Get Broad, Boulder Shoulders With The Overhead Press!
You spend hours in the gym, lifting weights, trying to get that developed and chiseled upper body that demands attention. You want an impressive physique that causes heads to turn. You want a nice V-shaped body that gets girls drooling. Well, then the exercise that you should do is the overhead press!
The overhead press is a symbol of masculinity. It's a mark of manliness. I mean, picture this. A guy lying down holding a bar horizontally in front of him, and a man standing up straight holding a bar overhead. Which one demonstrates pure strength and masculinity. Definitely the latter!
The overhead press was included in the weightlifting competitions last time. But it was taken out because judging was made difficult when competitors arched their back to press more weight up.
Let me give you some of the benefits of overhead pressing...
1) Full Body! The Overhead Press works your whole body as one piece. Your shoulders, upper chest, triceps do the pushing. Your trapezius helps in the pushing and stabilizing of the weight. Your core, and your legs, works hard to keep your body upright and tight. Always for me, during the last few reps, my legs starts shaking.
2) Bigger, Stronger Muscles. This exercise will cause your deltoids, trapezius and triceps to grow... big! See, if you can press a bar that's as heavy as your weight above you for reps, then of course your muscles involved will be huge. It'll also give you a strong core, because you need to maintain balance when you're holding pounds of metal above you.
3) Healthy Shoulders. The bench press works your front deltoids a lot. The overhead press works all heads of the deltoids equally, minimising muscle imbalances, allowing you to have a healthy shoulder.
4) Cardio. Yes, the overhead press works you heart and lungs a lot if you really put in the effort to do it properly. It is very tiring. Just picture it... pushing pounds of metal overhead... definitely it is exhausting.
5) Sexy Body. The body that I'm referring to here is the V-shaped body, which is made up of broad shoulders and a small waist. The best ratio that you can achieve is 1.61. That means, the width of your shoulders is 1.61 times that of your waist. This number is the adonis index, and it is the most pleasing to the eye.
So there they are, the benefits of pressing overhead. Now I'm sharing with you how
to do the press properly.
1) Get the bar to your shoulders by power cleaning it up or setting it up at the appropriate height on the power rack and taking it out.
2) Stand shoulder width apart and grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder width. The bigger your built, the wider you can hold. Keep your chest up, elbows forward, look straight ahead and flex your glutes to prevent arching of your back.
3) Push the bar straight up. Tilt your head back so that the bar can pass your head. Shift your body forward once the bar clears your head, and continue pressing overhead.
4) At the top, lock everything out. Squeeze your shoulders, traps, back and lock your elbows and knees.
5) Lower the weight back down to your shoulder level following the same path, but in the opposite direction.
A few pointers here:
- Keep your chest up and elbows forward.
- Always exhale when you're exerting, that is, pushing the weight overhead. And inhale when you're lowering the weight.
- Don't forget to lean forward once the bar clears your head. Lean back too much and you'd be doing a standing incline bench press.
- Stay tight. Keep your whole body tight throughout the whole movement. Tighten your core, flex your glutes and maintain a good posture.
All right, so there it is, the overhead press. If you're really in building a great body with impressionable physique, then do the overhead press! Miss it, and you won't be able to get broad shoulders and a V-shaped body.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Muhd_P_Nazir
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