Anytime I do these exercises, I usually pull something in my back or shoulder when I’m trying to get the weight in the starting position. Right now, I’m bringing the dumbells to the knee while im sitting down, then do the knee jerk to help throw them on my shoulders… it is doing this where I usually pull something. Lately, I’ve been going lighter on this exercise to avoid this problem, but I don’t want to hold back anymore…
Any other way of doing this, or advice you guys have on this subject.
I know exactly what you mean. I tore my shoulder in two places: the capsule and subscapularis. Every time I do shoulders I feel shit clicking and shifting and it hurts like a bitch. The best advice I can give you (and this works for me) is warm up really good, and start out light and work your way up. Hope this helps, and good luck. You don’t want to really fuck your shoulder up, so be careful and listen to your body. RLTW
The way I do em is sit on a bench. Bring em to my knees, then my hips and then pull my knees to my chest rocking back on a rounded back. With the dumbells at your hips as you pull your knees back you use the momentum to get the dumbbells to your shouders. Then rock back, tucking knees to chest and get to your feet. Voila! Sounds more complex than it is but only thing to watch out for is losing your balance and rolling off the bench or letting the dumbells come away from the centre line of your body to much, make sure to keep your elbows tucked.
I do a fair amount of dumbbell presses and I never press anything that I cannot clean from the ground.
Your first set should be so easy that it seems almost effortless. This will warm up the proper muscles involved. Gradually work up to your work set over several sets.
I have never been injured working the exercise in this manner.
I agree with ZEB. Don’t try to get a 1RM in a DB press, the weight used will be too difficult to get into position without a partner. If you want to go very heavy, i prefer barbell presses only if you don’t have a partner. You can also purchase a special device that you attach to a rack that you can position the DBs beforehand, so you can start the rep much like you do with a barbell.
Dude, listen to Zeb about the warm up, especially if the DB Military press is your first exercise of the workout. Also, you mentioned doing them seated, heavy military presses can be very hard on the back when you are seated. Sitting down increases loading on the lumbar spine by up to 40%! Do them standing most of, if not, ALL of the time. Also, don’t just get stuck on DB presses, try some BB presses, clean and presses, clean and jerks, etc…
I always do my presses standing. To get the dumbells up on my shoulders I pull my arms back a bit and do a “supercheat” hammercurl! That works well for me but I never go heavier than my 3RM.