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Blackouts under the bar can be a problem because if you fall, your weight room surroundings are never a comfortable place to land in a big heap with a loaded barbell. The press and the rack position of the clean are the only two places that blacking out is usually a problem, so be prepared if it happens. You will feel a change in perception before the event occurs. If possible, rack or drop the bar. If the feeling persists or gets worse (your knees will begin to wobble), take a knee so you’ll have a shorter distance to fall. The blackout itself is harmless and will pass in a few seconds with no lasting effects; the fall is the problem, so be careful.

The other way to be loose is to let the elbows and the shoulders slide down, or to never get them up in the correct position. When you fail to hold the elbows up, the shoulders drop, too. This combination not only places the elbows in a bad mechanical position to press, but also lets the bar drop down the chest a little, thereby adding to the distance the bar must be pressed. A longer bar path means more work done on the weight from a worse position, thus decreasing the weight you can lift that way. Keep your shoulders up and your elbows just in front of the bar so that the bar path is shorter and more efficient and the bottom position is better supported between reps.

Using an inefficient bar path

The second major problem is an inefficient bar path. Barbells like to move in straight vertical lines, and your job is to arrange your body movements so that the bar can do this. You have to lean back before the press starts, and 95% of people will not lean back enough to enable the bar to clear the chin without introducing forward movement into the bar path. Leaning back enables you to perform the press efficiently. Make up your mind that you are going to lean back before you start every rep of the press.

The heavier the weight, the greater the tendency for the bar path to head away from the shoulder joints. When the distance between the shoulder joints and the bar gets to the point where the leverage created by this moment arm exceeds your strength – even if the load itself does not – you will get stuck on the way up. It is critical to keep the bar close. Three common bar path problems cause this to happen; pushing the bar away, failing to get under the bar after it passes the forehead, and leaning back away from the bar are all different problems, but they all affect the press the same way.

Figure 3-21. Pressing efficiency is strongly influenced by the mechanics of the pressing position: the shorter the distance between the bar and the shoulders, the shorter the moment arm. (A) Driving up close to the face provides this good mechanical position. (B) Any movement of body or bar that increases the moment arm length is detrimental to pressing efficiency. (M.A. = moment arm)

First, the most common form problem with light weights is having the bar out in front too far, away from the face; this problem is produced by a bar path that curves away from the face (Figure 3-22). Heavy weights like to move in straight vertical lines because they represent less energy expenditure than do longer, curved bar paths. This is true for all barbell exercises, from the simple press to the more complex snatch and clean and jerk. Heavy weights must follow a straight vertical bar path in the press because heavy weights can’t be pressed in a curve. And if the bar moves forward, your back must go backward so that the system’s center of mass stays balanced over the mid-foot. This loss of control erodes the position necessary for a powerful press, with the delts and triceps driving up on the elbows held close to the body, in a position of increased mechanical efficiency with a shorter lever arm. Sometimes allowing the elbows to drop into a lower position is what makes the forearms less than vertical. This is an easy thing to correct if you catch it early: raise your elbows until