DON’T MAKE THESE PRESS MISTAKES

In this post I'm going to explain the bar position starting in the press and some common press position mistakes seen in those with long forearms.

The first common mistake is starting the bar too high whenever you're pressing. Rusty, coach at the Wichita Falls Athletic Club, sees this normally whenever presses start getting heavier. People start creeping the bar up. There're different ways that this looks. Some raise their chin and they get their bar as high as they can. Some just put the bar right in front of their face. The starting position is below the chin while your head is straight on. That's the standard. If you hit that standard everytime, then you don't add in different variables of the bar position starting.

There's something that is not clear on it in the Starting Strength book. It shows the bar making contact with the deltoids in the bottom. There is a caveat to that if you don't have long forearms. If you have long forearms, it's very hard for you to get contact with your deltoids and you have to float the bar.

If you're in contact with your deltoids and you do the hip movement, you're using more muscle mass to actually throw the bar with the delt. If your forearms are too long, you don't have that option of using the deltoids to push off of. You have to use a stretch reflex. People that hold the bar underneath their chin, they can stretch reflex. Then, they throw the bar.

If you can't get the bar down to your deltoids, the bar is significantly heavy enough, you're doing Olympic lifts and you're really warmed up, you can get pretty close. It's still very hard for you. So, this post pertains to people with very long forearms that have to float the bar and that are getting a stretch reflex out of the bottom of the press.

So, one thing coach Rusty sees a lot is, when the bar gets heavier, people will start the bar like in front of their lips, almost in front of their chin. That's not where we want to start the bar.

And then, what he also sees is the same thing with a hyperextension of the neck. We don't want to do this either. Whenever we're doing a press, especially at one of our competitions, you can't raise your chin artificially and have the starting position. Where we want the bar to start is right below the chin. You want it close to the shoulders, so the bar gets back to the shoulders quicker. So again, coach Rusty sees that a lot: when the bar gets heavier and heavier, people want to start the bar higher.

Another thing that coach Rusty sees is kind of a double bounce. People will start below the chin, and what they'll do is raise the bar so they get more of a stretch reflex. Again, once the bar starts up, that's the beginning of the press. So, don't raise, lower and then raise. The bar starts below the chin, dips, and then drives through.

Clean up the bottom of your press. Make things a little more standardized, and then you won't have different variables. Again, coach Rusty sees a lot of people when their press starts getting up, they start changing the bar level. Don't do that.

* 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.

"The press is the most useful upper-body exercise for sports conditioning, primarily because it is not just an upper-body exercise."

"Strong shoulders are healthy shoulders, and the best way to make them strong is to use them correctly, by pressing the barbell overhead."

"The vast majority of humans on this planet have never had to push really, really hard on anything, and that is a skill that should be developed, along with cooking, critical thinking and interpersonal skills."

Mark Rippetoe

Bibliographic references:

• Starting Strength. (2026). Don´t Make These Press Mistakes [Video file]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/ncvDJo3PK0E?si=b7gknDRe6vac7wSj
• Rippetoe M. (2011). Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, 3rd Edition. The Aasgaard Company.