How Much Should You Be Able to Overhead Press?
The common strength standard for natural lifters is to overhead press two plates, bench press three, squat four, and deadlift five. That’s a 225-pound overhead press. 100 kilos.
That seemed high to me, so I surveyed 580 guys from our newsletter. It turns out that if you can lift 135 pounds overhead, you’re stronger than most guys who have been lifting all their lives.
A 225-pound overhead press is even more impressive. Even among the guys who have been lifting for over a decade, only 2% of them have ever pressed 225 pounds overhead.
In the rest of the article, I’ll break it down by year, giving you realistic rates of progress. By all means, blow past them. If you train your press like a powerlifter trains his squat, I bet you can get 225 pounds within a few years.
Caveats
I also run Bony to Beastly, a bulking site for naturally thin guys. Many of our readers come from that site. So, as you can imagine, our newsletter leans thin. Most of these guys succeed at bulking up, though, so by the time they’re ten years into lifting weights, they’re up to at least a healthy body weight.
We didn’t ask our readers to test their one-rep max. Rather, we asked them the most weight they’d ever overhead pressed. It’s safe to assume that most of the beginners were doing sets of at least 4 reps.
I checked our numbers against the numbers on StrengthLevel. They estimate that the average beginner can press 66 pounds and the average intermediate 142 pounds. That’s similar to what we have, so I think our survey is representative of what the average lifter can overhead press.
How Much Can Beginners Press?
Over the past decade of coaching guys, it’s common to see skinny beginners start by pressing an empty barbell (45 pounds) for sets of 6–12 reps. I’ve never seen a beginner press 135 pounds within their first few months, but within the first year, a few cross that first major milestone.
Many beginners lack the shoulder mobility or stability to lift weight overhead, and others lack the postural strength or coordination to keep their torsos rigid while doing it. It’s a hard lift to learn.
If you have trouble pressing weight overhead, start with push-ups. Push-ups are famous for working your chest, but they also work your front delts and triceps, just like the overhead press. They also work your postural muscles (such as your abs and obliques) and serratus anterior (under your armpits), developing the postural strength and shoulder mobility you need to press weight overhead.
After 1 Year of Pressing
After a year of training, most people are still pressing less than 135 pounds. That remains true forever. Most people never press 135 pounds overhead.
It’s a hard lift to make progress on. Many guys like using one–pound “microplates” to make progressive overload easier.
After 3 Years of Pressing
After training for three years, a quarter of guys could press 135 pounds overhead. Nobody could press 225.
After 5 Years of Pressing
After five years of lifting weights, over a third of guys could press 135 pounds overhead. Nobody could press 225 pounds overhead. And most people plateaued at these milestones forever.
Lifetime Press Standards (10+ Years)
After ten years of lifting weights, 2% of guys managed to finally put up 225 pounds. I don’t think that represents any kind of genetic limitation, though. I suspect two-plate overhead presses would be far more common if people trained them with the same fervour as their bench press.
Summary
Most guys never overhead press more than 135 pounds. It isn’t a popular lift, and most people don’t train it as seriously as they do their squat, bench press, or deadlift. I suspect we’d see much higher numbers if people took it more seriously.
Still, if you can press 135 pounds overhead, you’re stronger than the average lifetime lifter. You’re one of the stronger guys at the gym. It takes most guys 3–5 years to do it.
If you can press 225 pounds overhead, you’ve got a truly impressive overhead press. I haven’t ever seen anyone press that much weight overhead, even when I was training at the gym all the college football players trained at.
Alright, that’s it for now. If you liked this article, we have similar articles about how much you should be able to squat, bench press and deadlift, and another about how many push-ups you should be able to do.
Shane Duquette is the co-founder of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell. He's a certified conditioning coach with a degree in design from York University in Toronto, Canada. He's personally gained 70 pounds and has over a decade of experience helping over 10,000 skinny people bulk up.
thanks a lot!
I hope to reach at least 135lbs for reps in the future. I always used to do seated dumbell press. I can still press a bit more with dumbells seated than with the barbell standing. I am working on this. 🙂 surprisingly for me the barbell feels much better for the shoulders . Helps avoiding inpingment in the shoulders. Glad that I started with barbell OVP.
My pleasure, man!
How much are you lifting now? Is 135 far away?
I prefer the standing overhead press. I feel like it’s a more athletic position. And, as you said, I find it feels smoother and more natural for my shoulder joint.
There’s nothing wrong with the seated dumbbell overhead press, though. That’s a great lift, too.
So far 105lbs for sets of 8. Which is not overly impressive since I am 6ft tall and weigh somewhere in 185–190lbs region. I used to lift and do calisthenics since my early teenage days. In my teens and twenties with a lot fervor. In my thirties with a little less effort. Meanwhile I am 41 and restarted 2 years with more effort and science (thanks to your site) and bulked up again from 165lbs. I tend to lose weight easy. I am still improving and regaining from time to time. Maybe I get to a 135lbs OHP and 220lbs bench press before father time catches up.
Ah! You’re very close! 105 pounds for 8 reps puts your estimated 1-rep max at 130 pounds. Now, admittedly, you might not care about your 1-rep max. Maybe you want to do your working sets with 135 pounds. You’re further away from that.
