this guy looks like a monster now compare to who he was 4 years ago when i found his channel. The hype media won’t appreciate this guy as much as us natties do😤
He just popped up in my recommended section today. I haven't been here since the "Back and forth with Blaha" days. He looks smaller to me than he did back then, but he looks a lot leaner than he used to.
@@AlexLeonidas can you explain how you hit a 225 OHP years ago but your max is still 225 lbs now? Haven't made any should gains in years? im a big fan btw
To be honest, there's an exercise from athlean-x that involves the seated row using the lat pulldown bar that I find to better activate my rear delts than face pulls. But I should probably incorporate Lu Raises again for bullet proofing.
@@CrowandRaven I've seen john meadows suggest a similar thing with barbell rowing (several adjustments apply) and having personally tried that for a few months, the rear delt pumps and growth were phenomenal, so I personally agree with them being more beneficial than facepulls alone. Ironically, my rear delts respond best to a row variant, my mid to high traps respond best to facepulls
I do believe overhead press is a must, but that it really builds so much more front delt like John Meadows also says. The lateral raise is really what gives that 3D pop, look at Vitruvian Physique i.e., always going crazy on the overhead press with dumbbells, and never having great shoulders... I'm sure he does lateral raises, but 3 sets is a joke and not going to build anything. Personally I don't do much OH press (trying to do more though to get more balanced), but my shoulders have grown tremendously from just pressing and really making sure to do lateral raises. I don't mean to tell anyone what to do, just want to share what has worked for me. More Plates More Dates also says lateral raises are a must for full shoulder size, I know he blasted for the delt size he has, but he still knows what he's talking about when it comes to training.
I love OHP. It's my favorite lift. But it's way too unforgiving and unfair. If you let your foot off the gas for a second, you will lose progress for certain. I hit a 210 max back in May, and last week my OHP max was 195, and it felt like 300 pounds. Getting to 225 eventually will truly be the most rewarding thing I've ever done as a lifter.
I just did my first OHP session in six weeks after a back injury. Broke my all time PR by 22lbs?? After always experiencing my strength disappearing after not doing OHP specifically, it seems horizontal pressing with a high frequency may carry over better than I’d have thought.
Bruh i never got to that sort of weight but I was at 5 sets of 10 with 25 plates on each side, stopped the movement for awhile and now I'm struggling with sets of 8 with 15s 😅
Hey man, think you could flash the kg conversion on screen when you talk about lbs? It'll add a big quality of life improvement to your vids. Good shit regardless!
It was easy for me I am so shoulder dominant, it makes me bench comparietely weak and my shoulders end up overtaking the rest of my body in other press exercises.
Just hit a 1 plate OHP last night at 193lb BW after 2.5 years lifting @40, glad I waited to watch this video until after I tested. Great video Alex, thanks for your insights!
for the past two years, the goal of being able to press my bw is like chasing a dragon. I'm not saying I'm plateauing. my press has gotten so much stronger over that time, but bw has gone up too. I always seem to only be 5 pounds above my max press. I've kinda given up on that goal but I'm not giving up on increasing press strength. so my current goal is to hit a 2 plate strict press and just stop caring about bw.
If it helps, I found working on my grip strength massively activated my pressing strength both in the OHP and the bench. Also, it's always worth checking form to streamline the lift, even if you are advanced, it could make the difference you're looking for
Any advice for a disproportionately weak OHP? I have a 445 lbs Bench but can’t seem to get past a 205 OHP even when making it my primary focus. I’m also much stronger at rep work on the OHP, with 135 x 17. My sticking point is always around eyes/nose height, and body weight is around 220. Perhaps front raises since I bench with index finger on the rings? Appreciate the content, brother!
Damn I thought my ratio was messed up.. in your case I'd run the full on conjugate system for OHP. 100% specialization with max effort days. Mostly doing low reps/high intensity and rotating variations like banded OHP, OHP with chains, swiss bar work, pin work, etc. It's going to take a lot of work but I do think you can pull this off.
To be honest, yes that ratio is fucked but in order to evaluate whether that's actually a problem or not, we have to know more about you. Are you 5'3 with short arms and a massive barrelchest ribcage? Bench press is a lot more leverage-dependent than the OHP, so having a weird bench-OHP ratio is not NECESSARILY an indicator of a "muscle imbalance", although in your case it is a pretty crazy imbalance. Not a problem though, unless you feel that it needs changing.
yeah 100x5 is elite and insanely rare and this makes even though he is juiced serge redding EASLY strict pressing 228kg 502 pounds just ungodly one of the few lifts that i would classify as beyond super-elite or world level, that lift was history making level
@@ken-yo2hzthe longer your arms, the further you have to press the weight. Say, if I made your arm span four inches longer, you'd have to press the weight further. Pushing it further is more difficult.
I have been specializing in strict press for 80% of my lifting career, about 4 years. My goal has always been 100kg at a reasonably low bw, and sometime 2 months ago I hit 95 at 67-68bw. The main advice I have for anyone wanting to improve their ohp is find your grip width (makes up to a 10% performance difference for me) and pin press (just press straight off the rack, no front rack position). Also, you are not getting to elite ohp numbers and elite bench numbers at the same time natty, its just very unrealistic. You can get to both with the right genetics and effort, but separately. As for accessories, cable ohp helped me break the 90kg plateau and improved my stability like nothing else, it is uncomfortable and looks dumb but it works. Just take any bar cable attachment, set it at bottom pin and press it up.
Not sure I agree with not being able to achieve both at the same time. They both compliment each other afterall. I intend on getting a 240 OHP and 405 bench. My bench is currently 340 with a 225 OHP while at a chubby 200 lbs. I'll probably bulk to 220 and hit my goals at that point. From there, I'll retain my strength going back to a leaner 200 lbs. That's my plan and I will succeed.
@@somber8233 this right is what i like to see from people. just the fact you said i will instead of i hope just makes this 1000x more believable that you'll go through with what you said and accomplish it
I’ve been at a 245lb Press (you can see my channel for proof) and I have to say that OHP is such an incredible exercise, not just for strength but long term health. Going for a 315lb press hopefully within two years, wish me luck.
