The ability to place something above your own head and hold it there is the ultimate showing of strength. It requires a full range of motion in the shoulder, great core control and the raw strength to hold the weight once it gets heavy. As a bonus, a strong overhead position generally correlates with healthy shoulders than can handle the unknown and the unexpected. Here are 3 reasons why your overhead position may be lacking and what you can do to fix it.
Mobility is number one. For the sake of this article let’s assume that mobility includes all the neurological, flexibility and coordination factors that combine to allow your body to move into, and be strong in, a desired position. One of the biggest the biggest reasons people have trouble with overhead mobility is hunched over posture. While it is extremely effective for driving, computer work and social media monitoring, it is the exact opposite of what’s most effective for sticking your arms above your head and holding a loaded barbell. Some conscious effort to keep yourself upright during the day can drastically reduce the amount of accessory work that may be necessary to fix your position each workout.
If mobility is limiting you beyond simple posture, you will need an experienced coach to perform an assessment and get you on track with the appropriate exercises to start building the correct position. If your position is poor enough such that general stretching, proper warm up and basic accessory exercises aren’t helping, you’ll need to a spend some time with a chiropractor or physical therapist who can diagnose and apply corrective exercises that will fix what you have going on.
Next is the willingness to keep the bar above your head. This, unlike your terrible posture you developed long before you decided you loved fitness and being strong, is completely under your control. Doing a set of five push presses where you punch the top position and ricochet the bar directly back onto your shoulders every rep makes you weak. If you want to develop the overhead position you have to spend time there. One of the easiest ways is to keep the last rep of every push press you do above your head for 3-5 seconds. The weight is already going to be above you, so keep it there and squeeze all of your muscles tightly to really lock the bar into place. This same practice can be applied to any overhead movement you do including overhead squats and jerks, two movements where you’ll be able to get even heavier loads above your head.
Another factor that’s common is getting the majority of your overhead movements in a conditioning setting. This goes hand in hand with the not locking the bar out effectively I just mentioned, but is unique enough where I think addressing it separately can be beneficial. If you’re going fast the bar isn’t going to get locked in tightly. If your goal is to be competitive in the sport of fitness this is fine. If your goal is more along the lines of being healthy and looking good naked, you may want to rethink rapidly throwing a bar above your head in a shitty position.
Whether your goals are competitive or health related you’re not building the proper position in a timed workout. Generally the range of motion is defined as a “good” or “no rep.” If the bar gets roughly above your head it “counts” and you can continue to thruster your way to fitness. The trouble is that if you tried to stop at the top of any one of those “good” reps, you wouldn’t be able to hold the bar. You would naturally bring the bar a little bit further behind your head and squeeze your elbows a little tighter to stabilize the bar. This makes you tired and takes time, so it doesn’t happen at the level required to build stability no matter how emphatic you try to be about making sure you aren’t a “no repper” during timed workouts.
Make sure first and foremost you can get into a strong and stable position. Once that is taken care of make sure you spend time with a bar over your head. Remember that more reps isn’t necessarily better, let quality be your priority in order to maximize your gains. When you can strongly support loads overhead you will feel more confident in all strength settings and be better protected from injury.
