The Two Biggest Mistakes I in the OHP

Want to know the two biggest mistakes I see when people set up for the overhead press?

They either kick their elbows forward and set up like a front squat... Or they try to get the bar right down onto their collar bone, pushing the elbows back and behind the bar.

Both are inefficient, cause problems and create unnecessary moment arms that leak power.

I could talk a while on different rack positions for different movements, but I want to keep this one short, so i’ll boil it down to just 3 things.

When it comes to what the arms are doing in the overhead press, the three points below are what we’re looking for:

1. Side on - The forearm should be near enough vertical with the elbow just in front of the bar.

2. Behind / infront - Were looking for the forearms to be as vertical as possible throughout. Obviously depending on limb lengths and anatomy there may be some trade offs, but thats the goal.

3. Using a strong isometric contraction in the upper back to create a solid shelf, the bar should be resting on the anterior delts in the start position, not the collar bone.

Its something I see happen all the time so I hope this helps.

Adam Johnston, January 12th 2020