Never is the stabilizing role of the abdominals more critical than when attempting to drive loads overhead. We train our athletes to think of every exercise as an ab exercise. This is essential in the overhead lifts. It is easy to see when an athlete is not sufficiently engaging the abs in an overhead press — the body arches so as to push the hips, pelvis, and stomach ahead of the bar. Constant vigilance is required of every lifter to prevent and correct this postural deformation.

In the push press, the core-to-extremity principle is obvious as the muscles of the power zone — including the hip flexors, hip extensors (glutes and hams), spinal erectors, and quadriceps — assist the arms in driving the barbell overhead. With the push press, you will be able to move overhead as much as 30% more weight than with the shoulder press. Regular practice of the push press — and the push jerk — develops power and speed, which are critical to effective and efficient athletic movement.

With the push jerk, you will be able to move overhead as much as 30 percent more weight than with the push press. Similar to the push press, the push jerk employs the hips to create upward momentum on the bar, but the athlete then pushes against the bar with the arms and dips a second time to receive the push jerk in a partial squat. With the arms locked out, the legs complete the lift. After mastering the push jerk, you will find that it will unconsciously displace the push press as your method of choice when going overhead.

“The goal in your pull-up work is 'more.' You want, you need, more pull-ups. The more you can do, the stronger you become. Muscular endurance, absolute strength, relative strength—whatever you want to define and measure gets better. Every personal-best pull-up is an event worthy of celebration. You’re going to live to be 100, but you’ll not get that many pull-ups, so treat the new ones like birthdays.” —Greg Glassman