When doing Military Press...

[u NV me]

Do you go all the way down to your chest? Do you just bring the bar down to a certain angle with your arms?

I'm almost 6 '7 tall... I hardly ever go down to chest because it causes a pain in my shoulder. I usually bring the bar down b/w my chin and nose. Is this cheating though?

Thanks!

 

[gymtime]

For bar or DBs, I come down to where my upper arms are parallel with the floor, so I'm bringing the weight down roughly below the ear. While normally I try to get a full range of motion on most excercises, I don't think it's necessary on mill presses.

Sounds to me like you're fine.

 

[cmdubs]

I bring the bar down to just below chin level, any lower and it hurts my shoulders.

 

[eat big]

i touch my chest on barbell and touch my shoulders on dumbells

 

[Madcow2]

The strain on your shoulders due to depth of the bar has a lot to do with forearm length. Longer forearms create a less advantageous angle for the shoulder at a given bar depth. This is why benching and pressing is a lot harder for long armed individuals. I can't even use a cambered bar for bench since the entire range of my shoulder is required just to reach the chest.

So anyway, lift from where you can. I can't see you in front of me but there isn't an essential need to touch the chest on this exercise. Keep it full range but use your own judgement.

 

[BOOEY]

I think ROM is key for shoulder press. For years I did arms parallel, but when someone pointed it out and I went down to below chin, my delts grew and got stronger much quicker. You obviously don't want to do something that hurts you, but try bring your arms down as low as you can before it feels uncomfortable.

 

[bas4lizzife]

I bring the bar down to just below chin level, any lower and it hurts my shoulders.

same here

 

[Lord_Suston]

I bring it to my clavicles, but I have no pain doing this. Get the longest ROM that is pain Free and work on greater ROM with lighter weight

 

[eat big]

I bring it to my clavicles, but I have no pain doing this. Get the longest ROM that is pain Free and work on greater ROM with lighter weight

same here, i guess we're lucky we can do that without pain. i didnt realize it actually hurts ppl to go that low, i just thought they were always lazy.

 

[cmdubs]

The strain on your shoulders due to depth of the bar has a lot to do with forearm length. Longer forearms create a less advantageous angle for the shoulder at a given bar depth.

hmm...this makes sense since I'm 6' 2"

 

[Madcow2]

hmm...this makes sense since I'm 6' 2"

Too a great degree success at most exercises is determined by genetics. It can be your forearm length requiring a more severe and less advantageous shoulder angle for pressing. It can even come down to something like the exact location of the tendons attaching providing better physics and overhead leverage among an equivalent bone structure. You see hardly any successful olympic lifters or powerlifters that are much over 6'. For the most part, it's people with very good genetics for the sport competing amongst themselves. It's not like golf where you can make up for not hitting the ball the far with another set of skills (accuracy, short-game, competitive fire). That's why the Soviets and Eastern Bloc were so successful, they channeled the athletes with the best genetics into a given sport where they were likely to succeed. This is also why US Weightlifting is subpar now (we owned this sport for a solid period during the last century), all our most explosive and powerful athletes go to sports where they can compete without starving.