Good Morning Titans,
When talking to one of our members a few days ago the topic of assistance exercises came up and I realized that choosing these movements doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people so what I’d like to do over the next four weeks is to go over different assistance exercises that will help you to improve your main lifts. Todays post will be about exercises that will assist in your overhead press.
Our Philosophy in Relation to Assistance Work
When training for strength, aesthetics are not your primary goal. Instead you’re trying to get as strong as possible which is why instead of splitting our training sessions up by body part, we split them up by movement pattern. Our weak points in these movement patterns are what helps us to determine what exercises we choose for our assistance work. Volume is your friend here. Unlike our main strength work you’ll want to keep the weight moderate and get those reps in like a bodybuilder would.
You also want to make sure you maintain balance in your joints. This is especially true of your shoulders. Our main movements are both pressing movements, so you want to be sure to also pull in that same plane. Using todays movement (the overhead press) as an example, since you are pressing in a vertical plane you also want to make sure you’re challenging yourself to a similar degree with a vertical pull such as a pull up or a lat pull down. I personally like to organize my antagonistic muscle groups into a superset in order to make the best use of my time like so
A1 Overhead Press 3x5 rest :60
A2 Weighted Pull Up 3x5 rest :90
When organizing your antagonistic muscle groups this way you don’t have to wait as long in between sets and you can get your work done in half the time.
Assistance Movements to Build Strength in Your Triceps.
If your sticking point is somewhere between the top of your head and the lockout then that means you need to build more strength in your triceps. When it comes to the overhead press there are a few different movements that I like to use to strengthen these. Some are very specific to the overhead press and others are more general but my top three would be the Pin Press, the Skull Crusher and the Triceps Pushdown.
For the Pin Press you simply set up some safety arms on the rack as close as you can get them to your sticking point. From here you load up the appropriate load for the desired rep range, brace and press. This limits your range of motion and allows you to really overload the triceps for this movement. They have been instrumental in my progress over the last couple of months.
The Skull Crusher is most likely a movement that you’re already familiar with. Using any free weight tool you wish (ex. Barbell, dumbbell or EZ curl bar) you simply lie down on a bench, press the implement until its over your shoulder and touch your forehead with the weight while moving only your elbows. For added difficulty you can adjust the angle back slightly so that the bar is over your eyes when locked out and behind your head at the bottom. This prevents your skeleton from ever supporting the weight and keeps the load on your triceps for added time under tension.
Finally, the Triceps pushdown is a very generic triceps builder that can be performed with either a resistance band or a cable. You simply step up to the tool and pull it down until your elbows form a 90-degree angle. Then you move your elbows back slightly (think chicken dance) and extend your elbows. Make sure you control the negative on this one.
Assistance Movements to Strengthen the Shoulders
Let’s say your sticking point is somewhere between the rack position and your forehead. Assuming your set up is good (see this video) then you probably have a weakness in your shoulders for this situation I like to do the Z Press, the Arnold Dumbbell Press or a Lateral Raise.
The Z Press is an interesting one. The easiest way to set up for this is to set the pins low in the rack that way if you lose your balance, you’re good to go. Sit inside the rack on the ground with your legs straight out. You’ll have to brace your core hard in order to stay upright. It’s very important that you do not use your feet hooked into the rack to hold yourself up. Admittedly it’s hard to describe this one through text but as soon as I make a video for this one, I’ll be sure to let all of you know.
The Arnold Press is my favorite version of the seated dumbbell press. In order to do this, set your bench to the upright position and hold two dumbbells in the rack position with a supinated grip. As you press the dumbbells overhead rotate the bells at their natural turning point to the pronated position. This really helps to strengthen all those smaller muscles in the shoulder.
Finally, the lateral raise is a fantast movement for targeting the mid delts. The best way I have found to do this when using dumbbells is to hold on to an anchor point and lean your body sideways at roughly 45 degrees. This enables you to get more range of motion in the movement. With the dumbbell at your side slowly raise your arm upwards until it is parallel to the ground, hold for one second and then slowly control the weight back down.
Don’t Neglect the Rear Delts.
The rear delts are very important for stabilization of the shoulder girdle. Often a neglected part of peoples training these are the muscles responsible for pulling your shoulders back and should be strengthened for both overall health as well as helping your press reach its full potential. The best way I’ve found to do that is with either Cuban Rotations or with Banded Fly’s.
The Cuban Rotation can be done with either a barbell or dumbbells. Raise the implement above your head and form as many right angles as you can. There should be 90 degrees in your elbows, in your shoulders and between your wrist and the implement. From this position you should pull your shoulder blades back and hold them there. Slowly rotate the implement down and then back up to the starting position for 8-12 reps.
Banded Fly’s are simple. Just hold a band straight out and pull it apart. High reps are your friend here. I usually do 20-30 of these per set.
So, there you have it folks. That was definitely the longest article I’ve written so far but you should have gotten plenty of information to help you choose the right assistance exercises for your press. If you like the article be sure to check back here every Monday for the next one. You can also
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Release the Titan in You,
Cameron Ray
