We all know that there are three must-practice movements in fitness, namely squats, deadlifts, and bench presses. These three movements are called the three major movements of fitness. Barbell rowing and barbell press are the best choices!

Today we will start with the barbell push so that everyone can master this highly valuable training action, efficiently train shoulders, improve strength, and at the same time strengthen and stabilize core muscles.

Why Recommend the Standing Barbell Press?

The barbell press is one of the few compound movements that can be aimed at stimulating the shoulders, and can effectively improve your strength and strengthen your core muscles. The muscles involved in this movement are not only the shoulders, trapezius, and chest muscles. The upper body, triceps can be exercised.

Although it is a training activity for the shoulders when you push it up, the requirements for body stability and coordination are higher than those for deltoid muscles, and it is also the best embodiment of body movement ability. one of the actions.

Step By Step 

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, your toes pointing forward, the barbell in front of your chest, your elbows slightly in front of the barbell, let your forearms be perpendicular to the barbell, keep your chest and buttocks up, keep your spine in a neutral position, and tighten your core.

Use tile-style breathing for heavy weights. Before pushing the barbell, take a deep breath and hold your breath while tightening the waist and abdomen muscles. Do not inhale or exhale during the lifting process, and keep the waist and abdomen tightened at all times. After completing one movement, Breathe again. 

For small and medium weights, push up to exhale, and lower to inhale. During the push, the forearm is pushed up vertically, and then slowly lowered.

Technique

1.The angle of the elbow 

You need to pay attention to two key points in the position of the elbows in the barbell press: one is to slightly pinch the elbows; the other is that the elbows are slightly in front of the barbell.

Why is this required? Maybe when we are doing dumbbell presses, the elbows are fully opened outwards, and the trajectory of the dumbbells is from the ears to the top of the head. This approach will stimulate the middle deltoid muscles more because The degree of rotation is higher.

But for the barbell press, it is an action that stimulates the front of the shoulders more. When you hold the barbell, you can't open your elbows too much like a dumbbell, otherwise, your shoulders will be in an extremely uncomfortable position. state.

Slightly pinch the elbows, and the tip of the elbows is about 45° towards the oblique front of the body. This angle will better stimulate the front of the shoulders. At the same time, the position of the elbows is also in front of the barbell. As you lift the barbell, the barbell will move more toward the front of your body.

2.Grip distance

With a full grip, let the forearms of both hands form a 90-degree angle perpendicular to the barbell, which is the correct grip distance. Don’t be too wide or too narrow. A too-wide grip will put too much pressure on your shoulders and elbows, which will also affect the power output. Too narrow a grip will affect the trajectory of the barbell and increase the pressure on the waist. burden.

3.The range of pushing up and the position of the center of gravity

When pushing the barbell upwards, until the highest point of the movement, the arms do not need to be fully straightened, just keep the elbows slightly bent, and do not hyperextend your elbow joints.

As for the position of the center of gravity of the action: let the barbell be in the middle of your feet, do not let the barbell push up around the body when pushing, but let the body bypass the barbell so that the barbell lifted almost in a straight line.

To keep the center of gravity of the action always on the midline of the body, move the head slightly forward during the push-up process until the arms are straight, but do not move forward too much, beyond the body, just keep the head in front of the arms.

4.Arrangement of actions

It is recommended that you practice the first movement of the shoulder formal group, and put the best state on the standing barbell press. For the compound movement of standing barbell press, it is very suitable for impacting heavyweight to stimulate the shoulders. , to increase your overall strength 

Regarding the number of groups and times, 3-5 groups, 6-10RM per group!

Common Mistakes

1.Excessive backup

When your standing posture pushes your waist too much, it means that you are using a relatively large weight, and your waist has to compensate excessively to help you complete the movement. What you need to know is that the standing posture barbell push is different from the sitting posture push. For weight-bearing, the load completed in the standing position is less than that in the sitting position.

The solution is very simple. One is to reduce the weight used. In the early stage of the movement, use small and medium weights to learn how to perceive the power generation mode of the movement, and gradually add the weight step by step.

The second is to carry out core stability training. Strengthening the core strength (plank support) should also appropriately strengthen the flexibility of the shoulder joint. If the flexibility of the shoulder joint is poor, the angle of the shoulder joint will not be fully opened, resulting in excessive bending of the waist to compensate, The burden on the waist is too large.

2.The center of gravity of the trajectory of the action is wrong

The trajectory of the barbell and the position of the center of gravity have also been mentioned above. I want to emphasize here that this is very important! For many beginners, when performing standing barbell presses, it is easy to make the movements very "full" and keep the arms straight when pushing up.

For beginners, because the core is not strong enough when you push straight, it is easy to control the barbell poorly. The trajectory of the barbell deviates, and it is easy to tilt to the back of the head or excessively lean forward.

You want to make sure that the center of gravity of the barbell is always vertically downward and don't deflect the barbell too much.

Solution:

Re-examine your movements in the mirror, and see if there is any wrong position of the center of gravity of the barbell. Is it too much forward or too backward? Is your body shaking or is your core not tightening?

Gradually improve the above-mentioned problems that you may have, until you can push the barbell vertically upwards and master the correct movement trajectory.

Summarize

Standing a barbell is an action worth practicing for you. It is very effective in strengthening shoulder strength and stimulating the shoulders. Add it to your shoulder training.

In addition, for the standing barbell press, safety training is the first. This movement is not simple. It has certain requirements for the flexibility of the shoulder joints, wrist joints, and elbow joints. It also has certain requirements for your core strength. For the thoracic spine, the extension ability of the lumbar spine also has certain requirements.

Therefore, when doing this exercise, you must warm up the joints and muscles mentioned above to reduce the possibility of sports injuries. Of course, if you want to impact a heavy-weight standing barbell press, it is recommended that you wear wrist guards and elbow guards. Protective equipment can effectively protect your joints to a certain extent.