Today we´re going to talk about a common movement error starting the bar in the press that throws the bar forward and how to stop this from happening.

Starting Strength coaches teach a hip movement when doing the press. The trainee dip the bar and drive through the bar. The bar stays midfoot at the beginning of the press because it’s got to be in front of the neck. And then, we want to get it back to the shoulders as quick as possible.

Some people have a pretty good layback, but they’re missing missing the press because the bar is forward. Everybody’s so concerned about what’s happening in their shoulders, but they’re not concerned about what’s happening in their hips.

One thing that Rusty, coach at the Wichita Falls Athletic Club, is seeing with the press and a good layback and then missing the bar because the bar is forward, is people aren’t using their hips at all. What they’re doing is they’re just leaning back with the bar. They have the bar, and they’re going to do their hip movement, but they don’t. They just lean back. If you lean back and you keep the bar close to your shoulders, it’s going to put you on your heels. You can only do this for so long versus getting your hips forward and then driving the bar.

Whenever people are leaning back with the bar, they’re losing the bar forward. What’s normally happening is they’re just leaning back with their shoulders and then to balance themselves, they push the bar forward, which creates a big moment arm from the bar to their shoulders. And if you create that moment arm, the bar is going to get heavier just because of leverage.

So if you find yourself losing the bar forward a whole lot, and you can’t figure out why (you say: “Well, I have a good layback. I’m everything’s good and I’m just pushing the bar forward every time.”), don’t worry about what’s happening the shoulders so much, worry about the hips. Make sure your hips are going forward to balance yourself out with the bar because the bar shouldn’t be going back and forth. It shouldn’t be moving this way in space. It shouldn’t be coming back with you. It should stay in the center of balance and move in a slot.

As Mark Rippetoe would say, the press is very sensitive to perturbations. You don’t want the bar moving forward or backwards. It just moves up and down. If you are leaning back and you’re not pushing your hips forward to balance yourself out, you’re going to push the bar forward every time to balance yourself out. So, if that’s happening over and over again and you can’t figure out why, record yourself or have somebody watch and make sure your hips are going forward to actually initiate the press.

* If you don´t know how to do the press by the Starting Strength methodology, click here. You’ll find the information in the section for this lift in that article.

Bibliographic references:

• Starting Strength. (2026). Stop Throwing Your Press Forward [Video file]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/KyZ4LFASSaY?si=AmFmvoMeDjh1DVfs