Execution Cues:
Barbell Push Press:
- Setup J hooks on the outside of a full rack or in a half rack. Place a barbell across the hooks. The bar should be at the same level as your upper chest.
- Step up to the bar and grip it firmly with your hands just outside shoulder width. Swivel your elbows under the bar so your forearms are vertical and wrists “stacked”. Find a stable base with your feet even and flat, knees slightly forward over toes, hips under shoulders, and a neutral spine.
- Take a breath into your belly to brace before extending your hips and knees to unrack the bar. Your upper body will now be bearing the load. Depending on mobility, the bar can be supported by the arms or in front rack position (resting across the clavicular shelf). Slowly and carefully, step back from the rack making sure the bar is clear of the J hooks. Once you’re ~2-3 feet away, find stability and realign your body position—feet should be even, hips/knees extended, spine/pelvis neutral, glutes contracted, and abs braced.
- Now begin the set by flexing your knees and “dipping” your hips. The knees should be translating forward much more than in a traditional front squat and the torso angle should remain almost completely upright. The hips can hinge back very slightly but be cautious with allowing your chest to drop.
- This “dip” into the legs should be very short and quick. We want to build the stretch relax in the quads and calves but NOT drop so low that there is a latency with power expression. This may take some time to perfect, but once you reach this end point of the “dip”, rapidly decelerate, reverse the motion, and accelerate into knee and hip extension. This leg drive will build upward momentum that will be transferred into the load.
- When your knees and hips are once again extended, do not stop or decelerate the power. Continue this force transfer upward through your body and capture it with the beginning of the overhead press. Just as you start to plantarflex your ankles and come up onto your toes, begin to flex your shoulders and extend your elbows.
- Continue this press as you arc the bar past your face. Once the bar has cleared the top of your head, begin subtly tucking your chin and shifting your head forward. Your feet should be returning back to flat on the floor almost in unison with catching the barbell overhead with locked elbows. In full overhead extension, your biceps should be in line with your ears, scaps retracted and depress to take on the burden of stability, abs braced, and spine/pelvis as close to neutral as is possible. There will naturally be a slight lordotic bias to the lockout.
- From here, careful and slowly begin the eccentric by flexing at the elbows and extending at the shoulders to allow the bar to begin its downward journey. Keep the rest of your body as stable and rigid as possible.
- Continue on this path, keeping the bar in line with your center of gravity and close to your face, until it returns to its start position.
- Once the set is over, walk the bar back into the J hooks and carefully rerack the load.
- Note: When doing more than one rep in sequence, there should be a complete reset between them. Each rep should be discrete rather than continuous and thought of almost as its own “mini set” in order to properly sync the leg drive.
DB Push Press:
- Grab two DBs and set them on an elevated surface (i.e. a bench, box, etc) that is roughly knee height.
- When you are ready to begin the set, carefully pick the DBs up, using your legs/hips rather than low back. Step back ~2-3 feet to create clearance.
- Next is the hard part—getting the DBs to shoulder height. The best route is that of a DB Power Clean: hold the DBs tight to your anterior thighs, hinge your hips back to create a stretch reflex in your glutes/hams, quickly accelerate the DBs upward through triple extension of the hips/knees/ankles, synchronously pull the DBs vertically as in an upright row, then quickly rotate your elbows under the DBs to catch them at the shoulders. Adjust the DBs so your forearms are vertical and wrists stacked. Your hand/grip orientation should be semi pronated to take on a more natural shoulder alignment/rotation. .
- Once you have the DBs in place, find stability and realign your body position—feet should be even, hips/knees extended, spine/pelvis neutral, glutes contracted, and abs braced.
- Now begin the set by flexing your knees and “dipping” your hips. The knees should be translating forward much more than in a traditional front squat and the torso angle should remain almost completely upright. The hips can hinge back very slightly but be cautious with allowing your chest to drop.
- This “dip” into the legs should be very short and quick. We want to build the stretch relax in the quads and calves but NOT drop so low that there is a latency with power expression. This may take some time to perfect, but once you reach this end point of the “dip”, rapidly decelerate, reverse the motion, and accelerate into knee and hip extension. This leg drive will build upward momentum that will be transferred into the load.
- When your knees and hips are once again extended, do not stop or decelerate the power. Continue this force transfer upward through your body and capture it with the beginning of the overhead press. Just as you start to plantarflex your ankles and come up onto your toes, begin to flex your shoulders and extend your elbows.
- Continue this press as the DBs pass by your face on either side. Once they have cleared the top of your head, begin subtly tucking your chin and shifting your head forward. Your feet should be returning back to flat on the floor almost in unison with catching the DBs overhead with locked elbows. In full overhead extension, your biceps should be in line with your ears, scaps retracted and depress to take on the burden of stability, abs braced, and spine/pelvis as close to neutral as is possible. There will naturally be a slight lordotic bias to the lockout but it should be less so compared to the barbell variation.
- From here, careful and slowly begin the eccentric by flexing at the elbows and extending at the shoulders to allow the DBs to begin their downward journey. Keep the rest of your body as stable and rigid as possible.
- Continue on this path, keeping the DBs in line with your center of gravity until they returns to the start position.
- Once the set is over, carefully allow the DBs to drop back down to arms length by your sides then walk them forward and set them down on the original elevated surface. Though frowned upon at most commercial gyms, the safest way to get the DBs down from shoulder height is actually just to drop them. (If you do this and get yelled at, don’t blame me)
- Note: When doing more than one rep in sequence, there should be a complete reset between them. Each rep should be discrete rather than continuous and thought of almost as its own “mini set” in order to properly sync the leg drive.
Key Similarities:
- Unsupported vertical press utilizing leg drive
- Primarily target the delts and upper back
- High demand for systemic stability and rigidity
- Overload the eccentric of the OHP by “assisting” the concentric with the leg drive
- Allow more load to be used than “strict” OHP counterparts
- Highly complex movement patterns that require baseline levels of coordination
- Intensity techniques will generally be contraindicated; as will supersets and circuits
- Risk of injury is non-negligible due to the many dependencies and moving parts
- Can be used to extend sets “beyond failure” when tacked to the end of a strict OHP set
Key Differences:
- Barbell is more limited by mobility restrictions (mainly shoulders, T-spine, and wrists) due to the fixed modality whereas DBs allow each arm to move independently thus circumventing many of those issues.
- DBs will be easier on the shoulder and elbow joints. This will potentially allow the trainee to work around pre-existing injuries as well as avoid much of the wear-and-tear that accompanies the Barbell.
- More load can be used with Barbell due to less degrees of freedom and less energy intensive setup.
- Barbell is better suited for low rep ranges (1-5) while DBs are cater better to moderate reps (6-12).
- Barbell’s primary use case is increasing vertical pressing strength and power but less so for hypertrophy, relatively. DB’s use case is much more in line with hypertrophy of the delts.
- DBs require more coordination and stability due to multiple foci of loading
Primary Use Case for Barbell Push Press:
-Increased Strength and Power in Vertical Push Pattern
Primary Use Case for DB Push Press:
-Hypertrophy of the Delts