To the untrained eye, the push press and overhead press may look like the same lift. Some even use the names interchangeably, thinking itโs the same lift, but itโs not. There are key differences in the execution and purpose of each lift and what they train.
So what is the difference between the push press vs. the overhead press? The push press allows the lifter to bend their knees and build momentum and force from their lower body to accelerate the weight overhead. The overhead press requires the lifter to only use their upper body strength to push the weight overhead in a more static movement.
As always, thereโs more to understand than can be shared in a simple explanation like the one above. Letโs dive into the details of each exercise to compare them. .
Table of Contents
Push Press vs. Overhead Press: 3 Differences
As you look at the overhead press vs. push press, there are three main differences Iโd like to point out:
- Lower body assistance
- Momentum
- Training applications
1. Lower Body Assistance
In an overhead press (sometimes called a strict press or shoulder press), you keep your lower body still and only use your upper body strength to push the weight overhead. There should be no bending of the knees to add momentum to assist the bar off your chest and over your head.
Itโs sometimes called a strict press because you keep your body rigid and only use the pecs, shoulders, back, and arms to move the weight. In some strength sports, this is strictly enforced, and lifters are given red lights or disqualified from that attempt if there is too much lower body movement to initiate the press.
In a push press, lower body involvement is expected and encouraged! Lifters bend their knees slightly to โjumpโ or hitch their whole body up to start the movement, giving the weight in their hands' momentum before their arms begin to press it and extend it overhead.
When looking at an overhead press or push press, you can always spot the difference in lower body involvement and how much it assists the lifter.
2. Momentum
This is connected to the lower body involvement, but added momentum in the bar is a big differentiator with the push press.
With the added velocity from bending your knees and getting your lower body to launch the weight up in a push press, you have added velocity and momentum to assist your arms. Your arms are now assisted by that momentum, which means they donโt have to work as hard at the lower end of the range of motion (ROM) and are only on their own to lock it out at the end.
Even with submaximal lifts, that momentum will often pass into the lockout portion of the ROM. During max attempts or once youโre fatigued at the end of a set or workout, your triceps will struggle to lock the weight out on their own without trailing momentum from the push at the start.
With an overhead press, the only momentum you have to assist your lockout is what you generate with your shoulders and pecs getting the bar off your chest in the first place. These lifts are generally much slower without that added momentum from your lower body.
3. Applications
The final difference between the shoulder press vs. the push press is how you apply these lifts to your training.
The push press and overhead press are used as displays of upper body strength in different sports and competitions, but each has unique benefits for you as a lifter.
The overhead press is generally used to focus on upper body strength. Because lifters perform it with only their balance and their feet on the floor to stabilize them, many argue the overhead press is a superior display of strength to the bench press. For this reason, some offshoots of powerlifting have replaced the bench press with the overhead press.
The push press focuses more on how much weight you can move with your whole body. By allowing the lifter to build momentum in their lower body, judges and spectators simply want to see an explosive lift that ends with the weight overhead, whether itโs with a barbell, dumbbells, or a log.
As such, bodybuilders, powerlifters, and other athletes often use the overhead press to train the upper body without giving any credit or influence to their lower half. They use it to focus on generated strength and force from a static start, giving crossover benefits to the bench press, Olympic lifts, and muscular development of the upper body for bodybuilders.
With the push press, Strongmen and Olympic lifters benefit by training to use every resource they can in their body to get the weight overhead. Olympic lifters use this skill in both the snatch and the clean and jerk, and Strongman competitors use it in log presses and other push press events.
The push press is also a common movement in CrossFit workouts that tests athletesโ muscular endurance and barbell cycling skills.
In this case, you would train the push press to coordinate your bodyโs movements for a push press event, the snatch and clean and jerk, and intense CrossFit workouts to improve your abilities in those events.
Wondering about the differences between the push press and the bench press? Check out Bench Press vs. Overhead Press: Differences, Pros, Cons.
Push Press: How To, Muscles Used, Tips, Common Mistakes, Pros, and Cons
Push Press: How To Do It
Step one: Rack a barbell at about shoulder height on a squat rack
Place a barbell on a squat rack in front of you at about shoulder height.
Step two: Unrack the barbell and hold it below your chin
Unrack the barbell in your hands so your forearms are under the bar, with the bar resting on your chest below your chin.
Step three: Bend your knees and drive the barbell overhead as you stand up
Bend your knees slightly like youโre going to jump and stand up straight like you are jumping, but donโt allow your feet to leave the ground. Use that momentum to pop the barbell off your chest and press the barbell up and over your head.
Step four: Keep pushing the barbell up until your elbows are locked out
Lock your elbows as the barbell sits directly above your shoulder joint.
