How to Increase Your Overhead Press: 6 Tips and Technique Fixes That Actually Work

Are you still stuck at the same number you’ve been hitting for the last year on the overhead press? If so, you’re not alone. Overhead press gains come much more slowly than gains from deadlifts and squats, and most people compound the problem by pressing with form that’s good enough to move the bar but not good enough to build serious strength.

The overhead press looks primitive. It isn’t. It’s one of the most technically demanding lifts in the gym, a movement that requires precise coordination of the entire body — not just the shoulders and arms — and one that punishes poor technique harder than almost any other exercise as the weight gets heavy.

The standard most strength coaches use is 0.75 times bodyweight as the minimum strict overhead press for any serious athlete. Someone weighing 200 lbs should strictly press at least 150 lbs. Note the word strictly.

Too many lifters chase this number with feet too wide, an arched lower back, and a bar path that wanders halfway across the rack. That’s not a demonstration of strength — it’s the overhead press equivalent of kipping pull-ups or rising your hips on the bench press.

The bar should travel in a straight vertical line when viewed from the side. That’s it. Everything in this article is in service of making that happen.

The Technique: Breaking Down the Strict Press

Before getting into the tips, understanding the correct movement pattern from start to finish is worth doing properly.

Starting position: feet hip-width apart — similar to your conventional deadlift stance, not wide like a squat. Hands on the bar slightly outside shoulder-width. The bar sits at collarbone level. When you get under it, your elbows should be less than an inch in front of the bar — not flared, not tucked behind it.

The press: tuck your chin to create a clear path for the bar to travel. Do not over-arch the back during this phase. The back should remain rigid and straight as you press. Lift the bar to forehead level while maintaining this position — the lower back should not compensate for any weakness in the shoulders or upper back.

The lockout: two things happen simultaneously. First, as the bar passes the forehead, the elbows flare outward so the mid and rear deltoids assist with the final portion of the press. The arms rotate naturally as you press, bringing the forearms into correct alignment under the bar. Second — and this is the most common sticking point — get your spine under the bar as quickly as possible. Think about pressing your body “through the window” your arms form with the bar at the moment it passes your forehead. The faster you can get your ribcage forward and your body underneath the bar at lockout, the better. This is not pressing the bar behind you — it’s about driving the torso forward, not the bar backward.

Read the complete guide here: The Overhead Press: The Most Underrated Upper Body Exercise

6 Tips to Immediately Improve Your Overhead Press

1. Keep Your Glutes Tight

Calling the overhead press an upper body movement is too simplistic. As your shoulders and arms press the weight overhead, your legs, lower back, and core muscles work continuously to keep your body stable.

Lower body tightness is one of the most overlooked elements of overhead pressing. If your glutes are loose, your lower back moves into an overarched position — which leaves it directly under the load and at real risk of injury. Arching the back is also a common way to cheat the movement, effectively turning a strict press into a standing incline press. It reduces the effectiveness and increases the risk simultaneously.

Fix it: push your hips forward and squeeze your glutes as hard as you can before the bar leaves the rack. Keep them squeezed throughout the entire movement. You’ll notice an immediate improvement in stability and a likely improvement in your pressed numbers.

2. Bring Your Head Forward

Keeping the head back throughout the entire press is one of the most common technique faults. It throws the body out of alignment and makes the movement awkward, uncomfortable, and mechanically inefficient.

As soon as the bar clears your face, slightly push your head forward to get directly underneath the load. This creates a mechanical advantage that makes the lockout significantly easier and the movement pattern more natural. At lockout, the bar should be over your shoulders and ears — not in front of them. Look straight ahead throughout the lift. Don’t look up at the bar, don’t look at the ceiling, don’t tilt your head to the side.

3. Contract Your Core

This is perhaps the most critical single element of safe and effective overhead pressing. Holding a heavy barbell directly overhead employs every fiber in your core musculature to prevent the body from collapsing. A tight core keeps the spine properly aligned, supports the lower back, and creates the solid base that lets force transfer efficiently into the shoulders and arms.

