Hey guys, been forever. Took a bit of a hiatus and lifted with the consistency of my former highschool self. Back in action now.
Ive been consistent for the better part of 2 months, and everything has pretty much locked back in, aside from OHP. Which to be fair, was never dialed in to begin with.
Basically i feel like it kicks my ass way harder than it should. Im currently on a building phase of an overarching strength program and doing 3-5 sets of 10. By set three there just isnt anything left, my shoulders are toast. Only at 115 lbs. I dropped to 95 a week after and got killed on the same rep on the same set. Its like my shoulders just deactivate at a point.
To be honest, i plan on just rolling with it. Since there is no pain, if nothing else im still getting work in. But does anyone have any eureka moments they experienced on it, or some favorite form videos?
All i can say is that i believe that your body is telling you what to do. I get fucked by any high intensity or high volume training on all lifts. My body doesn’t progress, i feel like crap and i lose motivation. So what i did is u picked the least volume approach i could find for all my training and i feel better and at least for now i progress. If your body says you cant handle volume for OHP then dont do volume. Try lower volume, less reps. Maybe stick to same weights but do 5 reps instead of 10. I am a strong believer that building strenght requires me to NOT push too hard. Once in a few months i would test one rep strength but probably not do a true max. My training always stops as soon as i struggle a bit. Its just how my body is…i would love to max my lifts and do 4x12 for assistance but i just cant.
Generic advice:
3-5x10 is a lot of work. I’d agree with Hank. That is not working for you. Drop down to 1-2 sets of 100% effort in 5-10 rep range. Double progression in this rep range should be sufficient to get you close to a BW press.
If you want more volume - once your done with the all in set, take 50% off the bar. Use this for a few sets.
You say your press was never very good anyway. How so?
As an FYI the best bit of advice I was ever given about the press was - its not just about the shoulders. Its about the core. If your core / brace goes - the press goes. Perhaps the issue is “bracing time”. If you can’t brace for long enough then the weight will not want to go up regardless of shoulder strength or weight on the bar.
Whenever I am approaching a stall / plateau on a lift I try to attack it from another angle. There may be a weak point somewhere in that lift that you need to find a better way to address. Trying a few different rep, set, and weight percentage schemes may help you break through on the overhead press. Rather than 5x10 maybe 10x5 or 6x3 or 4x6 with different weights etc etc.
Perhaps doing a similar movement that either makes the lift more challenging (Z-Press), allow you to use more weight (push-press), or perform the lift in a further range of motion (trap bar overhead press) could help. Adding chains that allow you to do slightly more weight at top but less weight at the bottom for the same sets and reps you are doing now could also be a good option.
I think in general, when you reach a weight that you can’t move for a given number of reps; doing something different and attempting to gain weight will usually get your past your sticking point. Trying to remain as lean as possible (not eating to gain weight/strength) and still trying to gain strength is a much more difficult endeavor and can lead to spinning your wheels and frustration if you are not being realistic with yourself about what it is you are trying to accomplish.
Continuing to try and force 5x10 @ 115lb may eventually work, but doing something different and coming back to your original strategy may prove more fruitful in the long run.
I’ve made an insane amount of progress on overhead pressing recently and the biggest thing that has helped me is training it twice weekly. One day doing it first as a variation either z press, push press or pin press at my sticking point. Then another day doing it after bench as technique/ volume work either a 5 x 5, 4 x 8 or 10 x 3.
Always was my worst lift had a load of people from this site come into my log in 2016 or something and say my form was awful (it was) and now it is my best lift in my opinion.
Im following a version of the juggernaut method since it looked really fun, but these first 3 weeks of x10’s is definitely rough. But it decreases starting next week. Honestly ill probably cut the 5×10 in half and treat one day as dedicated to ohp and the other 25 reps as secondary on bench day.
Like i said, my shoulders feel great, especially after ohp but it doesnt seem like its progressing me.
Probably also worth mentioning that im 6’4 and my wingspan is longer than my hight, so i know im disadvantaged, ive just never had it stop me up on other lifts
In my prime about 1.5 years ago, i had a standard split bench/squat/ohp/deadlift, all things trained equally, and came out of it with a 395 bench and 500 squat/deadlift. But my OHP tapped out at a 225 that look more like a bad dance even with a bounce.
I realize it wont be close to my bench, but bodyweight should have at least been achievable.