Step five: Return the barbell to the starting position and repeat for reps
Lower the bar back to your chest, then repeat for reps.
Push Press: Muscles Used
The push press uses the pecs, shoulders, and triceps to press the weight overhead. Your legs, abs, and back enable you to make the initial lower body movement to build momentum and keep you stable while you press and lower the weight.
Push Press: Pro Tips
Similar to the OHP, youโll do much better with the push press if you have a clear bar path that starts on your chest and ends directly above your shoulder joint.
As you press the barbell, log, axle bar, or whatever you are push pressing overhead, push your head forward as the bar clears your forehead. The bar should move up and backward in a diagonal line, not straight up vertically from your starting point.
Pushing your head forward as the bar clears it is a good form technique to get the bar where it needs to be at the top – directly over your shoulder joints and balanced over your center of gravity.
Push Press: Common Mistakes
When doing a push press, one major mistake stands out to me: mistiming your upper body engagement with your lower body movement.
Some lifters think they can ride the momentum of the lower body โjumpโ longer than they should and donโt engage their upper body press simultaneously. This is a mistake because you should press as hard as you can from the time you lock your knees after the lower body hitch you just finished.
Instead of thinking about these in two steps (drive with your legs, then push with your arms), make these steps blend together – drive with your legs and press with your arms as you lock your knees.
If you press with intensity at the same time as you drive with your legs, you can lift way more weight with much better success than if you tried to break this into two steps.
Push Press: Benefits
As you train the push press, youโll find several benefits, but a few that stand out to me when compared to the OHP are the following:
Full Body Engagement
The push press isnโt just an upper body movement because youโve got to use that lower half to generate momentum!
This is one of my favorite benefits because you get more of your body involved. This burns more calories, engages more muscles, and requires us to pay attention to more cues during the lift. All good things!
Athletic Coordination
To me, the push press feels more athletic because you need several things to fire at once. You have an explosive lower body push to start, immediately translating into an upper body press to make it all work.
When you put this together, itโs a pretty damn athletic movement. Beginners may struggle to get that timing and coordination right, but training it over and over, even for elite lifters, will reinforce and improve that overall athletic ability.
Move More Weight
My favorite benefit of all is that the push press allows you to move more weight than an overhead press!
Like most lifters, I love lifting as much as I can in the gym. When you present me with the push press as an option over the OHP, the first thing that excites me is being able to move more weight successfully.
Itโs a great boost to your confidence, and you can even use it as a step toward being able to static press or overhead press the same weight down the road. As you use the push press to get comfortable with this heavier weight, you give your muscles some of the stimuli they need to grow and be prepared to static press that weight in the future.
Push Press: Drawbacks
As you train the push press, remember there are a couple of drawbacks you can pay attention to and try to avoid:
Can Create Momentum Dependency
It feels good to move more weight than the OHP, but donโt let it become a dependency. The OHP has its place in training your isolated upper body muscles to just do the pressing part.
Donโt get so confident in your push pressing skills that you canโt allow yourself to reduce the weight and do good OHP work, too.
Can Create a False Sense of OHP Abilities
The other side of this coin is that doing the push press well can make you think youโll be able to static press the same weight you can push press.
If you can OHP the same weight as your push press, youโre likely not push pressing enough. Or youโre a freak of nature whoโs really strong in the upper body and canโt coordinate extra momentum from your lower half to make your push press stronger.
That said, treat these two lifts differently. Your push press working weight wonโt be your OHP working weight, so accept that and be fine with it. Donโt let that ego get in the way of using less weight and doing effective OHP work, too.
Push Press: Is It Better To Use a Barbell or Dumbbells?
You can do a push press with both barbells and dumbbells!
Youโre far more likely to use a barbell in competitions and displays of strength. If you have goals to compete, youโll want to train with a barbell to have that specific skill polished, developed, and ready to go on meet day.
Dumbbells offer more range of motion. You may find dumbbells work better if you have shoulder discomfort or limits with a barbell.
I can think of one drawback with dumbbells is that it may be more difficult to give them a good resting place on your chest or shoulders when there isnโt a bar connecting them across the middle of your chest.
This means that the lower body push may not translate as directly into popping the dumbbells up as well as a barbell resting on your chest. Be aware of this and adjust accordingly.
Overhead Press: How To, Muscles Used, Tips, Common Mistakes, Pros, and Cons
Overhead Press: How To Do It
Step one: Rack a barbell on a squat rack, so itโs at about shoulder height
Place a barbell on a squat rack in front of you at about shoulder height.
Step two: Unrack the barbell and hold it under your chin
Unrack the barbell in your hands so your forearms are under the bar, with the bar resting on your chest below your chin.
