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Overhead press

Gym (men) / Popular

Press overhead with stacked posture, bar path control, and scalable loading.

What coaches agree on

  • Set your grip just outside shoulder width with your wrists stacked above your elbows, and let your elbows sit slightly forward of your shoulders rather than flared out to the sides.
  • Spend a minute on shoulder and upper-back mobility — external rotation and thoracic extension drills, or a lat stretch — before you press, so your arms can actually reach a straight line overhead.
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Common mistakes

  • The classic overhead-press breakdown is letting the bar drift forward and arc out around your face instead of pulling your chin and head back as it rises, so it travels in one straight line close to your body.
  • Arching the lower back to muscle the weight overhead is one of the most common and most injurious overhead press mistakes, and it's often less about a weak core than a sign the shoulders or upper back can't yet reach a locked-out position without compensating.
  • Cutting the range of motion short — stopping before full lockout at the top or not lowering all the way back to the shoulders — is a common mistake that shortchanges the lift's benefit.