Training guide
A push press is an overhead press started by your legs: with the bar on the front of your shoulders, you dip straight down by bending your knees, drive up hard, and press the bar to locked arms as your legs straighten, feet on the floor. It lets you put more weight overhead than a strict press and trains power, and it's the step between the strict press and the jerks.
In 17 trained men its power matched a jump squat's, highest at about three-quarters of their best push press. Nobody has trained it against the strict press, and in young footballers it did little for their sprinting or jumping.
This guide covers the dip and drive step by step with a 3D demo, how it differs from the strict press, the push jerk and the thruster, dumbbells and kettlebells, how heavy and how many, your shoulders and lower back, and the warning signs.
With the bar on the front of your shoulders, dip straight down by bending your knees about a tenth of your height, drive up hard, and press the bar to locked arms as your legs straighten. Your feet stay on the floor: bending your knees a second time to catch the bar makes it a push jerk.
More weight goes overhead than in a strict press, and it trains power: in 17 trained men, its peak power matched a jump squat's, highest at about 75% of their best push press. The NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) counts it among the overhead lifts for strength and speed.
Nobody knows precisely: we found no study that measured both in the same people. Against the jerks, people lift about 87% of their split jerk in a push press and 95% in a push jerk; in 18 trained men, 89.7, 95.6 and 103.0 kg.
The strict press first, as our overhead press guide teaches and the NSCA's progression starts, then the dip on its own, then light push presses, then the push jerk and split jerk in our clean and jerk guide.
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Learn with 3 sets of 3, light (our jerk technique workout). For strength, sets of 3 to 5 reps. For power, 3 to 5 sets of 2 to 5 fast reps at roughly 65 to 80% of your best push press, resting fully (our editorial range, drawn from two lab studies and the NSCA's advice). Never to failure.
In under-20 footballers, 6 weeks of push presses changed sprints and jumps trivially, less than jump squats did, and push press power tracked sprint and jump tests only moderately. Use it for overhead strength and power in its own right.
A short, straight dip of the knees, an immediate hard drive, then your arms finish pressing the bar to locked arms while your feet stay on the floor. It sits between the strict press, with no help from the legs, and the jerks, where you drive the bar up and then drop under it, in the NSCA's family of overhead lifts.
Your shoulders (front and side) and triceps press the bar, your upper back turns your shoulder blades up as your arms go overhead, and your thighs, glutes and calves drive it, with your trunk braced throughout, as our move pages describe. We found no muscle activity study of the push press itself.
A controlled strict press, as the move page says, and full overhead reach without arching your lower back: our overhead press guide's wall check, sliding your arms up a wall without your lower back lifting off it, tells you whether you have it.
The dip scales with your height. Limited overhead reach turns the finish into a lean back, which loads your lower back, and stiff wrists or elbows make the barbell rack uncomfortable, so dumbbells or kettlebells may suit you better. The gap between the push press and the jerks was widest in skilled weightlifters (22%) and smaller in CrossFit athletes and other trained people (11 to 14%).
No. Weightlifting competitions have two lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk. The press was dropped after 1972, amid judging disputes and lower back injuries from leaning back, and the push press is a training lift for the jerk.
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The dip, the drive, the bar path, the hold and starting each rep still are Catalyst Athletics' push press; the rack, the grip and the head movement are our overhead press guide's, and the dip depth matches our clean and jerk guide. The NSCA describes the feet staying in complete contact with the ground; Catalyst says the heels rise at least slightly with a full drive.
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The movement on the figure: Push press
Bend only your knees, keeping your trunk upright and your weight over your whole foot, to about a tenth of your height, then brake and drive at once. The move page's cue is to dip straight down, not forward.
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The NSCA lists a trunk that isn't upright in the dip, dipping too fast, tipping forward in the dip and not bracing, and uneven straightening of the arms at the top (a "press out"), among the faults coaches look for in the jerk, which uses the same dip.
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In 18 trained men, the dip's depth and duration didn't differ between the push press, push jerk and split jerk, and at the same load the legs' drive was the same in all three. The dip you learn here is the jerk's dip.