Step three: Keeping your legs straight, push the barbell overhead
Press the barbell up and over your head using only your upper body.
Step four: Continue pushing the barbell overhead until your elbows are locked out, and the bar is over your shoulder joint
Lock your elbows as the barbell sits directly above your shoulder joint.
Step five: Return the bar to your chest and repeat for reps
Lower the bar back to your chest and complete the desired number of reps.
Overhead Press: Muscles Used
The overhead press uses mainly the shoulders, pecs, and triceps to push the weight overhead. Your back also assists in lowering the bar back down, and your abs help keep your body stable and balanced as you do so in a standing position.
Overhead Press: Pro Tips
The biggest tip I give lifters working on their overhead press is to mind their bar path. You want to push the bar diagonally up and back, not straight up!
When you start, the barbell rests on your chest, which is a few inches in front of your shoulder joint. When you end, the barbell should not be just over your head but directly over your shoulder joint to stay balanced. This is not a vertical line from one point to the last.
If you pushed the barbell upward in a vertical line, it would end up in front of you and over your head, which is not easy to balance.
To get this right, think of pushing the bar up and slightly back to finish in the right place at the end. You can do this by thinking about โpushingโ your head through the hole created by your two arms and the barbell once the barbell clears your forehead.
In the end, the bar should move up and backward to get to the correct endpoint straight above your shoulder joints.
Overhead Press: Common Mistakes
I see two common mistakes:
- Using your lower body like a push press
- Not bringing the bar back to your chest with each rep
Remember, you are doing an overhead press to ensure your upper body is isolated and doing the work alone. If you push with your legs to get momentum, you take that benefit away and just do a push press. Itโs a valid exercise but doesnโt isolate the upper body like the OHP.
The second mistake is cutting your ROM short. When you bring the barbell back down, let it come all the way to your chest. Yes, itโs harder than just letting it get to your nose and pressing it back up, but thatโs the point. You get more benefits from the full ROM, so use it with each rep!
If itโs too hard, you need to reduce the weight, reps, or total sets until you can do the full ROM before you increase that variable again.
Using too wide or too narrow of a grip is another common overhead press mistake. Learn which grip width is right for you in What is the Best Overhead Press Grip Width & Hand Placement?
Overhead Press: Benefits
Three benefits of the overhead press worth highlighting are:
Upper Body Isolation
When comparing the OHP vs. push press, the OHP isolates your upper body to do all the work. If you complete the lift, itโs all thanks to your upper body. If you miss it, thereโs nothing else to blame.
This isolation means you can use the OHP to focus on building the pressing muscles and know that your effort isnโt leaking to any other source of help. With strict form, the OHP is a great tool to isolate and develop your upper body pressing muscles.
Yes, itโs a compound lift. But compared to the push press, itโs much more focused on your upper body strength, so you can use it to train that area specifically.
Bench Press Carryover
If youโre a bench presser, either as a powerlifter or just for your own enjoyment, the overhead press has excellent carryover benefits to your bench press. This means improving your OHP can directly improve your bench press.
While the lift is not comparable to the bench press, the OHP is still a pressing movement that uses a similar set of muscles to push the weight overhead, the same way a bench press uses those muscles to push the weight away from your chest while lying down.
The OHP puts greater demands on your shoulders with reduced stability. Improving your OHP improves your shoulder strength and ability to press weight when stabilized, like lying on a bench.
Depending on your developmental needs, the OHP may have a bigger or smaller carryover effect on your bench press. As a powerlifting coach, I almost always program OHP as a staple accessory movement to improve my liftersโ bench press.
Superior Shoulder Development
When I think about growing my shoulders, I love the OHP because of the weight I can load onto those muscles. With other shoulder movements – lateral raises, upright rows, front raises, etc. – I canโt load nearly as much weight in my hands before Iโm at my limit.
The OHP lets me put significant weight on my shoulders to press it overhead, more than any other shoulder exercise I can think of. This stimulus is important for muscle growth and development, just like squats and deadlifts build your legs and back so well!
Iโm not suggesting you ONLY do OHP for shoulder development. But itโs unique to shoulder work because itโs the compound lift with the most shoulder involvement and can be loaded heavier than nearly every other shoulder lift. It should be a staple of shoulder development for bodybuilders and strength athletes alike.
Overhead Press: Drawbacks
When comparing the push press vs. overhead press, I only see two drawbacks of the overhead press:
Lower Overall Load
Look, if you compare your OHP max to your push press max, your push press will always be higher if you do it right. Thereโs something to be said for that feeling you get moving a weight you didnโt think you could move, and the push press lets you move more weight and successfully finish the lift better than the OHP.
