a greater impact on my shoulder stability and range of motion than anything else I've tried. Long and short of it is that I sympathize with anyone having trouble with tight shoulders trying to work this lift.

[Randle McMurphy]

I'd need to see it, but he may be doing it just like I do.

I have noticed sometimes I do something similar to what the OP is describing, and it maybe similar to what you do?

I haven't got a clip of me doing it. But there is a clip of rigert pressing, and I notice he does it too:



Ignore the knee kick - because I don't do that. But notice the way he presses it and locks it out whilst leaning back, then proceeds to 'sit up' to a vertical torso position?

His is very extreme, and it almost looks like a two phase type of pressing motion. Mine is less extreme, and it is a little smoother/monophasic. I find the weight pushes me back as it approaches my eyeline (and the bar slows down), but once it passes this line, the bar speeds up a lot, and I can get back under it quite easily.

Is this wrong? In my mind, I try hard to prevent it. Because I have seen a lot of people hitting the sticking point when the bar is directly overhead with a vertical torso.

Any ideas of what is going on?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Is what wrong?

[Randle McMurphy]

Is what wrong?

pressing in the manner rigert does, where the elbows are almost locked out whilst leaning back, then 'sitting up' to a vertical torso position to finish the lift.