Lifters love to brag about having a heavy bench press. Of course, the longer you keep at upping your bench press, the harder it becomes. Eventually, your gains will stall out, and you’ll be lucky to add even a pound to your bench, and even if you do, you may get hurt in the process.
It may surprise you to learn that the best way to boost your bench (assuming you’ve been benching for a while) is not to bench press at all. (Yes, really.) As you become capable of moving more weight, it’s oftentimes your shoulders, back, and triceps that hold you back — not your chest muscles. For that reason, we suggest taking some time away from the bench (again, yes, we’re serious) and focusing on the overhead press.
Below, we’ll be covering how to add the shoulder press to your workout routine, why it’s important, and a 12-week workout plan you can follow to send your barbell bench press through the roof.
How the Overhead Press Improves Your Bench
Ed Coan, multiple-time world powerlifting champion, claims that he made an impressive leap in his bench press performance by enhancing his strength on the behind-the-neck shoulder press. He said that weaker shoulders negatively impacted his bench press. Coan stated: “I used behind-the-neck presses. Seated. I felt like it mimicked my triceps and shoulder involvement perfectly. Numbers on the overhead press just went up as my bench did.”
The barbell overhead press is to the shoulders what the bench press is to your chest. You can load the most amount of weight compared to other shoulder-building exercises. The overhead press also targets your core and triceps too.
[Related: Everything You Need to Know to Build Your First Workout Program]
You’ll be targeting your anterior deltoids (front part of your shoulders), triceps, traps, and even a little bit of your pecs — which is another reason adding the overhead press to your routine will help improve your barbell bench press — when doing the barbell shoulder press.
Of course, using the proper weight for each overhead press is imperative to get the most out of the lift and, better yet, protect yourself from injury. There are methods (which we go over below) to calculate how much an athlete should lift relative to their other lifts for optimal strength and maintain longevity.
Injuries and nagging pains are common for lifters. Therefore, you must train smart when determining which weight you should use when performing barbell shoulder press and barbell bench press. Especially since your shoulders are one of the most mobile joints in your body, and the more mobile your joints are, the more likely they are to get injured.
With that being said, lift with caution on any pressing movements and follow the workout ratios that follow the rest of this article to increase your barbell bench press and protect your body.
Strength Ratios For Overhead Presses
When determining what strength ratio you should use to improve your strength on the overhead press, which is directly related to your strength on the barbell bench press, you’ll want to consider the two ratios that follow.
Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press
The weight done for eight reps on each dumbbell on both of these movements should represent 29% of the close-grip bench press measure. In other words, a man able to close-grip bench 225 pounds for a single rep would use a pair of 65-pound dumbbells for eight reps in the seated dumbbell overhead presses.
Behind-the-Neck Press
The weight for your one-rep max on the behind-the-neck overhead press from a seated position should represent 66% of the weight used for your one-rep max on the close-grip bench press. So if you can close-grip bench press 225 pounds, work up to 145 to 155 pounds on the behind-the-neck press.
The overhead press is a challenging lift, and you can’t lift as much as you can with the bench press. If you are not close at all to being able to achieve these ratios, then it’s time to back off the bench press and specialize in overhead work.
To improve your shoulder strength to get your numbers closer to the ratios above, the program outlined below would be perfect.
[Related: 3 Steps to Rebuild Your Barbell Confidence]
A Word About Chin-ups
Before we jump into the 12-week program to increase your bench press with the overhead press, we need to scratch the surface of why it’s important to include chin-ups as well. (You will, after all, see them programmed into each cycle below.)
Aside from the overhead press, specializing in a periodization for chin-ups will carry over to the barbell bench press as well. That’s because it increases the strength in your arms, namely your posterior deltoids, and a big back provides a more stable platform from which you can bench press.
Below is a 12-week program you can follow for training your back and shoulders to increase your shoulder strength and barbell bench press.
How to Do the Overhead Press
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Grab a barbell with a shoulder-width grip and rest it on your collar bone.
- Raise the barbell overhead in a controlled motion.
- Fully extend your arms at the top of the movement and put your head through your arms.
- Slowly lower the weight back down to your collar bone.
- Repeat.
[Related: The 8 Best Barbell Exercises for Mass, Strength, and Power]
How to Do the Chin-Up
- Stand underneath a pull-up bar and grab it with both hands, palms facing your head, set shoulder-width apart.
- Lift your feet off of the ground and extend your arms fully, so you’re in what’s known as a “dead hang.”
- Squeeze your shoulder blades together, and then pull yourself up, leading the pull with your elbows.
- Keep pulling until your chin is at or over the bar.
- Hold this position for one to two seconds, and then lower yourself back down to a dead hang.
