Push Press

[Brattt]

Can someone please tell me the proper way to do a push press? Or, are there any tricks for using a lot of weight? I feel like I can't get my legs tp help my shoulders as much as I should. Also, what about feet position, and width of grip? Thank you very much in advance!

 

[ballast]

Set the bar up in the rack.Grip it as if you are about to do regular presses.Feet shoulder-width apart.Unrack it and step back.Now dip your legs like you are doing a quarter squat.Make your ascent explosive.Before you begin to rise out of the squat position however, make sure you are already exerting pressure against the bar as if you are trying to press it.Use your leg drive to push the bar off your chest and use your shoulders and arms to drive the bar the rest of the way to lock-out.If you wait until your leg drive has carried the bar as far as it will go before you start to press, you probably won't be able to use that much weight.That's why it is important to keep upward pressure on the bar right from the beginning.Make sure your lower back is kept tight through the whole movement as well.As far as reps go, 3's have worked the best for me.A good supplementary movement for helping with push presses are one-arm dumbell push presses.You need to use really heavy dumbells so using two arms to get one dumbell into place is alot easier than doing push presses with 2 dumbells.Hope this helped.

 

[BodybuildingUniverse]

One nice neurological benefit of pushing the heavier weights on a regular basis can be that your normal training weights dont "feel" that heavy in your hands. Push it!

 

[Brattt]

Thanks for the advice, guys. I did the push press today, and using the form that was suggested, I really increased my weight and reps! However, I still feel like I could be doing more, as in it's just a matter of form. Is it possible to use the legs too much on this lift? Any other tips on form would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance

 

[ballast]

I think it is possible to use too much leg drive on push presses but, your leg involvement all depends on how low you dip prior to your push press.The whole point of this exercise is to overload the muscles responsible for pressing weights overhead, in theory, the more weight you can get overhead, the better.As far as form, I can only offer one more point from my experience:Once you blow the bar off your shoulders using leg drive, you can try to move your elbows in closer while you do the press portion.I feel this allows the triceps to become more active and has helped me elevate greater poundages.