Your feet stay on the floor. Some coaches let the heels come up a little at the end of a hard drive, while the NSCA describes the feet staying in complete contact with the ground; either is a push press if you don't jump or bend your knees again (our reading).
The jerk dip squat on our figure is the dip and drive without the press: 3 sets of 3 with the empty bar, straight down and up, heels down, as our jerk technique workout does.
Learn the strict press first; then use both. The strict press builds pressing strength through the whole range, and the push press moves heavier weights fast and trains power, as our overhead press guide says. A sneaky knee dip in a set you meant to be strict turns it into a push press.
More, but there's no evidence-based ratio: we found no study that measured strict press and push press maximums in the same people. Ignore online ratios and compare your own push press with your own past push presses.
People lift less in a push press than in a push jerk or split jerk, because they don't drop under the bar: about 87% and 95% of the split jerk, the gaps widest in skilled weightlifters. In 46 trained men the order was the same, measured reliably in one session; in 15 men and 15 women with about 2 years' weightlifting, push press maximums were about 1.0 and 0.8 times body weight. Our clean and jerk guide teaches the jerks.
At 80% of their best push press, the push press, push jerk and split jerk produced the same leg drive in 16 trained adults.
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A push press starts standing: a short dip of the knees drives the press. A thruster starts from a full squat, so it's harder work and usually lighter, as our thrusters guide says.
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In 17 trained men lifting singles from 10 to 90% of their best push press, peak power was highest at about 75% and mean power at about 65%; peak power matched a jump squat's, and mean power was about 9.5% higher. In 18 trained men, power rose from 60% to 75% and 90% of the best lift, with no difference between 75 and 90%.
The NSCA suggests the push press, push jerk and split jerk at 70% of the best lift or more to build strength and speed, and reports power of 2,500 to 6,760 watts across these lifts, more than in a back squat.
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Across 137 reviews, power improved most with moderate loads (30 to 70% of the best single lift), no more than about 24 reps of a lift a session, Olympic-style lifting and a fast lifting phase, in the ACSM's (American College of Sports Medicine) overview.
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A review of 13 studies of the push press and jerks found likely benefits for power and strength but no long-term training data. We found no trial comparing push press training with strict press training.
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In 27 under-20 footballers, 17 of whom finished, 6 weeks of push presses at their best power load changed jumps and sprints trivially, less than jump squats did; there was no control group. In 27 footballers, push press power correlated only moderately with sprint and jump tests (r = 0.40 to 0.48), jump squat power strongly.
In a survey of 308 CrossFit members in Germany, the (push) press was behind 4 of 146 injury-causing movements (2.7%) and the jerk 5 (3.4%); shoulder injuries came mostly with handstands, overhead pressing and bar work. People reported their own injuries afterwards, so this can't give an injury rate.
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The strict press with the empty bar, 4 sets of 5 (our overhead press technique workout); the jerk dip squat, 3 sets of 3 with the empty bar (our jerk technique workout); the push press, 3 sets of 3, light (our jerk technique workout), then 4 sets of 3 (our weightlifting strength workout); then the power jerk, 3 sets of 2, light, and the split jerk, 4 sets of 2, light (our jerk technique workout).
Hold two dumbbells at your shoulders, palms facing each other or turned slightly in, elbows in front, and use the same dip and drive, pressing up beside your ears. Our figure has no dumbbell push press; the barbell and kettlebell demos show the movement.
One dumbbell or kettlebell at one shoulder: your trunk works to stop you leaning towards it, so use a lighter weight and do both sides (our suggestion).
The bells rest in the rack on the outside of your forearms; our kettlebell press guide teaches the kettlebell push press, one bell or two.
From the back of your shoulders, only with pain-free shoulders and full range, and never after a dislocation, as its move page says. A review advises against it with limited shoulder range or a shoulder injury, and weight trainers who used the behind-the-neck "high-five" position showed more signs of shoulder instability.
The same dip and drive with a landmine, the bar travelling up and forward in an arc; our landmine press guide teaches it.
Hold the bottom of the dip for a second, then drive. Catalyst lists it among the push press's variations; it helps you learn a straight dip (our view).