I weigh 135 lbs and currently been doing a 10x10 program and I am currently doing 95lbs of OHP. I realize that my bench press and incline press have progressed so much in the past month, went from 95 in the incline to 135 incline.
OHP is my favorite pressing movement, shit looks badass when you lift more weight than some people can squat. I wish I could get even stronger at it, for some reason I got stuck at 1x body weight, and plateaued hard. Been stuck at the same strength level for 2 years. Any tips?
strengthen your triceps by doing close grip bench press and do OHP 2 times a week with low reps scheme around 3-5 reps with 85-90% of your 1 rep max and high reps scheme around 6-12 reps with 60-80% of your 1 rep max, trust me you'll get stronger afterwards
I've been lifting for 2 years now, not knowing as much at the start as later. I now weigh about 195 lbs. I've been doing overhead work since early days and it was basically my only lift for a few months. Now I'm bordering on intermediate for most lifts. Deadlift 160 kg/352 lbs, Squat 143/315, Bench (lagging, learning) ~87 kg/191 lbs. And my OHP is somewhere in the mid 60 kg range. The heaviest I've done is 60 kg from the floor after a hard workout, and that was months ago. I do seated barbell shoulderpress to get hypertrophy in the shoulders and make sure I don't do as I did in the past and quarter rep it. I've seen my delts grow quite a bit, but my right is noticeably behind my left and has been for a long time now. Shoulder, tricep, and maybe bicep (not entirely sure about that one). I've worked on this with a unilateral db shoulderpress for a long time. We'll see if it gets me the results. I am also doing what I can to make the pressing movements more symmetrical, even if it's at the expense of effective reps on the left. That's what I want, after all. Symmetry. Once they're more symmetrical and better built-up, in the summer, I'm gonna do a strength camp of sorts for the standing OHP from the rack. My lifetime goal is 100 kg. I think I can get up to 70 kg or a bit more by the end of that OHP phase.
Absolute powerful movement.Recently hit 80kg for 5 and i can tell you,difference between my shoulders when i did 75kg for 5 and right now with 80kg 5x...Its night and day.With only 5kg difference
Hey can you give any powerful tips for increasing the ohp ..i am jst stuck at 55 kg × 7 for so so long...and sometimes it jst decreases further...by the way i am maingaining at around 73 kg bw
@@DOCFIT_09Just bulk bro.Stop that maingaining bs.And for presses like bench ,ohp..Caloric surpluss is must.And try to rotate your rep ranges,start doing 5x..triples,singles.And try new variations of ohp..Such is paused,tempo,swiss bar..
@@Dave-cm3pm thanks for your response bro... actually i am at a little bit highr body fat now probably at 20-22% so bulking for me would be jst gaining mostly body fat as my metabolism is not that fast...and i can pretty much progress in every fucking lift by eating around maintenance (may be relatively slow progress) except this ohp which is jst way harder bt i jst fucking love it !
Since i am binge watching your channel bro, i am in love with the OHP. I did the exercise here and there in my routine for years, but never really focused on it. Your videos combined with the Starting Strength technique videos for the OHP was a game changer for me. Thank you for the amazing content Alex, much love from Thailand man!
Great content. Love me some overhead press, first time hitting 60kg or about 135 is a great feeling. I weigh 230lb, max press is now 210lb, so I'm nearly pressing myself. Hard to progress though.
I hit a 275 lbs OHP back in September. My goal is 300 lbs which is my body weight. Been a real challenge to getting here. 2 years of OHP being my primary lift.
My current PR is 155lbs 1 Rep. And the app says my 1 RPM is 167lbs. I currently weigh around 200lbs. My life goal would be 2 plates! Obviously more the better but I'd be happy even if I don't exceed 2 plates.
First and foremost, God bless your soul. These videos are like early Christmas for me. Secondly, how important is it to use a belt. I personally prefer not using anything and was wondering how much, of anything, that would change the standards from both intermediate and advanced
I think it can help with setup and if you go over 100% of your capacity. Tried OHP couple of months ago while already tired and leaned back too much in setup stage and messed up my back for a couple of days. I would have probably avoided that if I was wearing a belt.
You got me into doing OHP, I’ve been doing it for a few months and I recently did 175 lbs for 5 at like RPE 8 and I did 185 for 3 RPE 9.5 like two weeks before. The delt gains have been quite nice too
Enjoyed this video. Been lifting for a long time but never trained ohp. Im on week 5 of training it and my best training session is 165x9 top set and a 4x8 with 130. 5’11, 205 bw at 12-15% bf. 250 would definitely be a liftetime goal. Im positive i can get to 225+ within a few months time. Id love to see more new content on the OHP, it is definitely a really fun movement I wish I never overlooked. I played D1 baseball so obviously always played throughout my life and was always scared of OHP hurting my shoulder but tbh it has made my shoulders a lot tougher especially doing high rep sets, and someone who has been training a long time in 5 weeks I already see some delt gains. Something Ive been doing is right after OHP i train weighted pullups with the same grip width as my ohp and it feels amazing pairing the two together.
Alex, thanks for the OHP motivation & chat! During the pandemic shutdown, gained weight up to 260lbs from eating & gaming, and hit a 260lb x 1 OHP. I've been wanting to hit 275lb OHP for a bit, so this made me happy when I was doubting if I could even come close to 275. Thanks again!
Standing one arm dumbell OHP has become one of my favourite exercises. Feels absolutely great on the shoulder. Lean on to a power rack with one hand and and then press with the other, Sean Nalewanyj showed me this version
I'm 5'5", just under 140 pounds with a 5'8" wingspan. I got to be able to do 142.5 for 4 doubles and today I just did 97.5 pounds for a 3x12. I just treat this as my main competition movement instead of benching with a heavy and light day in the week. I reintroduced weighted dips for tricep/chest gains so hopefully that'll help me along. hoping for a 155 pound press by the end of this year. It's just my favorite lift to train and just makes the shoulders, traps, and triceps pop.