Pressing with a loose core is one of the most reliable ways to fail a rep or get injured. Every overhead pressing session is an opportunity to train your core under load — take it seriously.

4. Don’t Flare Your Elbows on the Way Up

Some lifters use the same wide grip on the overhead press that they use on the bench press. These are usually the same lifters who regularly deal with shoulder pain after pressing sessions.

A grip that’s too wide causes excessive elbow flare, which places undue stress on the shoulder joint. The shoulder is a complex and vulnerable joint — injuries heal slowly and have long-term consequences.

For a proper overhead press, your hands should be just outside your shoulders with your forearms vertical to the floor at the starting position. Tuck the elbows down to keep the shoulder girdle in its strongest position as you initiate the press. Note that at lockout, the elbows do flare outward to recruit the mid and rear deltoids — but this is a natural result of correct lockout mechanics, not something you force from the bottom.

5. Keep Your Wrists Straight

A slight bend at the wrists disrupts alignment and reduces force production. The bar should sit over the forearm bones, not tilted back in the hand. Keep the wrists almost straight with the knuckles approximately 75 degrees back.

If maintaining this position is difficult, it usually means the bar is being placed too deep in the palm. When the bar rolls too far back, the wrist bends and the center of gravity of the bar shifts backward — putting it outside the line of the forearm and making the press mechanically harder than it needs to be.

One solution: experiment with a false grip (thumbs on the same side as the fingers). This ensures the weight loads over both the wrist and the forearm, making correct wrist alignment easier to maintain. The false grip is best reserved for intermediate and advanced lifters who have enough pressing experience to handle the reduced grip security safely.

If wrist weakness is a persistent issue, add wrist curls to your accessory work.

6. Press Less Frequently

The overhead press is not an exercise to be thrown into every other session. It’s intense and stressful on the shoulder joints and lower back, and the technical demands mean that sessions done under accumulated fatigue are often counterproductive.

Pressing overhead every few weeks — as a true priority movement, not as an afterthought — generally produces better long-term results than pressing it frequently at sub-maximal effort with degraded form.

If your form is currently anything less than strict, take a temporary step back and use alternatives to address your weakest areas. Good substitutes that maintain pressing development include the dumbbell shoulder press, the seated shoulder press, and the Arnold press. Come back to the strict barbell press once your form, mobility, and base strength are where they need to be.

Corrective Exercises for Overhead Press Form

Most overhead press breakdowns originate from two sources: poor abdominal strength and restricted thoracic spine mobility. Fixing both will reduce lower back extension under load, strengthen the entire movement pattern, and produce a more ideally aligned press.

Ab-Wheel Rollout

The ab-wheel rollout simulates a horizontal version of the press pattern. Tucking the hips and bracing the core are essential — if you lose stiffness in the lower back at any point during the rollout, you’ll feel it immediately. Become technically proficient in this exercise and a stronger overhead press will follow. The carryover is direct and well established.

Kettlebell Angled Press

This movement targets the lower trapezius, which assists thoracic extension and helps maintain the ribcage in a high position. Proper thoracic extension increases shoulder joint range of motion and creates a more favorable finishing position with the bar under the spine. Use lighter weights — this is a corrective exercise, not a strength movement.

Test Your True Press Strength

Test your 3 or 5-rep max, being as strict as possible in your execution. No excessive back arch, no foot width cheating, no momentum. Don’t be discouraged if the weight drops significantly from what you’ve been pressing with compromised form — it means you’re finally pressing correctly and building the kind of long-term strength that will actually transfer.

The overhead press rewards patience and precision more than almost any other lift. It is one of the best muscle-building exercises for the upper body precisely because it demands everything from the body simultaneously. Master the technique, and the numbers will come.

You might also be interested: Dumbbell vs Barbell Shoulder Press — Differences, Execution & Benefits