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The double kettlebell push press, 2 sets of 5 (our thruster workout); the one-arm kettlebell push press, 3 sets of 6 each side (our kettlebell workout); the behind-the-neck push press, 3 to 5 sets of 2 to 5, resting fully (its move page's dose, with its caution); and the landmine jammer, 3 to 5 sets of 2 to 5 (its move page's dose).
Breathe in and brace before the dip, breathe out as the bar passes your forehead or at the top, and take a fresh breath before each rep, as our overhead press guide suggests.
With high blood pressure, heart disease, glaucoma or diabetic eye disease, a hernia or recent surgery, or in pregnancy, keep the weight moderate and breathe out through each press, as our breathing guide says. Heavy lifts to failure with a held breath sent blood pressure to an average of 320/250 mmHg in 5 bodybuilders, and overhead presses were among the lifts.
The bar goes out in front and the strain goes into your lower back, as the move page warns. Dip straight down with your weight over your whole foot.
A controlled dip of about a tenth of your height is enough; dipping too fast is one of the NSCA's listed faults.
Reverse at once, unless you're practising the pause dip on purpose.
Let the drive start the bar; your arms finish it.
That's a push jerk. For a push press, your knees stay straight once the drive is done.
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The weight is too heavy or your overhead reach is limited, as our overhead press guide explains. Lighten it.
Lock both arms and hold the bar still for a moment before you lower it.
Start each rep still from the front of your shoulders.
About 65 to 80% of your best push press, moved fast. This is our editorial range, drawn from two lab studies, one where power peaked at about 65 to 75% of the best push press in 17 trained men and one where 75% and 90% gave more power than 60% in 18 trained men, and from the NSCA's advice to use 70% or more.
Heavier sets of 3 to 5 reps for strength and 4 to 6 for some muscle growth, as Catalyst programmes it, stopping 2 or 3 reps short.
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The research figures describe trained lifters, not targets: push press maximums of about 1.0 times body weight in men and 0.8 in women with about 2 years' weightlifting, and 89.7 kg on average in 18 trained men. Our one-rep max calculator estimates your best from a set of reps; for a fast lift, sets of 2 to 5 at a known weight tell you as much.
Add the smallest plates you have: our overhead press guide adds 1 to 1.25 kg, and our beginner programme allows 1 to 2.5 kg.
3 sets of 3, light, after the jerk dip squat (our jerk technique workout).
4 sets of 3 (our weightlifting strength workout), or 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps (the reps from Catalyst; the number of sets our editorial starting point), stopping 2 or 3 reps short and resting 2 to 3 minutes, as our plans give for heavy compound sets.
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3 to 5 sets of 2 to 5 fast reps, resting fully, at the start of the session (our editorial starting point, the same as the behind-the-neck push press and jammer move pages' doses). Power improved most with moderate loads and few reps in the ACSM's overview.
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End the set when the bar slows or drifts forward, as our kettlebell plan says of power moves. Going to failure adds little muscle anyway, and people underestimate the reps they have left by about 1.
Once or twice a week, alongside your strict presses (our suggestion).
To warm up: shoulder circles, 3 slow circles each way with each arm, and thoracic rotations, 6 each side (their move pages' doses); the wrist and forearm flow, 60 seconds (our weightlifting strength workout); the lat stretch at a bench, 2 holds of 30 seconds, and the overhead stick stretch, 2 holds of 15 to 30 seconds (our jerk technique workout); and wall angels, 8 slow slides (our shoulder mobility routine). For your trunk, dead bugs, 2 sets of 5 to 8 each side; for your shoulders, face pulls, 2 sets of 15 (both our overhead press technique workout), band external rotations, 2 sets of 12 to 15 each arm (our strength workout for boxers), and lateral raises, 3 sets of 12 to 15 (our shoulder workout).