5'4 145ish... obviously natty.. specialized in clean and ohp for a week a bit ago.. day 1 140, day 2 145, day 3 145, day 4 off, day 5 150, day 6 150, day 7 the grindiest 155 of my life on attempt 6 or 7.. a legit rpe 10 .. dropset 135x4, failed rep 5 it's there for you right now, especially with 142 for a dub.. i'm not saying rush to it, though for context my bench at time was 235 with a pause, 245 t n g
@@maximumpower4289 Naw i didn't mean it was day 1 OHP for me, I played with it for like you about a year and a half as a secondary movement (and years of benching), but then did a blast of specialization to hit a few PRs. Moved on to specializing in something else, and OHP fell back to 145. CNS training
@@maximumpower4289 yeah it's been about a 1.5 years for me too to get these numbers. And I've been mostly specializing in ohp because I can't really bench at local gyms consistently since I'd need to bring a bench to a rack
This year I been forcing on hitting my weight lifting goals which I’m almost there just need my bench,squat and OHP . Next year my goal is to lose this belly fat so I can see more of my muscles(progress) And get into calisthenics.
Doing seated overhead presses on a flat bench with no back support is pretty good. That way you still have to remain completely upright for the press and it takes a lot of momentum out of the equation
You wanna get a strong press but you wanna be able to side lateral raise like 30 lb dumbbells for 50 plus reps with extremely strict form, trust me your side delts will be so 3D AF youll constantly get accused of roids
This gives me even more motivation to cut about 20lbs. I’m only 5’7 and bulked up to 195. Realistically, I’m way above what I should be and I find my strength output has little to no change EVEN 20lbs lighter. So time to get shredded and have respectable lifts for size and body comp.
I’m 5’7 too. How much you should weigh is really just dependent on how much muscle you have. The 170 pounds standard is based on someone with below-average genetics
@@KurokamiNajimi Nah that average male who doesn’t do fuck all, at 5’7, should realistically be somewhere between 121-158lbs. Unless someone’s on mad gear or has retarded genetics, generally speaking, a natty won’t really be able to “outgrow” their frame and structure to any sort of absurd amount. Again, there’s always outliers who are natty as well, but many people simply don’t have the patience to actually get there (10+ years of lifting). Me at 195lbs is around 20-22% body fat easily. Down at 171 I’m somewhere between 10-15% and I’m happy with that. Anything more than 185lbs at this current point, for myself, is excess body fat tbh.
I've found that trying to do volume on the OHP forces me to reduce the weight far too much, so I prefer to do heavy triples and extend the number of sets and then add skull crushers later on in the workout, as an accessory to generate more total volume (they're also as much fun to do as the OHP)
@@BlacksmithBets that's a good point. I admit to only having thought about the triceps. What accessory do you recommend to hit the delts a little more?
I've been away from ohp for a little bit 135 5x5 is my best as well as 165x1 strict generally around 5'10" 190 lbs. I'd consider myself an advanced lifter that hasn't really milked all of the intermediate gains yet.
OHP is just a nasty exercise to progress once you hit a certain point, 100% grind for months. Right now at 185lbs my 1RM is 195lbs, and I don't want to do what's necessary to bring it up. Lifetime PR is 235lbs at 220lbs, so it doesn't really matter how much size I have, relative strength is the same, and the plateau is in the same range. I've been kicking around approaching my trap training differently to maybe help a bit. I'm thinking if I switch over and start training my traps for power it will give me a little more explosiveness in the press and maybe get me a better PR. Thoughts, anyone? I'm 6'1" with 36" long arms, not built to press.
What do you reckon the standards would be for the Z-press? Can’t do the standing variation because my ghetto-ass gym’s ceiling is too low for my tall ass
Alex brother a question. Do you think that a strong focus on high rep muscular training would build bone density and tendon strength just as well as heavier lifting? Literally every 250lbs push up pro (those sho do basic push ups till failure) I have seen (around my house) benches 405+ some bench 500lbs. Without training the bench more than once every two weeks (usually only the days on which they feel like showing off their bench press). The logic behind it maybe this, while heavier lifting puts more stress on your bones and tendons the lighter lifting puts less stress but many more times. Knuckle conditioning in karate prescribes the same thing, smaller blows to the bones for many reps. Although this theory doesnt address the tendon strength. Because the tendons are still dealing with lighter contractions.
So my best all time OHP is 150lbs for 5 reps at a BW of about 175. Doing 115 for 10 reps vs 95 lbs for 10 is such a HUGE difference! Feels like the earth is added xD
OHP was my favourite for a long time. I seem to have good build/genetics for it. When i got my 225x1 bench, my ohp was 165x1. Bw around 185 so that would be about 0.9BW OHP but only 1.2BW bench
I currently lift 50 pounds dumbbells on the OHP (standing) for around 18 reps overall (after 3 sets and after doing the bench press), i think my shoulders arent bad but definitely not that big.
Hey guys I am currently doing the novice program. So here is my problem. Because I had a Snowboard accident I couldn’t do deadlifts and squats until now. My ohp right now is on a 130lbs x 5 with a body weight of 165lbs. So the linear progress isn’t completely milked but it is very slow. Could I just incorporate on the A day a pin press and a high volume ohp on the end after the bench of course. I would do this with sets of 3 since The frequency is higher. With that I could prevent the stalling and I could still milk the gains on the other lifts. My bench is on a 105kg x 1 but the progress is still there.
Insane gains this the OHP offers if you are actually able to take the journey of getting as good as possible at it. My best is 155 x3, stopped after that but was actually planning on getting back to it very soon. Lets see what can be accomplished!
Im so happy today, started working out October 1st last year. And I just came from a session where i got a new OHP PR of 225! Im at 245 lbs BW. OHP is my favourite lift in the gym 😁
If you guys want bigger shoulders and aren't getting much out of your OHP. YOU NEED MORE WEIGHT! I'm 8 years into training and the last 4 months have seen my delts blow up with bent pressing and Turkish get ups, they work. As far as strength goes, I'm doing rear delt flys with 138kg for 8 reps.
