How to Overhead Press: An Introductory Guide
What is an Overhead Press?
‘Overhead Press’ is a broad term that applies to a few different techniques. In short, overhead pressing constitutes any movement where a weight is taken from the shoulders to arms length over the head. Despite what some will argue, the consensus is that ‘overhead pressing’ has no connotation of form or standard, the way the ‘military press’ or ‘standing strict press’ does. Rather, it is a broad term that encompasses several different variations.
In the past, the strength of the upper body was demonstrated in contests where no use of the legs was permitted: only the arms were used to press the weight overhead. With the recent popularity of Strongman as an amateur sport, social media was flooded with posts of different implements being hoisted overhead with loose form. Since Strongman is an anything goes type of sport where jerks are pressed out as the athlete dips, bends, and sways to lock out the weight, it became difficult to place each type of lift in it’s own specific box. So, for the sake of logistics, ‘overhead press’ became the default catch-all.
In the past, the strength of the upper body was demonstrated in contests where no use of the legs was permitted: only the arms were used to press the weight overhead. With the recent popularity of Strongman as an amateur sport, social media was flooded with posts of different implements being hoisted overhead with loose form. Since Strongman is an anything goes type of sport where jerks are pressed out as the athlete dips, bends, and sways to lock out the weight, it became difficult to place each type of lift in it’s own specific box. So, for the sake of logistics, ‘overhead press’ became the default catch-all.
Overhead Press in Competition
Up until the 1970’s, the Olympics contested three types of overhead lifts: the clean and press, the clean and jerk, and the snatch. The press was taken out because it became very difficult to judge. The rules demanded a strict motion from the shoulder to overhead without any allowance for dipping at the knee to generate momentum. The problem started when lifters realized they could keep their knees locked and quickly whip at the hip as they leaned back, turning what was supposed to be a strict military press into a standing incline barbell press. The press was then taken out, leaving just the quick lifts; a move which some experts say forever changed the upper body physique and capabilities of the elite Olympic weightlifter.
Strongman picked up the slack that Olympic lifting left by incorporating odd object overhead pressing in the World’s Strongest Man through the 1980s and 1990s. This tradition carried on into the amateur circuit with more regular log and axle presses along with the inclusion of the giant circus dumbbell. Strongman athletes found that by treating overhead pressing as a skill, much the way powerlifters view the bench press, they could greatly optimize their abilities beyond their raw upper body strength. Odd implements were trained more regularly, bumping the log press world record from 375 to over 500lbs in just 10 years. Some found success in pairing raw pressing power with carefully timed leg drive to put up massive weights, while others relied on more technical versions, like the push jerk. Either way, functional upper body strength had returned to the fold as lifters restored overhead pressing from being just an obscure bench accessory movement.
Crossfit solidified the overhead press as a staple in mainstream lifting culture by teaching an entire generation of lifters to respect the classic barbell lifts. Not only were previous barriers being taken down as everyday Crossfitters were getting trained in the extremely technical Olympic lifts, but they were drilling standing strict presses as well. Along with the Crossfit staples of ring dips and handstand pushups, the upper echelon of athletes were developing upper body capabilities on par with elite gymnasts. Crossfit, like strongman, has also gotten a reputation as being the wild west of movement standards. Typically, overhead pressing in Crossfit is advertised as ‘shoulder to overhead’, implying that the bar can get locked out overhead by any means necessary. Since fatigue is such a big component of the sport, athletes are not required to stick the jerk the same way the Olympic lifters are. Subsequently, you see lots of pressed out jerks and ugly attempts to get the bar to lockout, no matter the cost.
With these sports introducing (and reintroducing) the overhead press into mainstream lifting culture, the tide is changing from doing what is comfortable to doing what works. Bench pressing is Americas favorite Monday afternoon gym activity, and that is largely a result of the comfort that comes with being fully supported by a cushioned bench as you hammer away at the iron, demonstrating your virility to the other men on the floor (the women really don’t care). Supporting a loaded barbell in the standing position, with abs tensed and elbows up, is difficult. Attempting to drive into the bar with your legs as the weight on your shoulders stifles your breathing is difficult. Successfully supporting the load directly over your skull, without allowing your spine to bend or sway under the load, is difficult. But the thing about difficult is….. it works.
Different Versions of Overhead Presses
What is a Strict Press?
Strict pressing for shoulder development is the same as bench pressing for chest development.... only better. Different bench setups can drastically change which muscles are loaded, leading to sacrificed development in favor of more weight moved. The strict barbell press, however, only utilizes the delts and triceps as main movers. There is no setup or variation that won’t lead to a direct increase in shoulder size and strength. The barbell strict press (also called the standing military press), implies the athlete stand at attention with the barbell across their collarbone and minimal to no backward lean. The movement is initiated and completed entirely with the arms as the upper back and midsection support position and the knees and hips remain locked. The barbell strict press is the golden standard for raw upper body strength. This is typically a training tool more than a contested lift, since only the deadliest of pressers show off by using the strict press in a contest where leg drive is allowed.
What is a Push Press?
The push press is the first tier of competitive overhead pressing in Strongman. The movement moves just like a strict press, with the exception of a quick dip and drive of the legs to initiate upward motion. Essentially, a push press is a short jump to create momentum followed by a press with the arms to lock the bar out overhead. There are technique, timing, and stability components to it that can be capitalized on by overhead specialists, making it a harder skill than pure strict pressing. It is, however, not nearly as complex as the jerk variations.
The use of the legs at the start also makes this a great overload pressing movement. It works much like a slingshot bench press by assisting in the initial drive off the chest, putting much of the strain on the deltoids and triceps at lockout, the strongest portion of the movement. The fact that the feet don’t move and the body does not have to reverse direction as with a jerk also makes push pressing the ideal strategical choice for certain odd lifts that are not practical with a jerk. This movement is by far my favorite for consistent size and strength gains and will get the most technical attention later on.
What is a Push Jerk?
The push jerk (or power jerk) is a variation of the split jerk that is ideal for strongman competitions or training for any other sport requiring short, powerful burst. The lifter starts with the bar across the collarbone and initiates a drive upwards with the legs. As the lifter fully extends at the knee, hip, and ankle and begins to push with the arms, direction is reversed and the athlete drops their body under the bar without moving their feet (usually). The benefit of a push jerk is that, once technique is refined, it allows potential for much more weight to be pressed overhead. The downfall is that it takes a lot of energy to be explosive for an entire high rep set and requires stabilization that is difficult to maintain with implements that are not simply a barbell. I won a lot of overhead events using this tactic at strongman shows early on, but did not get good at odd overhead lifts such as log presses and block presses until I improved at the more stable push press.
What is a Split Jerk?
The split jerk is on the far end of the spectrum away from the strict press. Elite Olympic weightlifters can move shocking amounts of weight in a split jerk without the raw upper body strength that you would think would be required. The lifter drives with the legs then reverses back under the bar like with a push jerk. In this version, however, the legs are split front to back in a deep lunge position which greatly increases the distance the lifter can drop back under the weight. This allows the arms to only serve a supportive role, since they are only required to stick the lockout and support the weight at arm’s length. Split jerks must be done with maximal explosiveness or not at all, making it a great supplemental exercise for all athletes, including fighters, throwers, and strongmen. It’s finesse requires years to master, but many lifters have overtaken stronger pressers in an overhead pressing event because they came in with technical mastery of this lift. It can be used across all sports involving an overhead component, but the dynamic nature makes it next to impossible to reproduce with things like kegs, sandbags, giant dumbbells, and thicker logs.
Performance vs Development
Since different overhead press variations involve different proportions of strength, power, and skill, you must consider how each movement is going to develop you and prepare you for your goals. On the one end, the very technical and explosive split jerk requires little actually pressing, which means it might be good for putting the heaviest load overhead, but will not be sufficient to optimize muscle development in the upper body. On the other hand, strict pressing is guaranteed to add inches to your shoulder measurement but is the least likely to produce results in a contest where options are present. As a training tool, barbell military presses and push presses are superior for upper body development, but the jerk variations will always carry the highest potential for moving big weights. Choose wisely.
How to Do a Strict Press
Basic Setup
The first consideration is the overhead press grip. Most lifters, without knowing better, will take a wider grip before taking the barbell out of the rack. This takes the load (which is in your hands) and moves it farther away from the pivot point (your shoulder joint). You don’t need to understand high level physics, just know that doing this makes the weight harder. If you don’t believe me, take an empty bar and put your hands all the way at the ends of the collars. See how difficult a standing press feels with 45lbs in this position. From a bodybuilding perspective, this can be desirable because it disadvantages the deltoids, just like a wide bench disadvantages the pectorals. However, we are concerned with load as well and, over a long term, a setup that moves more weight should yield better results. This means that the optimal grip for a strict press is going to be closer to the shoulders. With the hands in this position, we have improved leverage and created compression by crowding the muscles at the elbow and shoulder joint. This compression will be used to create a more powerful push off the chest, generating momentum that will be used to carry the weight past the stick point to lockout.
I always recommend wrapping the thumbs on any pressing exercise to eliminate any chance of the bar slipping. Besides creating stability in the wrists, there are reports that thumbless pressing, or a suicide grip, can actually improve tricep activation, making the lift more efficient. Even if this is true (I’m skeptical), the trade off comes in the risk of a loaded barbell falling on you from over a foot above your head. I’ve seen people do it with the bench press. I don’t want to be the one looking for a mop bucket when it happens with a standing strict press.
Now that the grip is set, step back out of the rack and put your feet at shoulder width. Resist the urge to stagger your stance. This is something newbie lifters do to compensate for lack of stability with the bar. Besides conditioning balance and coordination under a load, any contest is always going to require the feet be together at lockout, so you might as well learn now. Squeeze the bar with your hands and push the elbows up slightly towards the wall in front of you so the elbow joint is just an inch in front of your hands. This pushes the bar back into your throat towards your center of mass which improves leverage for the initial break off of your shoulders.
Take as big of a breath as you can and hold it, just like you would in a max bench press or squat. The weight is starting from a dead stop; there is no chance to utilize stretch reflex, so the success of your first strict press hinges on absolute stability. Think ‘BIG AIR!!’ Now it’s time to press. Push your head back like a Pez dispenser while keeping your back position the same and press the bar up and as close to your face as you can without grating your nose on the bar like a brick of cheddar. The second the barbell is pressed over your head, push your head forward under the bar and the bar back slightly over your head. This is exactly like the diagonal ramping motion we emphasize during a bench press. Just like your shins getting in the way prevent you from deadlifting more weight, your head in the way of the bar prevents you from military pressing more weight. So as soon as you can, get the bar back! Lockout should find you with the bar over the back half of your head, and directly in line with your elbows, shoulder, hip, and feet. This is the strongest mechanical position. You can hold a lot of weight for a long time in this position.
Initiate the next rep by descending with your elbows in front. Think ‘Lead with the elbows’. As you lower the bar, move your head back to clear a path (again, a la Pez dispenser), avoid scraping your face, and hit a quick rebound at the bottom position as you reverse direction and repeat. I always recommend bouncing strict press reps since it conditions explosiveness, requires more effort, leads to more reps/weight, and has a low instance of injury. If you pause each rep, you will find that overcoming the initial break on each rep will fatigue your shoulders exponentially faster than if you hit them touch and go.
Benefits of Strict Pressing
The benefits of a standing barbell strict press are a wider strength base off of which to build your other pressing techniques, along with broader shoulders and a more universally applicable strength. From a competitive standpoint, increasing the strict press will have the bar leaving the shoulders faster on push presses and jerks. Stabilizing at the top and sticking the lockout will be better as well. Explosive sports activities that utilize the shoulder and arm also benefit, such as punching, shoving, and tackling. Bench pressing has long been hailed as the king of upper body movements, but along with a track record of shoulder injuries and pec strains, it fails to deliver on functional strength development. The act of laying down, using the support of a bench to allow for the pressing of massive weights is super specific, while standing strict presses offer a unique mix of stability, range, load, and coordination that carries directly over to more athletic and real world situations. And I’m going to tell you what Strongmen have known for years…. Barbell overhead presses will contribute GREATLY to your bench press strength, but bench pressing only will do nothing for your overhead press! From a strength and performance aspect, the standing strict press is superior. From a physique standpoint, some type of strict press, be it free weight or machine, will be essential, but the standing barbell press variation offers the greatest intersection of range and load.
Competitive Advantages
Strict presses should only be used in competitions that require it (which are rare) or in situations where your strength reserve is so high, that it is faster or more efficient to strict press the implement. A good example is in a log clean and press where the log is returned to the ground every rep. Over the course of 8 or so reps, the constant re-bending of knee causes the quads to light up, making push presses harder and jerks impossible. If the weight is within a reasonable range, strict pressing each rep can save the legs, even if it requires more effort from the shoulders. Aside from unique situations like this, the standing strict press is better utilized as a training tool to augment the other competitive overhead press variations.
How to Improve the Strict Press
Improving the standing strict press requires frequent practice and consistently increasing volume and intensity. Weaknesses can be identified the same way as bench pressing, by where the stick points tend to occur on heavy efforts, but the list of unique exercises to fix each weakness is much smaller. Most will struggle with the lockout portion of the lift, or as the bar gets right over their head. There is so much compression at the bottom of the lift (if your grip is right) and the bigger and stronger deltoids are stretched like a rubber band ready to snap, usually leading to a substantial distance cleared before the stick point hits. One of my favorite methods for raising the bar for this stick point is to set the pins in the squat rack to wherever this stick happens and do standing presses from that point. If the bar starts at any point over the head, it is only a matter of time before the weight on these pin presses greatly surpasses the weight used in full range strict presses. This tends to be a much faster method than targeting the triceps by themselves, although frequent tricep work should already be a staple.
On top of this, working through different rep ranges through several different compound and isolation exercises is the key to continued growth. After the initial working sets are completed with the standing strict press, incorporate 1-2 more compound movements (such as dumbbell/machine presses, dips, or push presses), and 1-2 more isolation exercises (front/lateral raises). Perform 4-5 working sets on each one, and don’t be afraid of hard work: the shoulder respond very well to rest-pause, forced reps, partials, and drop sets.
How to Do a Push Press
Basic Setup
Let’s start by assuming your setup for the push press is the same as the standing strict press. Your grip should still be close to your shoulders, creating compression in the elbow and shoulder joint. Your thumbs should be wrapped around the bar, your feet shoulder width, your knees and hips locked, and your head back (pez, pez, pez). The first main deviation in a barbell push press that separates it from a strict press is elbow position. I typically cue ‘elbows up’ in all standing press movements, but dynamic presses involving use of the legs requires this cue to be exaggerated. With a standing strict press, the forearms can’t deviate too much from vertical without sacrificing leverage, so the elbows have to stay somewhat under the bar.
With dynamic presses, the elbows don’t need to be under the bar until the momentum from the leg drive gives out, which is when the barbell is towards the top of your head. Your setup from the shoulder to this point should revolve entirely around getting as much kick out of the leg drive as possible. By getting the bar back deep into your throat, you will find it’s easier to stay upright, which means your leg drive is more powerful, which means more speed on the bar at the point where your arms have to take over. This is all facilitated by GETTING YOUR ELBOWS HIGH!
Now that you have established what can pass for a proper setup, we can begin the press. With your elbows as high as possible (im serious, point them towards the moon), take as big of a breath as humanly possible. Remember the breath you took on the strict press? Take a bigger one. This movement will not only have you handling more weight, but attempting to stay upright and rigid as you jump into said weight. I cannot emphasize enough how important stability is in a push press.
At this point, the lift is initiated with a slight dip at the knee and a lightning-quick reversal. We frequently cue it as a ‘knee pop’. Many new lifters will either dip too much or not enough. Squatting down too low invariably pushes your knee too far forward over your foot, taking the bar out of position, sapping power and risking injury (I sprained my patellar tendon doing this). If we look at the top Olympic weightlifters who are routinely jumping into 500+lb jerks, you will see a knee bend of only a few inches while staying completely upright. Other subtle cues will vary from lifter to lifter, such as pushing the knees out vs keeping them straight over the foot, or letting the hips break back vs keeping them directly under you. These are smaller considerations to effective push press technique and largely a matter of personal preference. The big takeaways are to dip at the knee several inches and to stay upright without letting the elbows drop.
The knee pop should finish with a triple extension, meaning your hip, knee, and ankle joints straighten out simultaneously. Those new to the push press will routinely fail to get up on their toes as they jump into the weight, or will stay up too long, attempting to lockout hundreds of pounds overhead on their tip toes like a ballerina. As soon as you pop into the weight, let your heels immediately fall to the ground to stabilize you. This might take some practice before it becomes automatic.
The bar should now be headed skyward from the massive push it received from your legs. At this point, follow through with your arms as explosively as possible and finish the press as your heels return to the ground. Effectively transferring force from your legs to your arms is crucial to push press technique; it is largely a matter of timing. My recommendation is to never weight until the bar momentum gives out to press; the very instant you reverse direction out of the bottom of the knee dip, you should be pressing as hard as possible. Once the weight is overhead, return it to your shoulders by bending your knees slightly to cushion the fall. Do not touch and go push presses unless you are extremely proficient with them. For now, especially on heavy attempts, take another breath and reset your elbows before you perform another rep.
The Benefits of Push Pressing
The benefits of a push press are many. The most obvious advantage is overload. It stands to reason that if you can comfortably strict press 100lbs that you should be able to handle more by bringing in the larger and stronger muscles of your legs to assist. But it is more than just arbitrary assistance. Mechanically, you are much stronger at the lockout of a press than at the bottom or mid-range, but sufficient weight isn’t used in a traditional strict press to overload that range because you are limited by your weakest link. By assisting with your legs for the weak part of the lift, you are allowed to tax your lockout, fixing what is a weakness in pressing strength for many lifters. This is typically referred to as ‘accommodating resistance’, and, like adding bands and chains to a bar, is an effective way to accommodate (load) the stronger part of the lift.
This increase in load also is amazing for adding thickness to the shoulders and upper back, since it exposes the lifter to a dramatically increased stimulus in a short period of time. For general athletic training, the push press is a valuable tool to condition force production in a dynamic and more functional way. At any point in sport, the athlete is always going to be on their own two feet, changing position in three dimensional space as they generate force. A push press fosters explosive strength that is applicable to a dynamic environment for the simple fact that the lifter is not seated or supported during the lift.
Competitive Advantages
From a contest point of view, the push press allows you to handle heavier weights than otherwise would have been possible. If a strong presser has an advantage in an overhead pressing event, a strong push presser has it in the bag. The push press also is more stable than the jerk variations, making it much easier to execute with objects that are not simply a barbell and less taxing on rep events.
How to Improve the Push Press
Improving the push press is almost always a technical consideration. It doesn’t seem elaborate at first glance, but a successful max effort push press is always going to hinge on a dozen or so minute cues being followed. I always suggest numerous warm up sets be done to dial in the stroke of the movement before jumping to bigger weight. Run through each setup command in your head over and over until it becomes automatic. When your push press technique breaks down, be extremely critical about what failed.
Did the elbows drop on the knee pop? Was the dip and drive slow? Did you stay on your toes too long? Did the bar get out in front instead of back over your head? Did you lean back on the way up?
