first of all, thank you for a very usefull article you wrote about recommended ratios ("Know your ratios destroy your weaknesses’2015 here, on T-Nation). I monitor my loads all the with them.
I kindly ask you about three ratios you recommend based on Military Press.
Considering this movement, Military Press, being 1.0, your recommended ratio for Behind the Neck Strict Press is x.xx (not leg driven)
Considering this movement, Military Press, being 1.0, your recommended ratio for Behind the Neck Press is x.xx (leg driven)
Considering this movement, Military Press, being 1.0, your recommended ratio for Over-the-Head Press is x.xx (leg driven)
It’s really hard to answer. First of all when you look at the push press (leg driven) it really depends on how technically efficient you are and how powerful your legs are.
For example I’ve worked with an olympic lifter who could push press (overhead press with leg drive) 160kg and could only military press (overhead press no leg drive) 80kg. I’ve also trained a bodybuilder who could do 110kg with no leg drive and only 120kg with leg drive.
But for most people (and this is mentioned in the article) we are looking for a push press that is 25% higher than your military press.
So the answer to your question no.3 would be 1.25
As for behind the neck press, this also varies a lot because of shoulder mobility issues. I’ve known guys who could only do 50% behind the neck as they could in front. But normally a behind the neck press should be 85-90% of a military press.
So to answer question no.1 it would be 0.85 - 0.9… but in most gyms it’s lower than that because of shoulder mobility issues.
Question no.2 is the hardest to answer. Because while the arms are in a weaker position behind the neck, the leg drive is easier when the bar is behind vs. in front. From experience it leads to a fairly equal ratio of behind the neck push press and push press from the front.
So I personally would answer 1.25 to question no.2 but this is where you will have the bigger variation.