Using dumbells for overhead pressing movements

[wildonsquats]

I'm starting to have trouble getting the db's up for movements such as incline press for the chest and seated overhead press for the shoulders. Upper limit for me getting these things up is around 80 - 90 lbs comfortably, should I start to change to the barbells? I was thinking plain old incline barbell press for the chest and doing standing overhead presses with the barbell (maybe i might even start on some olympic lifts for the shoulders soon too).

Any comments are welcome, thanks

 

[michaelcoutts]

if u get stuck then possibly try going with the barbell for a few weeks.

 

[wildonsquats]

when i mean up, i dont mean that i have trouble pressing them, its just getting them up to the starting position.

 

[CollegeKid]

i dunno if you've mastered this move.. but it really helps getting heavy DBs into position. all you do is carefully rest em on your thighs while sitting on the bench, then power your thighs (+DBs) up and use that momentum to get em into place. works for me.

 

[big4life]

I used to have the same problem when doing shoulder presses. I finally broke down and asked one of the other guys to hand them to me. If there is nobody around, I guess go with the bb.

 

[b fold the truth]

I did some of these tonight for a change (didn't want to tax my back anymore by doing standing...since I killed it on Saturday...lol) and they were decent. Did 55's x 3 sets of 10 with 60 seconds rest between sets. I have done the 100's for 6 before I think but I don't get to do them very often.

It takes a good bit of strength just to get them to your shoulders....and sometimes a lot of pain goes with it. I stick with a barbell, viking press, and a log mostly.

B True

 

[rjl296]

i don't find tooo much prob kickin' up the db, i used to use 90's . i think it's just mastering 'kicking' them up w/ proper timing.

 

[Fatty4You]

I used to try and get heavier dumbbells up to my shoulders for shoulderpress. I never could get the 80's up to the shoulders, which was totally irking me cause i could have gotten a few reps. But, after trying a lot with heavier weights, like 60-80, i started to develop a lot of pain in one of my shoulders.

I switched over to barbells and havn't done heavy dumbells in a while. I hope that when i go back, i won't get the pain again.

I use the thigh-boost method that COllegeKid mentioned, but it only gets me so far. I have seen some people stand up with the weight and then kinda do a combination sit/clean to get the db's up, but that just looks crazy dangerous to me.

Hopefully one day, i wil be able to curl any weight i want to get into position

-Fatty