Every one used to think you were just a little kid. I thought the same, but I allways agreed with your ideas about training. You are indeed one of the fitness youtubers with the most knowledge, putting out real life tips and info allmost every time 👍 I have recently switched from push press to push jerk as my main overhead lift. My idea is to push the bar overhead by any means necassary ! I realize that (even it does something in the delt departementet) it hits the delts to a lesser degree, so I also include "lu raises" for aestetic and shoulder mobility purposes. This seems to be a great combo, specially since my counter explosive pull day is a Barbell HighPull done "panda/Chinese" pull style.. Keep up with the good content !! ✌️
Hey Alex! Can I expect to get a bigger and stronger chest by ONLY doing deficit push-ups (or push-up in general) greasing the Groove for my chest??? Love from England 🇬🇧
Can you please make a video addressing issues with tennis elbow? I find when I do overhead press I get a click in my elbow. It doesn't pain but I don't like the idea of clicking sound
I started at the gym on an upper/lower program that had me doing OHP first on one of my upper days. I was able to do 75 for 3 sets of 10, Now it's having me do it after my flat bench and incline bench, and I can barely rep out more than 5 reps @ 3 sets of 65lbs. Should I keep running OHP after my other presses or should I be doing it first on a day with less triceps volume? I'm afraid of losing my progress with the movement.
Been a calisthenics guy working on pike pushups and wall HSPU for ages, this time coming back from a break ive been doing OHP to bridge the gap in progressions and i started at 42.5kg 5x5, seems like i'm doing ok for a starting place with barbell work then. Happy with that!
just been sick for 2 weeks with no appetite and lots of puking... also have been training for a year by now, but when i came back i lost 8-10 kg, but i managed to press 40 kg for 5 reps, which is actually progress. so in a month (when the creatine is back, weight has increased again) and forth, i think my press could go up again quite fast :D
Give us that for bench, row, pull up, squat, deads, shrugs etc. Really love to shoot for those "benchmarks" and see what my genetics will give me in return.
Right now only at a 45kg×8 OHP while on a 100kg×10 bench, only started training OHP less than 6 months ago but now definitely going for that 1 plate×10! Thnks for the goal man!
this guy looks like a monster now compare to who he was 4 years ago when i found his channel. The hype media won’t appreciate this guy as much as us natties do😤
Much love OG, I'm here for the real ones that want legit content & gains.
Alex is my favorite vegan natty, he is under rated for sure
@@mastertrey4683 lol
He just popped up in my recommended section today. I haven't been here since the "Back and forth with Blaha" days. He looks smaller to me than he did back then, but he looks a lot leaner than he used to.
@@AlexLeonidas can you explain how you hit a 225 OHP years ago but your max is still 225 lbs now? Haven't made any should gains in years? im a big fan btw
Absolutely love OHP,such a badass feeling lift. Can't go wrong with OHP,Lu raises and facepulls for delts.
Those 3 combined = CRAZY 3D Delts!!
To be honest, there's an exercise from athlean-x that involves the seated row using the lat pulldown bar that I find to better activate my rear delts than face pulls. But I should probably incorporate Lu Raises again for bullet proofing.
@@CrowandRaven I've seen john meadows suggest a similar thing with barbell rowing (several adjustments apply) and having personally tried that for a few months, the rear delt pumps and growth were phenomenal, so I personally agree with them being more beneficial than facepulls alone. Ironically, my rear delts respond best to a row variant, my mid to high traps respond best to facepulls
I do believe overhead press is a must, but that it really builds so much more front delt like John Meadows also says. The lateral raise is really what gives that 3D pop, look at Vitruvian Physique i.e., always going crazy on the overhead press with dumbbells, and never having great shoulders... I'm sure he does lateral raises, but 3 sets is a joke and not going to build anything. Personally I don't do much OH press (trying to do more though to get more balanced), but my shoulders have grown tremendously from just pressing and really making sure to do lateral raises. I don't mean to tell anyone what to do, just want to share what has worked for me. More Plates More Dates also says lateral raises are a must for full shoulder size, I know he blasted for the delt size he has, but he still knows what he's talking about when it comes to training.
Fell in love with OHP a few months ago, became my favourite but injured my wrist from it 3 weeks ago and still haven't recovered🥲
The back shot in the beginning is making me want to do a 3 month cut lol looking insane bro
back shot lol
Pause
😂
The back shots 😩
Yes
I love OHP. It's my favorite lift. But it's way too unforgiving and unfair. If you let your foot off the gas for a second, you will lose progress for certain. I hit a 210 max back in May, and last week my OHP max was 195, and it felt like 300 pounds. Getting to 225 eventually will truly be the most rewarding thing I've ever done as a lifter.
Facts
This! I got up to 145 x 5 and took 2 months off, afterwards I was struggling to put up 120 for even a rep! It’s brutal how fast I lose OHP strength.
So true bro
I just did my first OHP session in six weeks after a back injury. Broke my all time PR by 22lbs?? After always experiencing my strength disappearing after not doing OHP specifically, it seems horizontal pressing with a high frequency may carry over better than I’d have thought.
Bruh i never got to that sort of weight but I was at 5 sets of 10 with 25 plates on each side, stopped the movement for awhile and now I'm struggling with sets of 8 with 15s 😅
Hey man, think you could flash the kg conversion on screen when you talk about lbs? It'll add a big quality of life improvement to your vids.
Good shit regardless!
Going to start doing that Conor, thanks for your feedback!
@@AlexLeonidas that would be brilliant
Good idea
Divide by 2.2
@@HippioKass I know how to do it and do but would just be easier
None of the big 3 compare to the OHP in terms of how good a PR feels IMO
You really gotta grind for every miniscule PR, definitely hits different on the OHP.
PR?
@@Reggie1408 Personal record 💪🏼💪🏼
Nothing beats a deadlift PR :)
@@lilduchi8802 Thanks!
You have come so far Alex. Always and forever will be motivating brother x
Much love Bilal!
@No thx
Kardeşim vücudu beyendim
@Cunce salty that you're weak af
OHP definitely one of my fav lifts, progression is so hard it makes you want to push harder and harder each session
It was easy for me I am so shoulder dominant, it makes me bench comparietely weak and my shoulders end up overtaking the rest of my body in other press exercises.
@@maximumpower4289 whats your bench/ohp ratio?
I’m a 5’1, 105lbs female. My current OHP goal is 95lbs. I totally think it’s possible
That would be insane if you do that! Good luck!
My sister did it, so definitely possible!
@@AlexLeonidasYou sister is a lifter too ?? That's great to hear bro !
5:00 RESPECT THE GRIND
Thanks Alex! Currently at 45kg for 5 reps. Really enjoying the OHP
how much u do now?
