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Dreadnought Overhead Press Program

woodswise

woodswise

TID Board Of Directors
Apr 29, 2012
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Here is a nice article I got from Starting Strongman.

Dreadnought Overhead Press Program – 4 Weeks to a Bigger Press

by letkallelift on December 16th, 2014 -
Article By Drew Spriggs
The overhead press – a simple movement that seems to the bane of most peoples’ existence. Like the majority of you, I used to absolutely HATE it as I completely sucked at it, so I developed a program to nail any potential weak points. Anecdotally, using this outline for 2 blocks (including 2 weeks off in between), I managed to increase my pitiful strict press from 70 to 85kg and improve my push press from 90kg to 110kg – not world beating, but it allowed me to go from bombing past OHP events in competitons to placing top 3 in the Viking Press in the last comp I entered. It is a VERY demanding program – if you haven’t already gotten 3-4 years of training history, have any history with shoulder issues or have dubious pressing technique you should not attempt the program because:

if you have shoulder issues, your body will limit your overhead strength to prevent you from injuring yourself more. Trying to continually get stronger when your body is preventing you from achieving it will only result in more injuries!

As there’s a lot of volume, the increased workload puts you at a significant risk of over-use injuries (supraspinatus tears/inflammation, AC joint impingement, etc). Adequate past exposure to high-frequency training is required!

While you are following this program, do NOT do any other form of pressing. Most people will find this much volume of overhead pressing will help them maintain their current flat bench press, and if there are deficiencies that this covers their bench might even go up! The program is pretty straight forward – you strict press, log press or push press (depending on what you want to improve the most) 3x a week for speed triples, followed by one accessory press to target a specific area you might be weak in, followed by three accessory movements. The speed triples are solely designed to be low volume and relatively low intensity, and focus on maximum power output. Start out with the bar and press 3 reps as explosively as possible, allow the bar to just drop on the negative (no slow lowering). From there, increase the weight in big jumps, slowly tapering off when the bar speed starts to slow down. As an example, my strict pressing day would go something like this.

Bar (20kg) x6 (only to warm up)
40×3
50×3
60×3
65×3
67.5×3
70×3

The weight you hit each day isn’t as important as you stopping the exercise where on your last set the third rep has started to slow down. Throughout the program the weight this occurs at may decrease or increase, which is to be expected depending on fatigue. The absolute last thing you want to do is push it for that extra set, and start grinding reps out – injury is almost guaranteed to happen with this much volume!

The program is designed to be run for a maximum of 4 weeks at a time, after that you should take an entire week off pressing then test or run again – if you run again I would limit it to 2 consecutive blocks. As there’s such an increase in frequency and volume, after some of the volume is dropped off I would expect your press to slightly go down with it, but fortunately most of the muscle mass you will gain following this program will last. The individual lift percentages are based upon the max for that lift, all the light accessory work should be done as a superset and trained to achieve a sweet pump (very hard but not taken to failure).

Week 1 – Shoulders Day
Speed press to max triple
Alternate Press (push Press OR strict press) to 8RM
4×12 Arnold Press
4×12 Front Lateral Raise
4×20 Seated Incline Shoulder Press
Triceps Day
Speed press to max triple
4x8x70% Close-Grip Bench
4×6 Weighted Dips
4×15 Lying Skullcrushers
4×20 Reverse Barbell Curl
Back Day
Speed press to max triple
Klokov (Snatch-Grip BTN) Press to 12RM
4×15 Reverse Flye
4×15 Rear Delt Row
4×20 Face Pulls
Week 2 – Shoulders Day
Speed press to max triple
Push Press OR strict press to 6RM
4×12 Arnold Press
4×12 Front Lateral Raise
4×15 Seated Incline Shoulder Press
Triceps Day
Speed press to max triple
4x6x75 Close-Grip Bench
4×6 Weighted Dips
4×12 Lying Skullcrushers
4×15 Reverse Barbell Curl
Back Day
Speed press to max triple
Klokov (Snatch-Grip BTN) Press to 10RM for 2 sets
4×12 Reverse Flye
4×12 Rear Delt Row
4×20 Face Pulls
Week 3 – Shoulders Day
Speed press to max triple
Push Press OR strict press to 4RM
4×10 Arnold Press
4×10 Front Lateral Raise
4×12 Seated Incline Shoulder Press
Triceps Day
Speed press to max triple
4x4x80% Close-Grip Bench
4×6 Weighted Dips
4×10 Lying Skullcrushers
4×12 Reverse Barbell Curl
Back Day
Speed press to max triple
Klokov (Snatch-Grip BTN) Press to 8RM for 2 sets
4×10 Reverse Flye
4×10 Rear Delt Row
4×20 Reverse Barbell Curl
Week 4 – Shoulders Day
Speed press to max triple
Push Press OR strict press to 2RM
4×8 Arnold Press
4×8 Front Lateral Raise
4×10 Seated Incline Shoulder Press
Triceps Day
Speed press to max triple
4x3x85% Close-Grip Bench
4×6 Weighted Dips
4×8 Lying Skullcrushers
4×10 Reverse Barbell Curl
Back Day
Speed press to max triple
Klokov (Snatch-Grip BTN) Press to 6RM for 2 sets
4×8 Reverse Flye
4×8 Rear Delt Row
4×20 Reverse Barbell Curl
Week 5
Monday

6×1 push or strict press at the heaviest triple you managed.
4×30 Band Pull-Apart
Tuesday
6×1 at approximately 50% of your highest triple
3×20 Face Pulls
AFTER 5 DAYS OF ABSOLUTE REST RETEST MAX

As you can see, there is a LOT of upper body pressing volume throughout the program, and apart from close-grip bench the weights aren’t prescribed as they will vary person to person. Try not to take the rep-max sets to ABSOLUTE failure, as this will unnecessarily fatigue you. Throughout the program you will need to ensure nutrition and recovery is high, to allow you to adapt efficiently. If you start experiencing pain in your elbows or shoulders that you haven’t felt before, have it checked out – I would expect some people to experience some sort of elbow or shoulder tendinitis through this much volume but it should be manageable. On the days where you aren’t pressing it would be advisable to do some form of very light pulling work – very light rows, face pulls, etc are all good. These should be done for very high reps (over 20) just to ensure your upper back stays tight and functional.

So that’s it folks: press heaps, keep those shoulders healthy and go forth and introduce a barbell to somewhere it was always meant to be – way above your head.

Drew is a competitive powerlifter and strongman, who realised that strength training had a massive positive effect on other areas of his life. After realising he was much better at teaching others how to be lift than lifting himself, he decided to step down off the platform and create Dreadnought Strength – an online and in-person coaching business that dedicates itself to allowing regular people to experience the transformative power of strength training. He is available for online coaching from Starting Strongman, and in-person coaching through Granite PT.”
You can follow Drew & DreadNought Strength on Facebook & Instagram
 
Last edited:
5.0

5.0

VIP Member
Nov 3, 2012
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Nice post WW, it lays out entire program and leaves no guessing. Thanks!
 
PillarofBalance

PillarofBalance

Strength Pimp
Feb 27, 2011
17,066
4,640
This would be a good way to get out of a bench slump too for a PL. Nice Overhead Press Program.
 
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