Well I’ve been seeing alot about this standing/seated military press war now. I want to know what’s the big difference between them. Personally I do them sitting down with the olympic bar and do it behind the neck (wide grip), this works excellent. Any thoughts. I think this is even how Ian King mentions it to do it in one of his programs.
There really are two types of seated barbell
military presses. In one type, you lean back
against a seat. This adds stability and allows
lifting more weight. In the other type you
keep your back vertical and it is NOT against
any seatback. This probably involves the
stabilizers more.
The seated type that is not against the
seatback is really extremely similar to the
standing military press except that you cannot
use your legs to cheat, and it seems like the stabilizers
of your midsection are nowhere near as busy
as they are in the standing version.
Personally I like doing seated military
presses not against the seatback, then
when I can get no more reps, get several
more reps by leaning against the seatback
to finish the set.
I do them in front seated or standing. I used to do them behind. I strained my rotator cuff doing them behind. My problem was because I lowered the bar all the way down to my traps. This is not good as it is an unnatural position to be in with heavy weight. My advice would be that is you do the exercise behind the neck use weights that you can lift with a good tempo. Don’t just drop the bar and don’t bring the bar below the top of your neck. I like to switch from seated to standing from time to time. If I do standing I go to failure and then use my legs to drive up 2 extra reps. This is a killer and seems to help with explosiveness on the bench if used sparingly (4-6 weeks)
I do military presses standing because of the added benefit to the stabilizing muscles. If I want to focus even more on my shoulders then I do presses seated with dumbells because it I feel the muscle better and can maintain form better. One exercise that I find helpful to throw in to work my stabilizers more and use a heavier poundage is the side press espoused by Pavel Tsatsouline.
Bill–What muscles are stabilizers? Remember, any particular muscle may serve a stabilzing function at any particular point in an exercise.