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There is a particular order you have to follow in life when you are doing some things. For instance, when you were small, you didn’t just start walking straight away. You began by crawling, then walking, and finally running. Crawling made you prepare for walking, and walking made you prepare for running. Without the previous stage, the next step wouldn’t be possible. That is but one example. We could sit here and give more examples of that manner. Do you know that there are some exercises that you can’t just wake up one day and do them? In the same way, you can’t start by running, and some activities are so intense that you need other less intense exercises to prepare you for them. An example of such a workout is the overhead press. The less strenuous activities that prepare you for explosive movements are referred to as assistance exercises. In this read, we shall look at the assistance exercises for overhead press, how to do them, and look into the overhead press a little bit more.
The overhead press is an exercise that involves a person standing with a bar on their shoulders and then pressing the bar upwards until the bar ends up overhead, hence the name. The overhead press is also known as the shoulder press, as it mainly engages all three heads of your shoulders. However, it doesn’t mean that this intense workout only works the muscles on your shoulders as it also engages other muscles like your traps, your abdominal muscles, your lower back muscles, and many other muscles. The overhead press is not an easy exercise; both expert gym-goers and beginners can attest to this. Just because it is not an easy workout, it does not mean it is an impossible workout. It just needs you to work on it until it becomes manageable to you constantly.
The key to getting a hold of the shoulder press is to use assistance exercises. This means setting the overhead press as the primary movement and using secondary pressing movements as well as different variations of the shoulder press to build the power needed to get to the king, which in this case, we are referring to the overhead press. Assistance workouts for this intense workout play an essential role in getting your body ready. To do the overhead press, you need to have a strong back, biceps, triceps, and other muscles. Practical assistance exercises help to achieve this and also help to maintain healthy joints.
Taking this approach to mastering the overhead press also prevents or reduces the chances of getting injured. The use of assistance workouts is the equivalent of easing yourself into an exercise. You can avoid getting an injury by getting your body strong enough to handle the pressure you will exert on it once you get to the shoulder press. This approach also makes you able to effectively perform the shoulder press, hence enjoying the numerous benefits that come with it. There are different assistance exercises that you can use. In the next section, we shall look at the best assistance exercises for the overhead press.
Read More: Overhead Press Benefits You Need To Know
Different workouts can help you get the correct form, strength, and power to effectively carry out the shoulder press. Here are some of those workouts:
This is a less intense variation of the overhead press. It is less severe because you perform this exercise while seated, while other overhead presses are usually performed while standing.
How to do the seated dumbbell overhead press (1)?
If you feel like you are not strong enough to do this exercise alone, ask an expert to be your spotter. Better safe than sorry. The seated overhead press works your arms and shoulders.
This is yet another exercise that can be used as an assistance exercise for the shoulder press. Unlike the overhead press, the push press is simpler as you get to generate most of the momentum from your lower body. This workout helps increase the strength of your shoulders and your upper body strength in general. It also helps to strengthen your core, and a strong core is vital in mastering the overhead press.
How to do the push press (4)?
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If you’ve ever noticed, most people who go to the gym are always concerned with working their biceps, and the triceps are mostly ignored. Triceps are just as important as biceps. If you want bigger strong arms, you need the triceps just as much as you need the biceps.
Since the triceps are usually not that important to most people, most of the exercises people do like the bench press and the press-ups engage the triceps as the secondary muscles, but that cannot be said for the tricep extension, which has its primary attention on the triceps.
There are different variations of the tricep extension, and here we shall concentrate on the overhead dumbbell tricep extension. To master the overhead press, you need strong triceps, and that’s why this exercise fits as one of the assistance workouts.
How to do the overhead dumbbell tricep extension (2)?
While doing this exercise, you need to make sure that the dumbbells you use are not too heavy. Using very heavy dumbbells increases your chances of getting injured as this workout engages your triceps through a full range of motion. If the dumbbells are too heavy, there is a high chance you will hurt yourself when you move the dumbbells behind your head (2).
This is a good variation of the overhead press that you should definitely add to your workout program. It is a similar workout to the push press, and the main difference is that you make a deeper squat with the thruster than the push press. Creating a deeper squat means it is a little more intense than the push press. It is an effective full-body compound exercise. It can be done using a barbell, dumbbells, or kettlebells. It all depends on your preference.
How to do the thruster (4)?
Read More: What Does Overhead Press Work?
It would be an injustice not to highlight a bit about the exercise we are working on. Knowing how to do a workout correctly and holding the proper form is quite important. This can also be said for the overhead press.
Knowing the correct procedure and form helps prevent injuries, especially with intense workouts like this one. The overhead press is not an easy workout, so any person attempting to do it should always be careful to do it correctly and hold the correct form. Knowing exactly how to do an exercise also helps one get the most out of the workout, which is usually why most people do the exercise. With that said, here is how you do the shoulder press (5):
You should make sure your body is tight throughout this entire process. Keeping your body tight helps you not miss the lift, hence why that is very important. The key is to engage as many muscles as much as possible, which can be achieved by doing the following things.
For starters, when you hold the bar, try and squeeze the bar tightly as if you are trying to bend it upwards. Doing that helps to engage your latissimus dorsi muscles (5). While doing all that, you should also try to squeeze your elbows towards your body as if you are trying to keep the insides of your biceps touching your chest during the whole process (5). When you are just about to lift the bar, you should take a deep breath and hold all that air in your stomach. Brace your abdominal muscles, squeeze your glutes and then start pressing up. Only release the air once you get at the top of your lift.
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Now that you know how to do the shoulder press, it is crucial to know the muscles that you will work with while doing it. The overhead press is a compound exercise and what this means is that it works multiple muscles and joints simultaneously. Here are the muscles you are likely to engage doing this workout (3):
The muscles in the shoulder are the primary muscles worked. You can perform these muscles when you raise your upper arms so that you can lift the bar. That movement works the muscles of your shoulders. This is to say that it works your front, side, and back deltoid. These three muscles can develop evenly hence leading to broader shoulders.
The process of straightening your elbows to press the weight overhead engages the muscles in your arms. The arm muscles engage mainly the triceps, which are found at the back of your arms. This workout makes your triceps bigger, and this results in bigger arms altogether.
The shoulder press also works the different rotator cuff muscles. These are usually the small muscles that cover your shoulder blades. The act of balancing the bar overhead is what engages these muscles.
Your traps are worked when you shrug your shoulders at the top of each repetition.
These are the muscles primarily found in the core. All movements start from the core, and since the workout involves many activities, the core is heavily involved. The abdominal muscles help stabilize your body while your arms and shoulders do all the heavy lifting. Stabilizing your body helps you from falling under the bar, and in this process, the various abdominal muscles, the obliques, and the lower back muscles are all strengthened.
Your legs are needed to maintain balance while you press. The shoulder press hence works your hips, ankles, thighs, and calves. Do not expect the shoulder press to work these muscles as much as other exercises that involve more leg movement do. Remember, while doing this exercise, your legs don’t move.
Those are the muscles that are worked when you do the shoulder press.
We have highlighted the best assistance exercises for the overhead press. The activities mentioned above will help you get the power, strength, and range of motion needed to carry out the overhead press.
We have highlighted how to correctly do each of those exercises to reduce the chances of getting injuries. Before you try any of those exercises, it would be safe first to consult an expert to see if it is okay for you to attempt them.
When choosing the weights to be used in the exercises, as mentioned earlier, don’t try to do too much by using hefty weights that might end up causing more harm than benefit. It is actually recommended to go for light weights and do more reps than going for heavyweights and doing fewer reps. It would be best if you also had a spotter while performing most of the workouts highlighted.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility!