How to Overhead Press WITHOUT Lower Back Pain

Back Pain SUCKS, brother.

I know – I’ve lived with it off and on since I was a Freshman in High School.

I can go weeks and months with no issues at all, and then all of a sudden, WHAM, my back goes out and I’m either out of the gym for a week or two, or every single lift I do is affected.

Know what I mean?

My most recent Back Tweak happened when I was grabbing a pair of 45-lb plates to move them.

TINK! Something went in my back and I haven’t been able to Overhead Press without pain in about 2 weeks.

Which drives me bonkers because I love to work shoulders hard and LOVE Overhead Pressing.

In fact, the Rack Press has become a staple of my training for over 2 years now, but I just haven’t been able to do it without pain in my back the last couple of Shoulder Workouts, so I needed to switch things up.

I also know that they advise NOT to do Seated Press movements either, because the seated position magnifies the pressure on the lumbar area.

Well, yesterday, I discovered something that allowed me to perform my Shoulder Press Workout with ZERO PAIN whatsoever during the movement.

I’ve never seen this variation done before, so I am naming it the Leaning Press.

The Leaning Press

Check out the video below to see how the Leaning Press is done.

This variation allowed me to train without any of the pain I have been dealing with the last couple of weeks. The leaning position allowed me to completely avoid any of the compression force on the spine that the seated position is known to cause, and I still got the taste of the Overhead Lifting that I love so much.

Naturally, I’d much rather be pressing a loaded barbell or Strongman Log overhead, but my back needed the rest, and this little variation gave me what it needed.

If your back hurts, see what your doctor says about giving this a try.

More Overhead Press Articles

If you like Overhead Lifting as much as me, then be sure to check out some of my other articles on Overhead Lifting:

Going for a Max in the Overhead Press
My Approach to Upper Body Training
Principles for Improving the Overhead Press

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Want to Bring Up Your Log?
Check out Intro to Strongman Training:

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Tags: back injury, back pain, overhead lifts, overhead press, press, shoulders

This entry was posted on Monday, January 13th, 2014 at 2:44 pm and is filed under overhead lifting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.