3D demoShoulder CARs (controlled articular rotations)Beginner · No equipment
3D demoThoracic rotationBeginner · No equipment
3D demoWrist & forearm flowBeginner · No equipment
3D demoOverhead lat stretch at a bench (elbows on the bench)Intermediate · A bench or box
3D demoOverhead stick stretchBeginner · Other / check instructions
3D demoWall angelBeginner · A wall
3D demoDead bugBeginner · No equipment
3D demoFace pullIntermediate · A band
3D demoStanding band external rotationBeginner · A band + An anchor point
3D demoDumbbell lateral raiseBeginner · A dumbbellThe jerk technique workout runs the dip squat, light push presses and then the power and split jerks; the weightlifting workouts use the push press for technique and strength, and the throwers' workout for power. The overhead press technique workout comes first, and the kettlebell workout uses the one-arm kettlebell push press.
A 45-minute technique session for the jerk: the dip and drive, the power jerk, footwork into the split, light split jerks and, when ready, the clean and jerk.
45 minIntermediate13 movesCardio machine, Other / check instructionsA 65-minute strength session for weightlifters: front squats, clean pulls at or above your best clean, push presses, Romanian deadlifts and trunk work.
65 minIntermediate11 movesCardio machine, A wallA 60-minute coached technique session: wrists, ankles and overhead squats, then the snatch and the clean and jerk built from the top down with light weights.
60 minBeginner15 movesCardio machine, A wallA 30-minute practice session for the overhead press: check your overhead reach, groove it with a band and seated dumbbells, then press the empty bar.
30 minBeginner9 movesA band, A wallA 30-minute full-body kettlebell workout: deadlifts, swings, cleans, presses, rows, halos and carries.
30 minIntermediate9 movesA kettlebell, A dumbbellA 50-minute session for throwers: hang power cleans, front squats and push presses paired with medicine-ball throws, then landmine rotations and shoulder care.
50 minIntermediate15 movesA barbell, Medicine ballThe kettlebell plan uses our kettlebell workout, with the one-arm kettlebell push press.
Stay with the strict press, one arm at a time or at an incline, or the landmine press, until the wall check is easy, as our overhead press guide advises.
Press from the front only, never behind the neck, and follow the shoulder guide that fits; the landmine press is the gentler step they use.
Leave the push press out while a wrist is sore, as our wrist pain when lifting guide says, or try dumbbells held palms in.
Keep the weight moderate and breathe out through each press, as our breathing guide says. People with controlled blood pressure can do moderate strength training with proper breathing, the American Heart Association says.
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The NHS says strength training is fine if you already do it, and not to start new vigorous activity in pregnancy. If the push press is already in your training, keep it lighter and stop if you feel uncomfortable, too hot or unwell.
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If you get chest pain or pressure, feel faint or dizzy, are unusually breathless, or your heart races or beats irregularly during exercise, as our plans advise. The American Heart Association says these need immediate medical evaluation.
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For chest pain that comes on suddenly and doesn't go away, feels tight or like squeezing, or spreads to your arms, neck, jaw, stomach or back; a sudden, extremely painful headache, for example during a heavy press (the NHS says a bleed on the brain may be more likely when lifting something heavy); someone who faints while exercising; palpitations that don't go away, or come with chest pain, breathlessness or feeling faint; or signs of a stroke, even if they've stopped. Don't drive yourself to A&E.
If you haven't exercised for some time or have a medical condition, speak to your GP first, as the NHS advises. Get advice before heavy lifting if your blood pressure is uncontrolled, or you have heart disease or chest pain when you're active, a pacemaker or defibrillator, diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, a hernia, recent eye or tummy surgery, or you're pregnant, as our breathing guide lists.
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Call 999 or go to A&E if, after a fall or injury, or after your shoulder slipped during a press, your shoulder looks out of place or has changed shape, or you can't move your arm. Don't drive yourself, and don't try to put it back in.
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Ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 for sudden or very bad shoulder pain, an arm you can't move, a badly swollen or misshapen shoulder, pins and needles that don't go away, or pain after an injury. A sudden pop or snap with pain at the shoulder or upper arm needs a GP or NHS 111 the same day; a pop or tearing at the front of the armpit or chest, then bruising or a change of shape, needs NHS 111 or an urgent treatment centre the same day.
See a GP or physiotherapist if pain is getting worse or hasn't improved after 2 weeks of looking after it yourself, or it's very hard to move your arm, or if your shoulder has partly or fully come out of joint, or you worry it might.