[Related: The 8 Best Barbell Exercises for Mass, Strength, and Power]
Improve Your Bench Without Benching in 12 Weeks
In this workout program, you’re going to build your training around a five-day cycle that looks like this:
- Day 1 – Shoulder/Back
- Day 2 – Legs/Abs
- Day 3 – Off
- Day 4 – Arms
- Day 5 – Off
- Repeat
You can fill days two and four with whatever leg/ab and arm exercises you like; we’re just going to tell you what to do on Day 1 for the next 16 cycles, which will wrap up in a little under 12 weeks. Note: All of the exercises marked with the same number are performed as a superset with rest between. For example, you’ll do one set of “1A,” rest for 90 seconds, and then do a set of “1B” and rest again. Then, repeat that cycle.
Cycles 1-4
Note, the reps separated by dashes indicate four weeks of progress. So you’ll do five sets of eight reps in week one, then five reps of seven reps the following week, and so on. Increase the weight a little bit — like five percent — as the reps go down. In the last week, aim to lift more for eight reps than you did in week one.
Do both movements to a tempo of 4-0-x-0
- 1A. Overhead Press: 5 x 8 / 7 / 6 / 8
- 1B. Chin-Up: 5 x 6-8
Cycles 5-8
Be sure to add weight, just a little, like two and a half pounds, to the barbell as the reps go down. For the chin-up, add weight if you can do well beyond three to five reps. Otherwise, stick with your body weight.
Do the overhead press to a tempo of 3-1-x-0 and the chin-up for 4-0-x-0
- 1A. Seated Overhead Press: 6 x 5, 5, 3, 3, 2, 2
- 1B. Chin-Up: 6 x 3-5
Cycles 9-12
Place your dominant leg about 10 to 12 inches forward. This diminishes pressure on the lower back compared to standing with your feet aligned. If your lower back strength is poor, you will find it hard to stabilize the trunk during this exercise. If so, it might be time to commit some time to lower back work.
For the first superset, do the overhead press to a tempo of 8-0-1-0 and the chin-up for 3-0-x-1. For the second superset, do the overhead press to a tempo of 4-0-x-0 and the chin-up for 3-0-x-0.
- 1A. Standing Overhead Press W/ Narrow Grip: 3 x 5 eccentric reps
- 1B. Chin-Up: 3 x 2
- 2A. Standing Overhead Press W/ Narrow Grip: 3 x 3
- 2B. Chin-Up: 3 x 3-4
Cycle 13
For the first superset, do the overhead press to a tempo of 4-0-x-0 and the chin-up for 4-0-1-0. For the second superset, do the overhead press to a tempo of 3-0-x-0 and the chin-up for 3-0-x-0.
- 1A. Behind-the-Neck Overhead Press: 5 x 1*
- 2A. Chin-Up: 3 x 2-4
- 2A. Behind-the-Neck Overhead Press: 3 x 3-5
- 2B. Chin-Up: 3 x 3-5
*These are cluster sets. Read our guide on how to do these.
Cycle 14
For the first superset, do the overhead press to a tempo of 4-0-x-0 and the chin-up for 4-0-1-0. For the second superset, do the overhead press to a tempo of 3-0-x-0 and the chin-up for 3-0-x-0.
- 1A. Behind-the-Neck Overhead Press: 4 x 1*
- 2A. Chin-Up: 4 x 2-4
- 2A. Behind-the-Neck Overhead Press: 4 x 3-5
- 2B. Chin-Up: 4 x 3-5
*These are cluster sets.
Cycle 15
For the first superset, do the overhead press to a tempo of 4-0-x-0 and the chin-up for 4-0-1-0. For the second superset, do the overhead press to a tempo of 3-0-x-0 and the chin-up for 3-0-x-0.
- 1A. Behind-the-Neck Overhead Press: 5 x 1*
- 2A. Chin-Up: 5 x 2-4
- 2A. Behind-the-Neck Overhead Press: 3 x 3-5
- 2B. Chin-Up: 3 x 3-5
*These are cluster sets.
Cycle 16
Do both exercises for a tempo of 4-0-x-0.
- 1A. Behind-the-Neck Overhead Press: 6 x 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3*
- 2A. Chin-Up: 6 x 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3*
*For each rep, do a weight that has you failing just one rep over the prescribed number
Wrapping Up
So, “strength is in numbers” indeed! If you take the time to test yourself and take the necessary steps to ensure structural balance, then you’ll be granted a long and prosperous lifting life and a barbell bench press past any number you’d thought you’d be capable of ever lifting. If you can achieve the strength ratios for the presses laid out in this article, your risk of injury will be dramatically reduced, and progress on your barbell bench press will come easier.
Don’t wait any longer, and make the overhead press another weapon in your training arsenal!
Featured image: Vladimir Sukhachev/Shutterstock