@@water9355 62.5 max
Update?
Just hit a 1 plate OHP last night at 193lb BW after 2.5 years lifting @40, glad I waited to watch this video until after I tested. Great video Alex, thanks for your insights!
for the past two years, the goal of being able to press my bw is like chasing a dragon. I'm not saying I'm plateauing. my press has gotten so much stronger over that time, but bw has gone up too. I always seem to only be 5 pounds above my max press. I've kinda given up on that goal but I'm not giving up on increasing press strength. so my current goal is to hit a 2 plate strict press and just stop caring about bw.
You need to cut and maintain strength and then bulk again. Easy fix. OHP doesn’t really decrease that much on a cut. 5 - 10 lbs max on a 20 lbs cut
If it helps, I found working on my grip strength massively activated my pressing strength both in the OHP and the bench. Also, it's always worth checking form to streamline the lift, even if you are advanced, it could make the difference you're looking for
Just press more. go 4 times a week.
@@sumsar01 Id worry about recovery with such high frequency. What kind of weights are your pressing to do 4 sessions per week?
@@sumsar01 are u trolling? LOL
Any advice for a disproportionately weak OHP? I have a 445 lbs Bench but can’t seem to get past a 205 OHP even when making it my primary focus. I’m also much stronger at rep work on the OHP, with 135 x 17. My sticking point is always around eyes/nose height, and body weight is around 220. Perhaps front raises since I bench with index finger on the rings? Appreciate the content, brother!
Damn I thought my ratio was messed up.. in your case I'd run the full on conjugate system for OHP. 100% specialization with max effort days. Mostly doing low reps/high intensity and rotating variations like banded OHP, OHP with chains, swiss bar work, pin work, etc. It's going to take a lot of work but I do think you can pull this off.
Do the more ove had preass
pin press at your sticking point maybe
How is your mobility? Maybe your lats are super tight? I found working on the mobility really helped with elbow position And lockout
To be honest, yes that ratio is fucked but in order to evaluate whether that's actually a problem or not, we have to know more about you. Are you 5'3 with short arms and a massive barrelchest ribcage? Bench press is a lot more leverage-dependent than the OHP, so having a weird bench-OHP ratio is not NECESSARILY an indicator of a "muscle imbalance", although in your case it is a pretty crazy imbalance. Not a problem though, unless you feel that it needs changing.
Damn you're back looks freaking shredded. The demon back is coming through!!
Thanks Armin, more shreds on the way!!
yeah 100x5 is elite and insanely rare and this makes even though he is juiced serge redding EASLY strict pressing 228kg 502 pounds just ungodly one of the few lifts that i would classify as beyond super-elite or world level, that lift was history making level
Insane strength, when you think about it he and other strongmen have arms stronger than most people's legs.
@@NoMansLandFilm2013 oh serge had forearms stronger than most peoples legs lol
100kg is my deadlift 😭😭😭😭
Iron biby did 280kg i think
@@9999-k9q no
The longer the arms, the lower of an OHP you need imo. That extra rom is so potent.
@Everest_Calisthenics I’m talkin more about the size aspect
What does this even mean?
@@ken-yo2hzthe longer your arms, the further you have to press the weight. Say, if I made your arm span four inches longer, you'd have to press the weight further. Pushing it further is more difficult.
@@ken-yo2hz the longer your arms, the more range of motion. The more effective range of motion, the more hypertrophy. Should be fairly obvious 😂😂😂
I have been specializing in strict press for 80% of my lifting career, about 4 years. My goal has always been 100kg at a reasonably low bw, and sometime 2 months ago I hit 95 at 67-68bw. The main advice I have for anyone wanting to improve their ohp is find your grip width (makes up to a 10% performance difference for me) and pin press (just press straight off the rack, no front rack position). Also, you are not getting to elite ohp numbers and elite bench numbers at the same time natty, its just very unrealistic. You can get to both with the right genetics and effort, but separately.
As for accessories, cable ohp helped me break the 90kg plateau and improved my stability like nothing else, it is uncomfortable and looks dumb but it works. Just take any bar cable attachment, set it at bottom pin and press it up.
Not sure I agree with not being able to achieve both at the same time. They both compliment each other afterall. I intend on getting a 240 OHP and 405 bench.
My bench is currently 340 with a 225 OHP while at a chubby 200 lbs. I'll probably bulk to 220 and hit my goals at that point. From there, I'll retain my strength going back to a leaner 200 lbs.
That's my plan and I will succeed.
@@somber8233 this right is what i like to see from people. just the fact you said i will instead of i hope just makes this 1000x more believable that you'll go through with what you said and accomplish it
@@arigato-thx8249 Thank you. I hope it inspires.
@@somber8233 good luck man!
@@rockyx_x I appreciate it.
I’ve been at a 245lb Press (you can see my channel for proof) and I have to say that OHP is such an incredible exercise, not just for strength but long term health. Going for a 315lb press hopefully within two years, wish me luck.
How much you bench?
@@whitebeard9345 I’ve done 335lb on the incline. No idea on regular bench.
How long at it? Natty or enhanced?
@@monkeyhater4203 been natty since 2012. But specific OHP emphasis for the past year.
@@pancakespushups4318 hey bro check my recent video and suggest me how to increase bench press I'm novice. I'll appreciate it
I weigh 135 lbs and currently been doing a 10x10 program and I am currently doing 95lbs of OHP. I realize that my bench press and incline press have progressed so much in the past month, went from 95 in the incline to 135 incline.
OHP is my favorite pressing movement, shit looks badass when you lift more weight than some people can squat. I wish I could get even stronger at it, for some reason I got stuck at 1x body weight, and plateaued hard. Been stuck at the same strength level for 2 years. Any tips?
strengthen your triceps by doing close grip bench press and do OHP 2 times a week with low reps scheme around 3-5 reps with 85-90% of your 1 rep max and high reps scheme around 6-12 reps with 60-80% of your 1 rep max, trust me you'll get stronger afterwards
start doing heavy single arm ohp as accessory lift
man, i'd be so pleased to be at 1x. but then i do weigh like 200+lbs.
@@timothymanurung4835 thanks bro, I'll give it a try.
@@alexandr8163 strict or with leg drive?