These are all common issues that stifle early attempts at PRs. In the event that your technique is rock solid, getting stronger at the movement through intelligent programming is the next step. An intelligent progression that manipulates sets and reps in the main lift over time is the backbone of any good program. A simple 5x5 linear progression works wonders, but there are many other versions. In addition to the main lift, accessory exercises that target weakness can be employed.
Pin presses work for the push press in the same way they work for the strict press; aggressively pushing from a dead stop at the stick point will condition your nervous system to utilize more motor units at that point of the push press. Bands and chains can work similarly, but I find them to be unnecessarily difficult to setup for most trainees. One tip that helped me when I struggled to maintain an upright position through the jump with anything over 300lbs were heavy front squats and front squat partials. By staying upright through a limited range of motion with an excessive amount of weight I was not used to, the muscles in my midsection and upper back acclimated and position ceased to be a problem. Set the pins in the rack so that the bar will rest on them in a high quarter front squat position. Take the weight out of the rack, slowly descend, and pause briefly on the pins before exploding back up to lockout. Not only will this help maintain position, but will dramatically improve the speed out of the hole.
How to Do a Push Jerk
Basic Setup
A true Olympic push jerk, power jerk, or full squat jerk will be incredibly technical and require endless sessions drilling specific setup and positioning cues. If you are reading this because you are interested in practicing the Olympic lifts, just know that I am giving you the Cliff Notes; the 80% of it that you can still derive benefit from while minimizing the risk for injury. If Olympic lifting is your primary passion, keep searching out the other 20% because those details are what separates a true Oly lifer from an amateur.
Now, a push jerk is going to start just like a push press, with a large emphasis on keeping the elbows up, getting a big breath, and staying upright. The primary difference is the change in direction that happens at the highest point of the triple extension: at the split-second when you are on your toes and pressing with your arms into the bar, you will release your hips and knees and drop your body under the bar. Instead of finishing the lift by pressing the bar overhead, you will finish it by pressing yourself under the bar. Since releasing your legs and hips and dipping into a quarter squat sacrifices stability, having the bar in the proper position is paramount. There is no room for error in this lift; the bar must end up back over your head or you will dump it forward.
The difficult task is going to be finding the right squat position to receive the bar in. More flexible lifters can squat lower while still staying upright and keeping the bar back over their head. Less flexible lifters will have to catch it in a shorter dip or kick their feet out to the side as they dive back under the bar. Practice in front of a mirror with a broomstick to find what feels like a stable upright position to catch the bar in before standing back up with the weight. For strongman or crossfit purposes, the bar doesn’t have to be stuck at lockout; press outs are allowed. These means that a lot of energy can be saved for rep events and odd object lifts by practicing a short dip under the bar followed by a short press out.
Benefits of Push Jerking
The benefits of a push jerk are an increase in explosive and athletic ability with an overload of the upper body muscles. Aesthetically, I can attest to the fact that frequent heavy push jerks can add both size and strength. When I became competitive in Strongman, I disavowed most upper body exercises and practiced a short power jerk twice a week for over a year. I remember after making substantial progress in my overhead, I hit a small bench press PR, even though I hadn’t been on a bench in 8 months. My shoulders were wider, my back was thicker, and I was winning press events in contest. In a comprehensive training program, heavy jerks (especially pressed out) can add substantial size and density.
Competitive Advantages
In strongman and crossfit, the competitive advantage of a push jerk comes in optimizing the weight pressed overhead. Because the feet don’t (or shouldn’t) move much during the lift, it is a stable enough version of the jerk that can be applied to odd objects or rep events without wasting too much energy or constantly having to change position. Push jerking something like an axle press for reps will save the triceps in the later reps, but performing it with a sandbag press might be unrealistic and waste more energy than it saves.
How to Improve the Push Jerk
Like the push press, improving the push jerk almost always comes down to technique. It takes months to get comfortable enough in this movement to handle heavier weights, and the recreational lifter may not have the need for it in a training program to justify the time or energy. A solid progression will have enough volume that the movement can be performed frequently with submaximal weights. Improving tricep strength through close grip and partial presses can give a bigger margin of error at lockout. Lockout work as in a standing pin press can help if the lifter uses a ‘press out’ style push jerk, put isometric holds for time at lockout might be more favorable to a lifter who sticks their lockout. Heavy holds, such as front squats and front squat partials, can also help with stability, speed, and confidence in the initial drive.
