Main muscles worked
deltoids, triceps, trapezius
Capsule description
seated, with arms overhead, move the bar up and down a few inches
To focus a lot of work on the lateral head of the deltoids while using a big exercise, use the partial overhead press—just the top three to four inches. This works more than just the lateral head of the deltoids. The whole of the shoulder-cap muscle is involved. Use this exercise as an alternative to the full-range overhead press.
Set-up and positioning
Set up an adjustable incline bench inside a power rack, or a Smith machine. Be sure that the bench is sturdy, heavy and stable. Set it up so that the angle between the horizontal and the back of the upright part of the bench is 75 to 80 degrees. If the seat is adjustable, set it at the position next to horizontal so that you’re less likely to slide out of position during a set.
Place the bench so that your eyes, when your shoulders and head are against the bench, are a little in front of the barbell as it rests on the pins and against the front or rear uprights of a power rack. This assumes that you use the type of power rack that enables you to set a bench inside it in the position required. The rack’s uprights should be behind the bar as you look at the bar while you’re in position against the back support. Alternatively, your eyes could be a little in front of the bar of a Smith machine. Exactly where your eyes will be, relative to the bar, will be determined by factors including the angle of the back support of the bench, your arm length, and how much your head is tilted. Find the best positioning for you.
The bar must be set at a height only three to four inches below the position where it would be if your elbows were fully locked out overhead. Position the pins of a power rack appropriately for you, and then load your bar while it’s across the pins, not while it’s on the weight saddles. This will be your starting position. Never take the bar out of the saddles of a power rack and do the exercise without pins set in place. That would leave you with nothing to catch the bar if you failed on a rep.
Chalk your hands before each work set, to prevent your hands slipping on the bar. Use a shoulder-width grip, never a wide grip. But if your grip is too close, you’ll easily lose balance of the barbell.
In a power rack the bar should, preferably, travel up and down against the uprights. This keeps you in the right groove. If you’re doing the exercise in a Smith machine, the bar will already be locked into position.
With a Smith machine it’s critical that you can safely rack the bar. At the end of a set your shoulders and arms will be very fatigued, and you’ll not have full control over the bar. Set up the machine so that your bottom position is where the latches are at rest. Keep the latches inside the guided pathway during each set. Then you’ll be able to move the bar up and down the guided pathway without ever twisting your wrists to take the latches out. Then, even if you lose control, the bar will come to rest safely. This is possible only because the lockout is a partial movement.
Overhead lockout in a power rack. Whether using a power rack, or a Smith machine, your arms should be in a vertical or near-vertical plane throughout the exercise—not at the same 75 to 80 degrees of the bench. Arrange your setup position accordingly.
The overhead lockout can be done without the vertical guide of the rack uprights, or a Smith machine. But still use a power rack, with pins set in the same position as for the guided style. If done with insufficient control in the unguided style, there’s a greatly increased risk of injury because the bar can easily move out of the right groove due to one hand getting in front of the other. This causes dangerous asymmetrical stress. If you can’t keep control over the bar in the unguided style, use only the guided pathway method.
Performance
Don’t do the reps in a non-stop touch-and-go style because that’s an easy way to lose the horizontal balance of the bar, and stress one shoulder more than the other. This can cause injuries. Very briefly set the bar on the pins between reps so that you can keep in the groove more easily.
Do the reps with control. Don’t blast the bar off the pins, because that will cause you to lose the groove. It will also make you slam into the locked-out position, which is harmful for your elbows. And the excessive momentum will take some of the stress away from the primary target muscles—the deltoids.
As you do the lockouts, you may want to let your head come forward slightly so that the bar is moving up and down behind your head.
After your final rep, with your arms fully locked out, shrug your shoulders up (and hence raise your arms). Though the bar will move only an inch or so, the shrug will add further stress to your deltoids. Do as many overhead shrugs as possible.
A harder method is to shrug at the top of each rep. To optimize this style, set up two pairs of pins four inches apart. Arrange the height of the pins in the rack so that the first three inches of the movement completes the lockout. The final inch is for the shrug only. You must not be able to lock out for the entire four inches. For each rep you must lock out and shrug in order to be able to touch the bar to the upper pair of pins, with the barbell sliding up and down against the rack’s uprights.
Warm up well, practice the groove with a light weight, and then carefully build up the weight from workout to workout. Poundage potential is influenced by factors including the range of motion you use, and whether you shrug on each rep or just at the end of each set.
During this exercise, don’t exaggerate the arch in your lower back.
Spotting
The correct groove can be lost easily, especially if the exercise is not done using a guided pathway. The spotter should look out for the bar tipping, one hand getting forward of the other, or the bar being pressed off center, and provide help to prevent serious form deterioration.
Using a Smith machine, a spotter is essential unless you never take the latches out of the guided pathway. At the end of a hard set, if you have moved the latches forward, you may have trouble putting them back in the locked position. When fatigued at the end of a hard set, it’s easy to lose control of the movement. A spotter would then be critical, to ensure that you don’t lose control over the bar.
The Smith machine has few uses for safe training. The overhead lockout, because it uses a short range of motion, is one of the safe applications if it’s done as described here. But don’t do any type of full-range press in the Smith machine. The rigid vertical pathway of this machine is unnatural to the body for full-range pressing. It will set you up for chronic injuries.