Well shit, guess I gotta work on my OHP 😂
Trying to get mine up currently. It's a slow and steady progress for me.
Just did 90 kg (my own bodyweight) last week. I am 188 cm tall btw, so it was an absolute grinder, BUT It felt amazing to finally hit it!!
I've been lifting for 2 years now, not knowing as much at the start as later. I now weigh about 195 lbs. I've been doing overhead work since early days and it was basically my only lift for a few months. Now I'm bordering on intermediate for most lifts. Deadlift 160 kg/352 lbs, Squat 143/315, Bench (lagging, learning) ~87 kg/191 lbs. And my OHP is somewhere in the mid 60 kg range. The heaviest I've done is 60 kg from the floor after a hard workout, and that was months ago. I do seated barbell shoulderpress to get hypertrophy in the shoulders and make sure I don't do as I did in the past and quarter rep it. I've seen my delts grow quite a bit, but my right is noticeably behind my left and has been for a long time now. Shoulder, tricep, and maybe bicep (not entirely sure about that one). I've worked on this with a unilateral db shoulderpress for a long time. We'll see if it gets me the results. I am also doing what I can to make the pressing movements more symmetrical, even if it's at the expense of effective reps on the left. That's what I want, after all. Symmetry. Once they're more symmetrical and better built-up, in the summer, I'm gonna do a strength camp of sorts for the standing OHP from the rack. My lifetime goal is 100 kg. I think I can get up to 70 kg or a bit more by the end of that OHP phase.
scrap the seated shoulder press and swap it for more OHP!
Handsome and highly knowledgeable.. Quite a package 🎯😁💯
Absolute powerful movement.Recently hit 80kg for 5 and i can tell you,difference between my shoulders when i did 75kg for 5 and right now with 80kg 5x...Its night and
day.With only 5kg difference
Hey can you give any powerful tips for increasing the ohp ..i am jst stuck at 55 kg × 7 for so so long...and sometimes it jst decreases further...by the way i am maingaining at around 73 kg bw
@@DOCFIT_09Just bulk bro.Stop that maingaining bs.And for presses like bench ,ohp..Caloric surpluss is must.And try to rotate your rep ranges,start doing 5x..triples,singles.And try new variations of ohp..Such is paused,tempo,swiss bar..
@@Dave-cm3pm thanks for your response bro... actually i am at a little bit highr body fat now probably at 20-22% so bulking for me would be jst gaining mostly body fat as my metabolism is not that fast...and i can pretty much progress in every fucking lift by eating around maintenance (may be relatively slow progress) except this ohp which is jst way harder bt i jst fucking love it !
1:40 as a guy that hit 135lbs for a single rep, I can confirm that I did not have big delts
My current 1RM is 135lb & I think I have decent delts. However, 135 is close to my body weight so🤷🏽♂️
As a guy that hit 220lbs for a single rep I can confirm that my delts were pretty big.
Try to hit 135 for 10-12 with proper form and watch your delts grow!
Anyone else get a nasty back pump from OHP? Am I doing it wrong?
It's normal to get an upper back pump after OHP
Since i am binge watching your channel bro, i am in love with the OHP. I did the exercise here and there in my routine for years, but never really focused on it. Your videos combined with the Starting Strength technique videos for the OHP was a game changer for me. Thank you for the amazing content Alex, much love from Thailand man!
Just clean and press.
Great content. Love me some overhead press, first time hitting 60kg or about 135 is a great feeling. I weigh 230lb, max press is now 210lb, so I'm nearly pressing myself. Hard to progress though.
Damn bro just stumbled across this video and its crazy how much your arms have grown in the last 2 years :O
Yep, I need this video! Thanks for keeping it real. Might just swap my bench for OHP for a year to try and catch up.
There should also be an age criteria. Having a 100kg ohp at 30 years old and maintaining that at 40 years, 50 years, and beyond.
I hit a 275 lbs OHP back in September. My goal is 300 lbs which is my body weight. Been a real challenge to getting here. 2 years of OHP being my primary lift.
Looking shredded man holy shit
This is great for those looking to understand how to set their goals. Would love to see more on the other big lifts too!
255lb strict OHP as a max. Trying to get a big bench now tho, at least 405. 222lbx4 in my channel
You got this man!!!! Your OHP is strong AF and the potential is there.
Alex you should do these with more compound movements like weighted pullup standards for example
My current PR is 155lbs 1 Rep. And the app says my 1 RPM is 167lbs. I currently weigh around 200lbs. My life goal would be 2 plates! Obviously more the better but I'd be happy even if I don't exceed 2 plates.
First and foremost, God bless your soul. These videos are like early Christmas for me.
Secondly, how important is it to use a belt. I personally prefer not using anything and was wondering how much, of anything, that would change the standards from both intermediate and advanced
I think it can help with setup and if you go over 100% of your capacity. Tried OHP couple of months ago while already tired and leaned back too much in setup stage and messed up my back for a couple of days. I would have probably avoided that if I was wearing a belt.
Arm circles forward and back 2 min
2×8 with 40 lbs ohp
3x8-12 pyramid
80lbs
100 lbs
110-130lbs
You got me into doing OHP, I’ve been doing it for a few months and I recently did 175 lbs for 5 at like RPE 8 and I did 185 for 3 RPE 9.5 like two weeks before. The delt gains have been quite nice too
Damn nice man!
Hey Alex, what are the strength standards for weighted Inverted rows???
Enjoyed this video. Been lifting for a long time but never trained ohp. Im on week 5 of training it and my best training session is 165x9 top set and a 4x8 with 130. 5’11, 205 bw at 12-15% bf. 250 would definitely be a liftetime goal. Im positive i can get to 225+ within a few months time. Id love to see more new content on the OHP, it is definitely a really fun movement I wish I never overlooked. I played D1 baseball so obviously always played throughout my life and was always scared of OHP hurting my shoulder but tbh it has made my shoulders a lot tougher especially doing high rep sets, and someone who has been training a long time in 5 weeks I already see some delt gains. Something Ive been doing is right after OHP i train weighted pullups with the same grip width as my ohp and it feels amazing pairing the two together.
You have gotten leaner
Hey Alex have you ever tried the Trap Bar OHP? It blows up my shoulders amazingly well with the deep stretch at the bottom. Loving the content man!
