Deadlift and overhead press

The deadlift and overhead press make a good push / pull combination for a complete session in one day. You get your entire body worked using a barbell.

What is your why

Before we go into the details of the deadlift and the overhead press let me ask you a couple of questions:

Why do you look at the deadlift and overhead press?
Why do you want to train?
Why do you want to get stronger?
Why do you want to build muscle?
What happens if you do?
What happens if you don’t?

These questions might seem trivial to you but are important to long-term success. Especially on hard days you really have to know why you are in this game. Most people think about their goals this way:

What do I want
How Do I get it
Why do I want to get it

If you prioritize and steer your life in this fashion you will become a slave to your impulses. What you want changes often and quickly based on your surroundings. With this, you will go everywhere and nowhere. If you change your thinking to focus on your why, you will stop being a slave to your instincts. Just flip the order

Why do you want something
How do you get it
What do you need to do

In my personal case, everything changed when I looked at my goals this way. I changed from focusing on becoming a manager to being a good father and happy. Becoming a manager is what. It is not why you want to do something. If you are not convinced yet look up Simon Sinek's TED Talk on the golden circle. He makes a very compelling case telling the story of the Wright brothers.

Deadlift

The deadlift is one of the most iconic exercises you can do in the gym. For decades it has been a staple of raw strength and power. If you want to learn more about the deadlift look up lifters like

Ed Coan
Dan Green
Frank Duffin
The deadlift doctor
Calgary Barbell
Eddie Hall
Andy Bolton

These lifters know their trade and you can learn a lot to bridge the gap from mediocre to being great. When the public talks about the deadlift they usually refer to the conventional deadlift. There are more variations of the deadlift than this out there. Here are some examples:

Conventional deadlift
Sumo deadlift
Trap Bar Deadlift
Banded deadlifts
Deadlifts with chains
Halted deadlifts
Deficit Deadlifts
Rack Pulls
Romanian deadlifts
Dumbbell deadlifts
Kettlebell deadlift

And the list goes on depending on your goals and personal preferences. The heaviest deadlifts of all time are mostly conventional deadlifts. The biggest pound for pound deadlifts is usually sumo deadlifts. the deadlift has two sticking points. The first is off the floor, the second at lock out. If you can not lift the weight off the floor you are simply too weak. Failing the deadlift at lockout is usually a result of lack of technique or aggressiveness. The deadlift mainly trains your quads, traps, hamstrings and lower back. In total, it trains the muscles in the back a bit more than in the front.

To perform a good deadlift follow these steps:

Place your midfeet under the bar
Grip the bar in a mixed or hook grip
Lower yourself to the bar
Turn in your elbows as if you squeezed lemons on your armpits
Be patient off the floor, make the bar bend
Initiate the pull by driving your legs into the ground, make a footprint
Squeeze your glutes
Pop your hips forward to lock out
Complete the lift
Set down the bar

There is a big discussion about keeping your back straight during the deadlift. I find that this queue does not help to achieve the goal. Keeping maximum tension and turning your elbows in does.

The biggest advantages of the deadlift are that it helps you to develop pure strength and raw commitment. There is just something primal and satisfying about the deadlift that none of the other lifts conveys.

The biggest disadvantages of the deadlift are its risk for lower back injuries and that it is not well suited for bodybuilding. It is just not a lift that lends itself to high repetition work. If you want to do go high rep, the sumo deadlift is usually better than the conventional to keep your back intact.

Overhead press

The overhead press a very good exercise to develop your shoulders and arms. It is often forgotten beside the big three compound lifts. The overhead press itself does not really have any sport it is performed in. Weightlifters will use more momentum, while powerlifters often do not even do the lift at all. Strongmen usually do variations of the overhead press with logs or other cumbersome heavy objects. Similar lifts to the overhead press are:

Jerk
Push press
Military press
Seated overhead press

To perform an overhead press follow these steps:

Adjust the J Cups to the right height on the power rack
Get the barbell loaded with plates
Walk up to the bar and wedge yourself under it
Pop your hips forward to unrack
Do three steps back to walk out
Push up the weight
Carry on until your arms are straight
Lower the bar back to your chest
Repeat and rerack the bar

The overhead press mainly trains your shoulders, traps, triceps, and biceps. The less hip drive you use the more it turns into an arms exercise. The big debate on the internet is about whether or not to use leg and hip drive in the movement. I personally don't care. The less hip and leg drive you use the more of a bodybuilding exercise it becomes. The more hip and leg drive is involved the more it will become a strongman movement.

The biggest advantage of the overhead press is that you can train your shoulders really easily. It is a great exercise for bodybuilding purposes.

The biggest disadvantages are that it is very isolated and does not really lend itself to heavy work. This is usually better done with the clean and jerk.

Should you combine the deadlift and overhead press

The deadlift and the overhead press are two great exercises to combine in one session. I like to do the deadlift first and follow up with overhead presses for a full body workout without risking injury.