Technique - Shoulder Press

[zPower]

I have a question in regards to technique. In our gym the vast majority of the people have terrible technique and posture. You see people swinging weights around when clearly they don't have a fuking clue what they're are doing. You see young lads doing bicep curls using their back to swing weights back and forward. To me thats not a bicep curl, thats just asking for a bad back. Am I right?

Well, onto my question.. When doing seated shoulder press with dumbbells I find my back arches out leaving about a 5 inch gap between my lower back and the seat. I do try to keep my back flat against the seat but I find that to push the weight I need to arch slightly to lift them. Am I lifting too heavy or is this acceptable to some degree?

 

[Jocques Straap]

the more you arch, the more the stress of the exercise is shifted towards the chest, off the shoulder. If you are trying to isolate the shoulder, then you don't need to be arching. If you want to involve the chest as well as the shoulder then you should have some arch.

Personally I think the best shoulder exercise is Standing BD Press. Personally I feel we sit on our ass too much, and we don't need to sit at the gym.

 

[SpyWizard]

^^^^ and arch means you are pressing too much weight.. kind of like the chicks swinging the weights..

 

[moya]

big arch turns it into incline press...
fuck seated pressing... do standing presses, much better imo...

 

[lweaver]

I also found out the hard way that my arms are too short to re-rack or unrack a loaded barbell behind me for a seated press...thus ended up doing standing presses, which felt much better anyway.

Anyway if the back is arching to a point that you are noticing it's arched too much...then the weight may be a little too heavy.