Yup that + swiss bar pressing is quite humbling! Only annoying part is cleaning it but with a rackable trap bar you're blessed.
Alex, thanks for the OHP motivation & chat! During the pandemic shutdown, gained weight up to 260lbs from eating & gaming, and hit a 260lb x 1 OHP. I've been wanting to hit 275lb OHP for a bit, so this made me happy when I was doubting if I could even come close to 275. Thanks again!
Damn
You very lucky! Very beautiful skinny....🤙⚡🌈🤟
OHP helped my bench & continues to do so.
Hell yeah man, the same has always happened with me.
90kg ohp BW 70kg still skinny not muscular wtf
my delts looked so much better when i treated the OHP like a primary lift
Likewise brother, I even took a full year off benching once to level up my delts & OHP. Worked great!
@@AlexLeonidas What would you recommend for someone trying to bring both lifts up?
You have the body type of a Greco-Roman wrestler.
Are you a fan of the standing dumbbell ohp ?)
It's a cool exercise but I don't do it that often anymore. Would rather use accommodating resistance on barbell OHP.
@@AlexLeonidas I meant standing I edited it
@@mattc4266 Oh yeah standing is great, especially one arm at a time.
@@AlexLeonidas do you post with one arm for stability
Standing one arm dumbell OHP has become one of my favourite exercises. Feels absolutely great on the shoulder. Lean on to a power rack with one hand and and then press with the other, Sean Nalewanyj showed me this version
That moment when a 95kg OHP makes you intermediate
Thank you very much for existing alex :)
Thank you always for your support :)
Ove or had preas is gooood for some sick dealth. Sorry for bed engliand
I'm 5'5", just under 140 pounds with a 5'8" wingspan. I got to be able to do 142.5 for 4 doubles and today I just did 97.5 pounds for a 3x12. I just treat this as my main competition movement instead of benching with a heavy and light day in the week. I reintroduced weighted dips for tricep/chest gains so hopefully that'll help me along. hoping for a 155 pound press by the end of this year. It's just my favorite lift to train and just makes the shoulders, traps, and triceps pop.
as a 5ft 5 guy myself, this comment really motivates and inspires me. good job, bro!
5'4 145ish... obviously natty.. specialized in clean and ohp for a week a bit ago.. day 1 140, day 2 145, day 3 145, day 4 off, day 5 150, day 6 150, day 7 the grindiest 155 of my life on attempt 6 or 7.. a legit rpe 10 .. dropset 135x4, failed rep 5
it's there for you right now, especially with 142 for a dub.. i'm not saying rush to it, though
for context my bench at time was 235 with a pause, 245 t n g
At 6ft and 240lbs I wish I could relate these were numbers I hit after 1.5 years.
@@maximumpower4289 Naw i didn't mean it was day 1 OHP for me, I played with it for like you about a year and a half as a secondary movement (and years of benching), but then did a blast of specialization to hit a few PRs. Moved on to specializing in something else, and OHP fell back to 145. CNS training
@@maximumpower4289 yeah it's been about a 1.5 years for me too to get these numbers. And I've been mostly specializing in ohp because I can't really bench at local gyms consistently since I'd need to bring a bench to a rack
This year I been forcing on hitting my weight lifting goals which I’m almost there just need my bench,squat and OHP .
Next year my goal is to lose this belly fat so I can see more of my muscles(progress)
And get into calisthenics.
Doing seated overhead presses on a flat bench with no back support is pretty good. That way you still have to remain completely upright for the press and it takes a lot of momentum out of the equation
You wanna get a strong press but you wanna be able to side lateral raise like 30 lb dumbbells for 50 plus reps with extremely strict form, trust me your side delts will be so 3D AF youll constantly get accused of roids
This gives me even more motivation to cut about 20lbs.
I’m only 5’7 and bulked up to 195. Realistically, I’m way above what I should be and I find my strength output has little to no change EVEN 20lbs lighter.
So time to get shredded and have respectable lifts for size and body comp.
I’m 5’7 too. How much you should weigh is really just dependent on how much muscle you have. The 170 pounds standard is based on someone with below-average genetics
@@KurokamiNajimi Nah that average male who doesn’t do fuck all, at 5’7, should realistically be somewhere between 121-158lbs.
Unless someone’s on mad gear or has retarded genetics, generally speaking, a natty won’t really be able to “outgrow” their frame and structure to any sort of absurd amount.
Again, there’s always outliers who are natty as well, but many people simply don’t have the patience to actually get there (10+ years of lifting).
Me at 195lbs is around 20-22% body fat easily.
Down at 171 I’m somewhere between 10-15% and I’m happy with that. Anything more than 185lbs at this current point, for myself, is excess body fat tbh.
Used to watch some of your stuff years ago. You're looking healthy.
Standards should be bodyweight based.
Thank you Keith, and absolutely.
I've found that trying to do volume on the OHP forces me to reduce the weight far too much, so I prefer to do heavy triples and extend the number of sets and then add skull crushers later on in the workout, as an accessory to generate more total volume (they're also as much fun to do as the OHP)
Skull crushers are hitting your triceps though so your delts aren't getting any extra volume.
@@BlacksmithBets that's a good point. I admit to only having thought about the triceps. What accessory do you recommend to hit the delts a little more?
I've been away from ohp for a little bit 135 5x5 is my best as well as 165x1 strict generally around 5'10" 190 lbs.
I'd consider myself an advanced lifter that hasn't really milked all of the intermediate gains yet.
at 50+ yrs old, doing #185x5. is my age considered ? weight- 210. if not, i'm slacking, time to get stronger 😁
That's DAMN good, irrespective of age!! Absolutely well done 🔥🔥
OHP is just a nasty exercise to progress once you hit a certain point, 100% grind for months. Right now at 185lbs my 1RM is 195lbs, and I don't want to do what's necessary to bring it up. Lifetime PR is 235lbs at 220lbs, so it doesn't really matter how much size I have, relative strength is the same, and the plateau is in the same range. I've been kicking around approaching my trap training differently to maybe help a bit. I'm thinking if I switch over and start training my traps for power it will give me a little more explosiveness in the press and maybe get me a better PR. Thoughts, anyone? I'm 6'1" with 36" long arms, not built to press.