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Call 999 or go to A&E for loss of feeling or numbness around your genitals or bottom, new trouble peeing or controlling your bladder or bowels, changes in genital sensation during sex or problems with erections or orgasm, or pain, tingling, weakness or numbness in both legs: signs of cauda equina syndrome. Don't drive yourself.
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Contact NHS 111 if you have severe wrist pain, feel faint or sick from the pain, heard a snap, grinding or popping noise, can't move your wrist or hold things, or it has changed shape or colour. See a GP if the pain hasn't improved after 2 weeks of treating it at home, is getting worse or keeps coming back, or you have tingling or loss of feeling.
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Call 999 or go to A&E if you heard a crack, or the injured part has changed shape, points at an odd angle, is numb or tingling, or has turned blue or grey or cold. If a rep stalls in front of your head, push the bar forward and step back rather than fight it, as the move page says.
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See a GP if you think you have a hernia, and get help from NHS 111 if a hernia becomes painful or you feel sick. Call 999 or go to A&E for a femoral hernia (a lump at the top of the thigh) with very bad tummy pain, sickness, being unable to fart or poo, a high temperature or sudden confusion.
It's a different exercise, not a failed strict press: the NSCA lists it among the overhead lifts for strength and speed, and its power matched a jump squat's. It's only cheating when a knee dip sneaks into sets you meant to be strict.
Bench pressing grew the front of the shoulder over 10 weeks, lateral raises grew the side of the shoulder in trained adults, and the shoulder press works both. Strict pressing is a good tool, not the only one.
It lets you move heavier loads fast, with power like a jump squat's, but nobody has measured strict press power alongside it or trained the two against each other.
In young footballers, push press training changed sprints and jumps trivially, less than jump squats did.
Coaches use a short dip of about a tenth of your height, controlled and straight down; dipping too fast or tipping forward are the classic faults.
Weightlifting competitions have two lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk; the press was dropped after 1972. The push press is a training lift for the jerk.
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An overhead press started by your legs: a short dip of your knees, a hard drive, then your arms finish pressing the bar to locked arms while your feet stay on the floor. It lets you put more weight overhead than a strict press.
Learn the strict press first, then use both. The strict press builds pressing strength through the whole range, and the push press moves heavier weights fast and trains power.
More, but there's no reliable ratio: we found no study that measured both in the same people. Against the jerks, people lift about 87% of their split jerk in a push press and 95% in a push jerk.
In a push press your legs drive and your arms finish the press with your knees straight. In a push jerk you drive, then bend your knees again to catch the bar on locked arms in a quarter squat, so you can lift a little more.
A push press starts standing: a short dip of the knees drives the press. A thruster starts from a full squat, so it's harder work and usually lighter.
Your shoulders and triceps press the bar, your upper back turns your shoulder blades up overhead, and your thighs, glutes and calves drive it, with your trunk braced throughout. No study has measured muscle activity in the push press itself.
No: it's a different exercise with its own job. Coaching bodies count it among the overhead lifts for strength and speed, and its power matched a jump squat's in a study. Just don't let a dip sneak into sets you meant to be strict.
About a tenth of your height, straight down, knees only, then straight back up with no pause. Your feet stay on the floor; some coaches let the heels rise a little at the end of a hard drive, while others describe the feet staying in full contact with the ground.
Learn with 3 sets of 3, light. For strength, sets of 3 to 5 reps; for power, 3 to 5 sets of 2 to 5 fast reps at roughly 65 to 80% of your best push press, resting fully. Never go to failure.
Yes: hold them at your shoulders, palms facing, and use the same dip and drive; one arm at a time makes your trunk work harder. Our kettlebell press guide teaches the kettlebell versions.
It trains overhead strength and power, but it hasn't been shown to make you sprint faster or jump higher: in young footballers it did less for both than jump squats.
Not when it's built up sensibly: in a survey of 308 CrossFit members it was behind 4 of 146 injury-causing movements. Press from the front unless your shoulders are pain-free with full range, dip straight down, and finish without leaning back.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. Check with a GP before starting hard training if you have a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness when active, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
