Shoulder Press

CrossFit, being a program for general physical preparedness, gives it's athletes the opportunity to practice skills in the gym that can transfer to everyday life. Everyday life actions like holding our babies overhead and hoisting your carry-on bag into the overhead bin of the plane. These movements require a basic a shoulder to overhead movement, also known as a shoulder press.  Shoulder press being the simpler lift of the overhead presses translates to a lot of movements we do in everyday life.  It is also a movement that you will find in the weightlifting modality and also in the gymnastics modality with handstand push-ups.

Set up: It is important to begin with a good set up position to complete the shoulder press. Your stance is hip width apart. The hands are in a closed grip, thumbs around, on the bar just outside the shoulders. The bar is resting in “rack” position on the shoulders, and elbows are down and in front of the bar. Abs or midsection of body will be tight in the set up position and will remain tight throughout the entire lift.

The Press: The next step is to press the bar in a straight up path overhead. Begin by engaging the mid-section and beginning to drive the bar directly up, making sure to move your head out of the path of the bar rather than change the path of the bar around your head.  Once pressed overhead, at the top of the lift, the shoulders will be active with the shoulder angle being fully open (shoulders pressed up towards ears, armpits facing the wall in front of you). In the locked out position the bar should be located directly over the arch of the foot. Remaining in control return the bar down to the rack position following the same straight bar path.

Some common faults in executing the movement:

The bar is not directly overhead and is in the frontal plane.

The bar diverts from the straight path to move around the lifter’s head. This diversion is one reason the bar may be in the frontal plane.

The lifter is leaning back and overextending in the back due to a slack in the midsection.

The lifter is leaning back to generate power from the pectoral muscles, turning the lift into more of a bench press.

The lifter goes up on their toes when trying to fully extend and lock the bar out in the overhead position. Usually this is seen in connection with an over-arched back.

A full press or lock out overhead is not achieved due to inactive shoulders or bent elbows.

With consistent practice and continually added weight a lifter can reap the benefits of the overhead press in many ways from everyday functional movements to full range of motion hand stand push-ups or hand stand walks.