Don’t give up bro! You’ll get there. Everyone comes across this issue with the OHP.
What do you reckon the standards would be for the Z-press? Can’t do the standing variation because my ghetto-ass gym’s ceiling is too low for my tall ass
At 6'4 258 man's trying to kill me lol
Weighted Dips Standards next dude!!!!
Alex brother a question.
Do you think that a strong focus on high rep muscular training would build bone density and tendon strength just as well as heavier lifting?
Literally every 250lbs push up pro (those sho do basic push ups till failure) I have seen (around my house) benches 405+ some bench 500lbs. Without training the bench more than once every two weeks (usually only the days on which they feel like showing off their bench press).
The logic behind it maybe this, while heavier lifting puts more stress on your bones and tendons the lighter lifting puts less stress but many more times.
Knuckle conditioning in karate prescribes the same thing, smaller blows to the bones for many reps.
Although this theory doesnt address the tendon strength. Because the tendons are still dealing with lighter contractions.
Very eloquent. TY///
So my best all time OHP is 150lbs for 5 reps at a BW of about 175. Doing 115 for 10 reps vs 95 lbs for 10 is such a HUGE difference! Feels like the earth is added xD
Where do steroider come in how to know if someone is enhanced
OHP was my favourite for a long time. I seem to have good build/genetics for it. When i got my 225x1 bench, my ohp was 165x1. Bw around 185 so that would be about 0.9BW OHP but only 1.2BW bench
I currently lift 50 pounds dumbbells on the OHP (standing) for around 18 reps overall (after 3 sets and after doing the bench press), i think my shoulders arent bad but definitely not that big.
Hey guys I am currently doing the novice program. So here is my problem. Because I had a Snowboard accident I couldn’t do deadlifts and squats until now. My ohp right now is on a 130lbs x 5 with a body weight of 165lbs. So the linear progress isn’t completely milked but it is very slow. Could I just incorporate on the A day a pin press and a high volume ohp on the end after the bench of course. I would do this with sets of 3 since The frequency is higher. With that I could prevent the stalling and I could still milk the gains on the other lifts. My bench is on a 105kg x 1 but the progress is still there.
Insane gains this the OHP offers if you are actually able to take the journey of getting as good as possible at it. My best is 155 x3, stopped after that but was actually planning on getting back to it very soon. Lets see what can be accomplished!
I keep injuring myself from going heavy on OHP, at least had 5-6 injuries from it within past 2 years so ive stopped it altogether
how many reps did you do at that time?
Im so happy today, started working out October 1st last year. And I just came from a session where i got a new OHP PR of 225! Im at 245 lbs BW. OHP is my favourite lift in the gym 😁
Amazing progress
125 for 2 at 165lbs. Been working my standing OHP for 2 months. A 45 on each side is a whole northern beast bro. It's crazy
Thanks for not just giving 1RM's I appreciate that!
Started off this mesocycle doing 3x5 with 135lb. Now, 8 weeks and one Deload later im at 3x8,7,7!
Hey Alex ! My right shoulder clicks a lot while doing any vertical press. How can I fix it ? It's annoying af
If you guys want bigger shoulders and aren't getting much out of your OHP. YOU NEED MORE WEIGHT! I'm 8 years into training and the last 4 months have seen my delts blow up with bent pressing and Turkish get ups, they work. As far as strength goes, I'm doing rear delt flys with 138kg for 8 reps.
I started with like 6-7 reps with just the bar. Took 6 months to 1RM one plate.
Every one used to think you were just a little kid. I thought the same, but I allways agreed with your ideas about training.
You are indeed one of the fitness youtubers with the most knowledge, putting out real life tips and info allmost every time 👍
I have recently switched from push press to push jerk as my main overhead lift. My idea is to push the bar overhead by any means necassary !
I realize that (even it does something in the delt departementet) it hits the delts to a lesser degree, so I also include "lu raises" for aestetic and shoulder mobility purposes. This seems to be a great combo, specially since my counter explosive pull day is a Barbell HighPull done "panda/Chinese" pull style..
Keep up with the good content !! ✌️
Hey Alex! Can I expect to get a bigger and stronger chest by ONLY doing deficit push-ups (or push-up in general) greasing the Groove for my chest??? Love from England 🇬🇧
Should I even bother with seated DB pressing if I’m already incorporating OHP on the alternate shoulder day?
Can you please make a video addressing issues with tennis elbow? I find when I do overhead press I get a click in my elbow. It doesn't pain but I don't like the idea of clicking sound
I weight 135 and press 135. 1 year of training, can do 120x5. I’m confused if I’m beginner or intermediate.
I started at the gym on an upper/lower program that had me doing OHP first on one of my upper days. I was able to do 75 for 3 sets of 10, Now it's having me do it after my flat bench and incline bench, and I can barely rep out more than 5 reps @ 3 sets of 65lbs. Should I keep running OHP after my other presses or should I be doing it first on a day with less triceps volume? I'm afraid of losing my progress with the movement.
Just hit 225 on bench after three months of doing it. Used to do army style callisthenics before
This the best exercise because it targets delts, traps, shoulder blades, upper chest, triceps, biceps, forearms, neck and back muscles.
Been a calisthenics guy working on pike pushups and wall HSPU for ages, this time coming back from a break ive been doing OHP to bridge the gap in progressions and i started at 42.5kg 5x5, seems like i'm doing ok for a starting place with barbell work then. Happy with that!
just been sick for 2 weeks with no appetite and lots of puking...
also have been training for a year by now, but when i came back i lost 8-10 kg, but i managed to press 40 kg for 5 reps, which is actually progress.
so in a month (when the creatine is back, weight has increased again) and forth, i think my press could go up again quite fast :D
Give us that for bench, row, pull up, squat, deads, shrugs etc. Really love to shoot for those "benchmarks" and see what my genetics will give me in return.
My weakest lift due to years of shoulder pain.
Right now only at a 45kg×8 OHP while on a 100kg×10 bench, only started training OHP less than 6 months ago but now definitely going for that 1 plate×10! Thnks for the goal man!
Bodyweight OHP
Bodyweight Rows
Dont need lateral raises 😂😂😂