The development of a strong overhead press is essential for any strongman competitor. Much like the bench press in powerlifting, the overhead press tests upper torso pressing strength in the sport of Strongman. If a strongman competitor wishes to become a competitor on the state, national, or international level, they must continue strengthening their overhead press throughout their career. 

However, to consistently improve, an athlete must use a training method capable of delivering optimal training stimulus workout to workout, week to week, and year to year. This is where the Conjugate Method enters the equation. 

Using the Conjugate Method, an athlete can utilize various means of creating exercise variation to keep progressing in their upper torso pressing power. Whether we use special exercises, specialty bars, or accommodating resistance, we can always find a way to make progress. Aside from these adjustments, we can also manipulate training intensity and volume.

The Conjugate Method not only helps improve strength but also allows athletes to become proficient in a variety of overhead press variations. In a sport like Strongman, where you never know what demands might be placed upon you in the next competition, this style of training only makes sense. 

Below, we will discuss the basics behind programming Conjugate-style training to improve overhead press strength for Strongman competitors.

Getting Started

The Conjugate Method features two press-focused days: maximal and dynamic effort upper. These training days will feature a main exercise focused on competition-relevant press movements and a selection of accessory exercises intended to develop the muscle groups involved during the press. 

When setting up our max effort upper training for the sport of Strongman, we want to ensure we are selecting a solid mix of competition-relevant movements. Along with these competition-relevant movements, we also want to include a few pressing movements that specifically target an aspect of the press or help prepare an athlete for a specific pressing event. 

The intent of this training is to improve upper body absolute strength while also building the feel and coordination required to become highly proficient in overhead pressing movements. While being strong is important, movement efficiency is just as important to ensure no amount of effort is wasted. Even the slightest wasted effort can result in a missed lift and affect a Strongman competitor's overall competition score. 

Here are four overhead press movements we recommend for strongmen new to the Conjugate Method:

Push Press

Strict Press

Axle/Log Press

Incline or Overhead Pin Press

As you can see, these are basic overhead press exercise variations. First, we go with the push press. This exercise helps improve an athlete's ability to use their entire body to press the barbell. When this exercise is performed, we are looking for a solid leg drive, a strong heave, and an efficient transfer of energy between the leg drive and the heave. 

Next is the strict press. This movement is great for developing overhead press mechanics and is also an excellent means of developing starting strength in the overhead press. This exercise will help a strongman competitor improve the amount of force they can generate when initiating the concentric phase of the overhead press. 

Of course, the axle and log press are included, considering these are the primary pressing implements used in many strongman competitions. This will help athletes become familiar with and improve their movement efficiency with these implements. 

Lastly, we will also include movements such as the incline or overhead pin press. This training can target specific joint angles an athlete typically fails at during the overhead press. Using pins, we can start the bar at or slightly below the typical point of failure and work towards developing strength within that particular range of motion. 

While many may argue against joint angle-specific training, we at Westside can attest to the effectiveness of properly programmed joint angle-specific exercises. 

These movements will be programmed as the main exercise of a max effort training day and performed for top sets of 1-3 repetitions. While max effort training is most effective when we can train near or over 100%, our goal is to reach 90% intensity or more, at least to make meaningful gains in absolute strength. 

Escalating the Training

Once an athlete has performed the above variations for a month or two, we can add further variations to the mix to escalate the training. This will allow us to continue making progress in the lifts, helping to keep accommodation at bay. At Westside, we typically like to change up our max effort exercise selection every 4- 8 weeks.

Often, we will have an "A" and "B" set of max effort exercises and alternate these exercises month to month in an ABAB pattern. Keep in mind that our "B" set of exercises does not need to be completely different from our "A" set; we are simply seeking to alter the stimulus slightly to continue making gains in strength and coordination. 

Here is how we would escalate the training difficulty without drastically changing the max effort exercise selection:

Hang Clean to Push Press

Z Press

Axle Continental Clean and Press

Log Clean and Press

As you can see, we did not significantly change the focus of the press work. Instead, we found ways to increase each movement's competition relevance. 

With the hang clean to push press, we are able to develop the absolute strength and explosive power necessary to contribute to other styles of pressing, such as the axle continental clean and press or the log clean and press. This exercise is performed using a standard power bar. We do this to eliminate the difficulty of using a specialty bar, which allows athletes to focus solely on moving heavy weight without the demands of a strongman-specific implement. 

Next, we go with a Z press. This movement is similar to a strict press but makes it even more strict. This is because the Z press is performed sitting, taking the option of any leg drive totally out of the equation. This will improve starting strength in the overhead press and can even be performed from pins to increase the starting strength focus. 

The axle continental clean and press is a competition-relevant exercise intended to build strength and efficiency with the axle. It certainly takes time and practice to become proficient, so this movement must be included in any strongman competitor's max effort upper work. 

Like the axle continental clean and press, the log clean and press is included to improve the strength and efficiency with a competition-relevant movement. It takes time and practice to develop continental clean skills, but we must also focus on developing log clean skills. As much as press strength is important, inefficient clean technique can quickly limit athletes' ability to display their overhead press strength. 

These movements will follow the same programming parameters as the previously mentioned exercises. The goal is to work up to a top set of 1-3 reps, with 90% intensity being the minimum and 100%+ intensity being the goal if possible. 

Conjugate for Strongman

If you have spent time reading our blog, you will know that I constantly reiterate that the Conjugate Method can be applied to any sport. This statement is undoubtedly true, especially for the sport of Strongman. Given our methods' history with success in strength sports, it only makes sense for a strongman competitor to use the Conjugate Method. 

With Conjugate, strongman competitors can tailor their training to constantly meet the demands of competition and help prepare for specific pressing events simultaneously. Instead of focusing on one or two press variations over a phase, we can train and improve multiple styles of pressing over a month. 

Additionally, we can further improve the pressing power of strongman athletes through dynamic effort upper training. This training can be overhead press-specific, or we can feature horizontal pressing exercises to continue improving strength and power and deload from the constant use of overhead press implements. 

No matter the upper torso weakness an athlete may be dealing with, we can design a Conjugate Method max effort upper plan to address the situation. In the next few Conjugate for Strongman articles, I will discuss using the dynamic effort method to improve the overhead press and provide tips and strategies for programming upper-body accessory exercises.

Sources:

Simmons, L. (2007). Westside Barbell Book of Methods. Westside Barbell.

Verkhoshansky, Y., & Siff, M. C. (2009). Supertraining. Verkhoshansky.