Standing Press

[short gorilla]

..or military press or whatever you want to call it, I don't care. Anyways, when I do this it bothers my lower back. I've got a strong upper body, but I can't do heavy weight standing up because I feel like I'm compressing my spine or something. I usually do seated barbell press or arnold press instead. I don't use a lifting belt because I don't want to hinder my core strength developement. I do core work often (back extensions, bridge work, crunches, etc.). My querie is this: Does anyone have any suggestions for alternate standing presses that I could try?

I've also noticed that doing partial reps doesn't seem to bother my back. By partial I mean doing the top half of the movement. It's when I start to lower it past eye level that my back starts to bend backwards and it gets too strenuous. I would train this in just the partial reps, but I don't want to develope too many bad habits. So.... yeah. Also, the reason I don't just stick to the seated variations is because I want to develope the core strength, the balance, all that good stuff. Plus having more exercises at my disposal to choose from when doing my chest and shoulder routine would kick ass.

Okay, I'll shut up and let someone respond now.

[Psychostick]

those crunches etc wont give you the core strength you need, deadlifts squats etc will.

[chicanerous]

This is quite a common problem. It's a problem with form. All of the following tips will help, but tip #4 is usually the real problem:

1. Squeeze your glutes together throughout the whole movement.
2. Isometrically contract your abs.
3. Keep the bar as close to the face as possible in the first half of the ROM.
4. When you tilt your head back, tilt it -- don't tilt your whole upper body by arching at the upper back. If you feel a tightness right in the middle of your middle back as you're pressing, you're arching and not tilting.
5. Don't try to watch the bar in the top position.

A little description about the concentric movement:

The bar actually moves straight upwards and the body moves under it. At the bottom of the movement, the bar is racked over the clavicles on the anterior delts whereupon your drop the elbows, grab it with your hands, and press it straight upwards. To do so, you tilt the head back allowing it to travel along this vertical path. Once the bar has reached the top of the head, you untilt the head and "lean into it," moving the body directly underneath the bar.

The eccentric is exactly the same, but in reverse.

[Steve]

Yeah it's just a fundamentally flawed movement but I do it anyway, haha. It feels like my lats are ripping off my body.

[short gorilla]

I don't feel the stress in the middle of my back, but those are good tips. Number 5 hit home especially. Thanks dude.

[Steve]

When I did the press today I tried focusing on making the lift more straight up and down and it alleviated most of the stress on my back.

[chicanerous]

When I did the press today I tried focusing on making the lift more straight up and down and it alleviated most of the stress on my back.
Exactly. :good:

[rock_ten]

Overhead pressing is the shit, I used to use a bar bu I do all of mine with a sandbag now, just so that I can train outside. I echo the advice about not arching your back. Tensing your abs before you start the press will help a lot in keeping your torso vertical, but it may reduce your strength if you are used to leaning back a lot.

Steve - in what way do/did you consider it a fundamentally-flawed movement?

chicanerous - Dune owns. I've read Dune and Dune Messiah, they're pretty bad ass. I'll find the next one in the series tomorrow. I haven't seen the film, is that where your avatar is from?

[Steve]

It's fundamentally flawed because for the whole range of motion, there has to be a point where the bar is in front of you, so when you press up, you have to lean back some amount which puts extra stress on your back.

[Akira28]

Doesn't DB Standing Press solve the problem?
I guess some of you guys would have the prob of finding DB heavy enough.

[chicanerous]

Doesn't DB Standing Press solve the problem?
I guess some of you guys would have the prob of finding DB heavy enough.
It would solve the problem if there really was a problem. Steve exaggerates. If you do the movement with good form and the proper cues, there's no excess stress on the lower back.

chicanerous - Dune owns. I've read Dune and Dune Messiah, they're pretty bad ass. I'll find the next one in the series tomorrow. I haven't seen the film, is that where your avatar is from?
Children of Dune is next. They are definitely bad ass.

My avatar is my eye and some photoshopping.

A lot of people don't like the film adaptations. If you check them out, do it after you've read Children and look at Lynch's movie and then the two Sci-Fi miniseries. The books are infinitely better though.