If youโre more interested in moving more weight, regardless of how it gets moved, the push press is better for you, and the OHP can cry in the corner.
More Difficult
Because you donโt have added momentum or lower body assistance, the overhead press exercise is harder. Sure, you might argue that learning to coordinate the lower body movement and the push in the push press takes more effort and training. But letโs face it, itโs not that hard. The OHP is harder.
If you want an easier way to move the weight, the push press is the answer for you.
Overhead Press: Is It Better To Use a Barbell or Dumbbells?
Easy answer – both! I personally use the barbell OHP and the dumbbell OHP in my training. I also incorporate standing and seated variations of the barbell and dumbbell overhead press (though I personally prefer standing barbell OHP and seated dumbbell OHP if Iโm picking favorites).
With dumbbells, you have a more lateral range of motion, meaning your hands are separated and can drift out to the side or stay close to your body more comfortably than when they hold a barbell. You may find this is more comfortable, and you can still get all the benefits of an OHP while using DBs.
The barbell variation tends to be the more standard display of strength across competitions. If you plan to compete, training with the barbell and following the specific rules and regulations of your intended sport and competition is important.
Is the Push Press or Overhead Press Better for Overall Strength?
This is a tricky question. The answer to whether the push vs. overhead press is better for overall strength is that they are BOTH good for this purpose.
The push press will allow you to move more weight, no question. Using your full body, with the thrust from the lower half as you press the weight, you can move more weight overhead, no doubt.
It appears in Strongman competitions as a display of maximal strength. The same principles of the lift are applied in the snatch and clean and jerk in Olympic lifting, making the push press an excellent display of strength and a means to build that strength.
On the other hand, the overhead press is also an impressive display of strength in that you canโt use lower body assistance. Anyone who can static press a big weight is arguably stronger than someone who can only push press that same weight because theyโre doing it with no momentum or lower body assistance.
So the push press will show a lifter moving heavier weight more explosively, while the overhead press will display more controlled, isolated upper body strength.
In the end, since the push press uses the lower body and the overhead press doesnโt, the push press wins in terms of overall strength. But the overhead press is a more impressive display of disciplined upper body strength.
Is the Push Press or Overhead Press Better for Bodybuilding?
My answer on whether the overhead press vs. push press is better is much clearer for bodybuilders – the overhead press is the superior movement to build upper body musculature.
Muscle hypertrophy is achieved through extended time under tension, not explosive movements. You want your muscles to strain as long as possible to convey that you want them to grow.
For this reason, more controlled, isolated movements help create that stimulus for the muscle.ย
When you push press, you donโt care how much your shoulders, your triceps, and your pecs do the moving. You just want the weight to get overhead by any means possible.
With bodybuilding, I donโt care about the weight that I move. I care about the result that stimulus leads to. So the controlled overhead press is a much better exercise to achieve those outcomes.
Wondering how many overhead press reps you should do? Check out High Rep Overhead Press: Should You Do It? Pros & Cons Explained.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Push Press Cheating?
A push press would be cheating in strength competitions where lower body movement is prohibited. In a Strongman competition with a log push press event, it isnโt cheating. Outside of competition, the push press is a legitimate exercise to press a weight overhead more efficiently than a static or overhead press.
Is the Push Press Good for Shoulders?
The push press and overhead press are both good exercises for developing your shoulders. Relative to other shoulder work, the push press and overhead press are lifts you can typically load heavier than others. This makes them an important inclusion in any shoulder development program.
Is the Overhead Press the Same as the Military Press?
The overhead press and military press are the same. Many people consider them different lifts and say that the military press requires you to keep your feet together, while the overhead press allows you to maintain a wider stance. But at the end of the day, they work the same muscles and can be used interchangeably.
Final Thoughts
When comparing the push press vs. overhead press, itโs important to remember we arenโt trying to find a winner. They are both valid, excellent tools, but you should understand their differences and similarities when deciding which one to do.
As with most exercise comparisons, I recommend that you train with both! Use the OHP to hold yourself accountable to only let your upper body do the pressing work. Leave momentum and legs out of it and develop that pressing strength.
At other times, use your legs and that extra momentum to pop the barbell off your chest before you engage your arms to press it up!
At the end of the day, youโll want to use OHP as a tool to strictly develop shoulder and upper body pressing strength. Youโll want to use the push press as a means to leverage that pressing strength and move as much weight as possible in a more explosive movement.
About The Author
Adam Gardner is a proud resident of Utah, where he lives with his wife and two kids. He has been competing in powerlifting since 2016 in both the USPA and the APF. For the past three years, he and his wife, Merrili, have coached beginning lifters to learn the fundamentals of powerlifting and compete in their first powerlifting competitions.