Overhead Focused Program

Hi CT,

After reaching my goal of a 1.15 x bw push press i switched focus to flat pressing. I am now wanting to refocus my efforts on the push press again to achieve my new goal of a 1.25 x bw push press.

I am following a modified version of your 3,2,1,6,6,6 program and am push pressing twice a week.

My current Press day looks like this for both days:

1.Push press: 3,2,1,6,6,6
2.Dips: 5 x 8
3.Push press (70% max): 5x3, 5x2, 5x1

This is working great at the moment and my shoulders are feeling as healthy as ever.

Can you see any issues with not including a bench variation? Will it effect chest hypertrophy that much?

Lastly, Would you change anything i have mentioned if you were focusing on overhead e.g. different rep schemes for the 2 days or increasing press frequency to 3 x a week?

Huge Thanks as per CT

I’m not CT, but I’ve been doing CT’s layers for about 7 months, with almost no benching, because it is detrimental to flexibility for snatching.

Once you are over BW, there are three main things to thing about with a pushpress or jerk:

  1. Stability - esp upper back and even the lats must be strong enough to keep the humerus in the right position
  2. The launch - quads and core strength to get a good push from the clavicles up past your nose
  3. Lockout power - Delts, traps and triceps

For me, I focus on them in this order. I couldn’t do a BW pushpress until I could do 5 chin ups. I had plenty of pressing power, but no control. My elbows were all over the place. I did lots of straight-arm rows to target the lower and middle traps, really focus on getting that muscle involved. Now, snatch training takes care of most of this for me.

Also, I could push press 20-30lbs more with a lifting belt - so I knew my core stability needed to improve to transfer the power from my quads to the bar. Front squats are the money movement, and will fix your weak point, if it is quads, core, or even upper back stability - whatever is limiting your FS.

I also did one day focused on push press layers, and a 2nd day focused on the press, either standing or sitting, working from pins in a rack.

Good luck!