How to Do a Split Jerk
Basic Setup
If a push jerk requires months of focused technical practice to achieve mastery, then for the split jerk it is doubly so. I’ll repeat, here is your 80% to get you started, but mastery of this lift requires more than this article can give. Every setup cue leading up to the dip and drive so far applies: high elbows, pez head, upright, deep breath, short dip and drive. The primary consideration for a split jerk is the sudden and violent splitting of the feet into a deep lunge position. At the apex of the triple extension as the athlete reverses direction back under the bar, the feet are picked up, slid directly forward and back, and stamped hard on the ground at the same time, leaving the lifter stable and upright in a deep lunge position with the bar locked out at arm’s length. The stamping of the feet is a common component because it reinforces a.) stability of the legs in receiving the weight overhead and b.) hitting the feet at the same time to avoid any balance issues. It is also important to note that the margin of error for this lift is incredibly small; the feet must travel directly forward and back as if they were attached to skis, the back foot must be back far enough to get low and maintain balance, the bar must be stuck at lockout, and you must remain upright with the bar finishing back over your head. Once the bar is secured over the head, the lifter then brings their feet together and stands up with a series of short steps; first the back leg, then the front leg then the back leg again. With lighter weights, reps can be performed by bringing the bar back to the shoulder and resetting. However, with truly master weightlifters, the overload is so high that the bar should be dropped to the ground or the blocks it started from.
Benefits of Split Jerking
The benefit of the split jerk is that it optimizes weight moved overhead and conditions explosiveness. This has a huge carryover to other power sports that require speed and athleticism; football players, fighters, track athletes, and more can benefit from split jerks being added to their routine. As the lifter becomes more proficient in this lift, however, the role of upper body strength in finishing the lift diminishes. There have been several articles discussing the change in the Olympic lifter’s physique since the press was taken out; it has been suggested that they are typically less muscular throughout their upper body because split jerks do not require as much mass to support the weight. I would not recommend taking the time to drill this movement if your training goals are purely aesthetic, as you will be disappointed with the result. But if your goal is to optimize weight moved overhead or to drill explosiveness for a power sport, then this is a valuable tool to have in your arsenal.
Competitive Advantages
The competitive advantage of a split jerk is that the most weight ever hoisted over head will always be with a split jerk technique. At the moment, the most weight ever cleaned and jerked in a contest is right around 585lbs, with Anatoly Pisarenko (who wasn’t an overly muscular heavyweight lifter) rumored to have done 600lbs in training. To put that in comparison, the best push pressers in the world are somewhere in the mid 500s with the old Olympic standing strict press record coming in at 502lbs. The disadvantage is that it works best with standardized objects like a barbell while the thinner margin of error can cause problems with some others. It can be done with a log and some other implements, but as you start to get near your limit, the odds of technical breakdown or getting out of position improves dramatically. Also, the amount of effort needed to pop into the bar (remember, it’s all or nothing) can drain you quickly on rep events. Split jerks used in Strongman contests are most commonly seen with those who have a very deep Olympic lifting background or women who are behind the curve in upper body development and can rely on a split jerk to stay competitive.
How to Improve the Split Jerk
Improving the split jerk is a matter of technique, technique, technique. The split jerk is 95% a technical lift and, barring massive and sudden strength gains, won’t benefit too much from marginal improvements in specialty exercises. In fact, most Olympic lifters develop their split jerk through more split jerking. Staying away from any jerk practice for a month will do far more damage to the lift than improving your strict press by 10% will help it in that same time frame. My biggest recommendation is to stay light and be brutally critical of your technique. If you are patting yourself on the back for sloppy shallow jerks and pressed out attempts, you won’t improve.
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