Cant Improve on Shoulder Press

[Zackoz]

My DB Shoulder Press is 32.5KGs, and I do 3 sets and my reps are something like 6,5,4

The thing is, I just cant seem to improve on it. I seem to be stuck at this weight. All my other exercises are consistently improving but this one just wont. One week Ill get a rep more, then the next week Ill get one less. I just find it so hard! I even tried moving to 35KG but I could barely get 2 reps lol.

Any advice??

[maverick]

Try heavier shoulder exercises. My shoulder presses are still relatively weak, but I found improvements in all aspects of them after doing clean and push presses for a while. The push press motion lets you put a lot more weiht over your head.

[cursor]

Are you also doing barbell shoulder presses? By manipulating weight and reps between the two exercises you should be able to make progress (provided you're eating enough).

[Zackoz]

I really cant do barbell presses...they hurt my shoulder joints too much...Im definately eating enough...as I said all my other lifts are increasing, Im also putting on weight and size nicely...its just the damn military press I cant seem to improve on!

[Klinger]

Try the clean and press with DBs. It will let you work on explosive power and let you push more weight since you're using some quad strength, as Mav said.

This is a BB example, but you'll get the point: I struggled to overhead press 105 (seated) before I started doing clean and presses. When I went back to seated OHP a few weeks later, 115 went up with no fuss.

[skyman]

1) Make sure you eat
2) Is this after other excersises which may fatigue those muscles.
3) Take a break for a week or two and see what happens when you get back.

[killerduck]

1) make sure you have a good range of motion i.e. bring the dumbbell down to at least head height.
2) your probably lifting too heavy. Drop the weight down to 28kg and then build back up. In a few weeks you will be back on track. Trust me i just had the same problem.

[.V.]

Same here, got stuck - dropped the weight to something I could get cleanly with 3x6. Repeated this for a couple of weeks. Increased the weight the smallest increment possible. Got to 3x6 on this, repeated. Kept going in that manner until suddenly the gains were coming quickly, hitting 3x6 on weights easily the first try. I blew right past my old sticking point. Eventually it slows back down though.

Another thing - if you are stuck at the same weight for a few weeks or even a month - it's not a real problem - just work on improving the quality a bit each week until you are able to add a rep...then another...then another...then a pound...

Have you tried doing some power reps? Powerlifters work on rep speed to move the weight as fast as they can. Do a search in the Powerlifting forum to find what weight to a certain rep max to use on this type of movement and incorporate that into your routine. You should see your weights progressing after a few weeks.

[killerduck]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

Same here, got stuck - dropped the weight to something I could get cleanly with 3x6. Repeated this for a couple of weeks. Increased the weight the smallest increment possible. Got to 3x6 on this, repeated. Kept going in that manner until suddenly the gains were coming quickly, hitting 3x6 on weights easily the first try. I blew right past my old sticking point. Eventually it slows back down though.

Another thing - if you are stuck at the same weight for a few weeks or even a month - it's not a real problem - just work on improving the quality a bit each week until you are able to add a rep...then another...then another...then a pound...

yer, dropping weight works everytime, with any lift. You cant afford to be too proud to say to yourself "look, you cant really cope with this weight you need to drop down the weight a little" I was stuck benching 86kg for ages. This was at the end of jan. I dropped down to 80 and built back up. I am now improving 2-6kg's a week and am currently benching 103kgx8.