Extremely slow progress in Military Press

BrianD3

I was thinking about my barbell MP which is to put it mildly, crap. I can do 56 kg for 1 rep with good form. My bodyweight is 71 kg. I did 58.5 last week but arched my back more than I should have and heard some cracking noises. Won't be doing that again.

Have tried all manner of different regimes but have gained feck all strength in this lift. In the same period I have increased my deadlift 1 RM by around 30%.

My aim is to gain strength while gaining little or no mass. Could it be that in the lifts which use large muscles (eg deadlifts) there is a lot of potential for neuromuscular efficiency gains. Whereas with military presses the muscles are naturally a lot smaller so there is less potential for efficiency gain and mass must be added to gain strength?

Anyone else find it difficult gaining strength is this lift? Are there any good exercises that tend to help the MP. I don't bench press - if I did would my MP improve?

amazingemmet

Yeah military press will increase if you do some benching same way bench will increase with some military pressing.

One exercise i find helped my military press was handstand press-ups, one they're a closed chain alternative, two it'll help isolated just the pressing muscles in the exercise. Work doing negatives for a bit then start doing the press. Also some work on your obliques will help lock your core in place.

By the way which stance are you using shoulder width or one foot in front of the other?

BrianD3

Thanks emmet, will look into the handstand push ups. They look daunting though! Did you ever see this page.
http://www.beastskills.com/tutorials.htm

I'd say this is the sort of stuff you'd be into

I use a shoulder width even stance BTW. I don't seem to have any problems with the core stability, it's the damn pressing strength than i'm lacking

amazingemmet

Yeah i've seen that page alright got some good stuff on it.

Is there any point in the press your sticking? As soem isometric presses in a door frame can really help there

BrianD3

My sticking point seems to be about level with my eyes If I get past that point, the rest of the lift is pretty easy.

amazingemmet

Heavy negatives with micro reps around that point would help.

RPGGAMER

heres the tried and tested cure (its the common sticking point in MilitaryPresses,(MP))

paused MP in the rack from chin. Use poliquin style 5% solution progression with the weights.

four week blocks:take reps of 8,7,6 or 7,6,5 or 6,5,4 etc (grow more with these RELATIVELY higher rep ranges compared to bench/pecs - slower twitch fibre makeup of delts compared to lats/pecs and esp. triceps)

do it for maybe 8wks for 10% theoretic str. inc. then switch methods

EXAMPLE 8RM of 40kg

wk1-8reps 4-5sets@40kg
wk2-7reps 4-5sets@42.5
wk3-6reps 2-3sets@45
wk4-8reps 4-5sets@42.5 (increase of 5%)
wk5-7reps 4-5sets@45kg
etc


Other good exercises for MP: one hand barbell standing MP, hex bar MPs, pushpress?, partial head level pin presses as well as regular bar and dumbell work. but not maybe upright rows or 'hind neck presses


benching doesnt normally inc. MP directly but bench is helped often by MP.

other thing is triceps. if your board presses lockouts(heavy tricep work not isolated stuff) etc are going up then it will bring your MP up too.

as a final note work your upper back and rotator cuff harder and MP will keep going up without shoulder joints limiting you.