Military over head press help.

when you say 'shoulders' are you thinking of your deltoids [from shoulder joint down the first part of your arm], or more your mid traps [from shoulder joint moving towards your neck]? i'm not sure i know anything useful for you, but if it helps any, i don't think i ever felt ohp very much in the triceps and deltoids either. also not sure if you even can do an overhead press without using them, even if it doesn't feel like you are.

'upper back' kind of sounds to me like your lower traps. to be honest, most people are relatively weak in that part of their traps, so the fact that you're possibly feeling it there isn't necessarily a bad thing. it could just be your red-headed stepchild muscles are catching up to the ones that you've already been working on for a while.

triceps help with lockout, if i'm remembering properly (it's been a while since i lifted anything much atm). they straighten the elbow joint, basically. it might help if you try to think of yourself bracing your feet on the floor and pushing your hands 'through' the bar. and if i think about it, you might get some good mileage from making sure you control the eccentric part of each rep - that's when you're lowering the weight back down to the start point. don't get in the habit of thinking the rep's done when you have it locked out, and just kind of dropping it to begin the next rep.

just so you know, i'm just a regular person here. so i'm guessing really- though i do really like ohp when i am lifting regularly.

maybe if you can post a video more knowledgeable people will have more specific ideas on your form.

I wouldn't worry about where you're "feeling" it, that's basically totally irrelevant. You'll feel it in your weakest areas typically, at least in the beginning. I'd worry more about correct technique, personally, so maybe video yourself if you're concerned.

taylorblade wrote: »

Thank you everyone I will see what I can do but whatever I do just seems to never work. Same with like bench pressing my chest or triceps will not work when doing bench press.

... then you would never get the bar off of your chest. It's often hard to feel every muscle that is involved in a compound movement - even when they are working. Developing that mind/muscle connection is difficult sometimes, especially if you are pushing too close to your one rep max or there are significant imbalances.

You say your are a "calisthenics person" - are you expecting the same kind of burn? In my experience, lifting relatively heavy feels entirely different than light weight high rep or body weight type workouts. I'm not sure you should compare them in that way.