…But if you wanted to put up 135, you could use a simple trick: warm up to heavier than your working set. Maybe you start by pressing the empty bar for 10 reps, then pressing 75 pounds for 6, 105 pounds for 3, and then 115 pounds for 1–2. If the weight moves quickly and smoothly, warm up to 120 pounds next week. If your form is bad, the bar moves slow, or your shoulders hurt, stick with a lower weight until it feels fast and athletic. Keep going until you get a casual 135.
Make sure to eat enough food while doing it. You probably need to gain a little weight to support the extra muscle growth.
Congratulations on gaining those 20 pounds! That’s great!
What’s your bench at?
Sounds worth a try. Bench is one of the better lifts. 175lbs for 8 at 185lbs bw or 180lbs for 8 at 190lbs bw. My strength is extremely related to my bw here.
Ah, great! Benching 180 pounds for 8 reps is equivalent to benching 225 pounds for 1 rep. I’m guessing you want to get your working sets up to 225, but, similar to your overhead press, you could probably bench 225 for a single with a little practice.
I love OHP. At 47 it’s 155x6x5, and by the end of the year it will be 190x5x3 at 185lbs. With a push press early next year it’s the plan for 225. OHP and bent over rows. The long forgotten power builders, imo. My bench isn’t even at 225 yet, but I don’t really enjoy bench so it only features one a week. lol
That’s a great overhead press, Paul! Nice job!
If you can get 190x5x3, that’s a monstrous press for someone weighing 185.
I’m surprised your shoulders alone can’t bench 225. You seem like someone who wouldn’t even need a chest for that.
You are right. I am not looking for single 1-rep max. So there is some work down the road. If possible I like to do working sets for 6-8 reps on the big upper body lifts. On a good day the first 5 reps of an 8 rep set feel like a breeze, but I am still close enough to failure that I can’t do ninth rep. Low reps are grinding from the start. I am sure my actual 1-rep max without specific training is lower than the calculation. But I a made a resolution: ramp up working set OHP to 60KG, roughly 132lbs. I am planning two push days and a full body workout each week and we will see how long it will take.:-)
Awesome 🙂
Good luck! Let me know when you get it!
Brief update. Finished first 6 weeks. Was a week sick before start. So I had to sestart OVP at 100lbs for 6 reps, it went up to 110lbs for 8. As advised I do a heavy single as last warm up. Went up from 110lbs to 125lbs in these 6 weeks.
Still some distance to go.
That’s amazing! Nice job, man! Still a ways to go, perhaps, but your rate of progress is fantastic!
If you plateau with this approach, try adding another single to your warm-up routine. If that plateaus, add a third.
Also remember that you can ease back (deload) for a week every few weeks.
2nd update: annother 6 weeks went by. Progress slowed down. I am at 112lbs for a set of eight and a heavy single for 132lbs right now. I start using one pound change plates the 2.5lbs plates are too much of a jump.
Best regards Sebastian
Nice job, man! That’s great progress! 135 is just around the corner 😀
One-pound change plates are great for the overhead press. That’s my favourite exercise to use them on.
Then you go to the internet and everyone says 2 plates is normal lol right now I’m working to get there. As of now it took me two months to go from 155lbs to 165lbs… want to reach 180lbs strict in maybe three months I’ll get there if my progress keeps going like this. I’m thinking of incorporating push presses and controlling the negative with heavy weights to try a new kind of stimulus. I’m pretty sure pin presses would be great too for a lot of cases, for me at least triceps are my weakest point. Then I’ll go for bench and dip strenght for some time I guess. I saw some comments of fellas saying they have bad shoulders, for me pullovers (+serratus strenght and stability) and doing rotator cuff work with intensity (I go to failure doing shoulder rotations) and lu raises (also to strain lower traps) and just doing shoulder raises in various angles where a game changer, as well as doing movements that strain the shoulder tendons like pullups, dips, bench, overhead press with very slow negatives and isometrics (which force you to use a significantly lower weight). Also I saw some data that isometrics with very high loads (to a reasonable degree) strenghten tendons so incorporating heavy dead hangs and rack pulls may be interesting and I’ll be testing that in the following months. And this was interesting to see, so thanks.
I hear you. But if you go to a commercial gym, it’s pretty easy to see what most people are pressing, and it isn’t two plates (if they even do the overhead press at all).
I think you’re right, yeah. The shoulders grow stronger and more robust when you train them.
Sometimes it’s hard for people to develop the mobility to press overhead, though. It can take a fair bit of work sometimes.
Good luck hitting 180! Your plan sounds solid (and push presses are great).
Hi Shane,
time for 3rd update: 2 more months went by and progress is slow. Working sets increased by 2lbs to 114lbs for 8. The heavy single improved to 136lbs. I will continue but scale the pushing a bit down for a while to scale the leg work back up to normal.
+2 pounds is still progress! Nice job, man.
Are you gaining weight on the scale? It might be that you need to eat a bit more food to continue building more muscle and gaining more strength.
Hi Shane, thank you. Bodyweight increased from 185lbs to 188lbs since may. Working set of 8 increased by 9lbs in the same time. So far a good ratio. Gaining weight at this level is dificult I assume I am already above my personal setpoint.
I am not a friend of dirty I think I am already “not small”
That’s great! That’s a great pace to gain strength and muscle steadily and leanly. Just make sure that your plateau isn’t caused by the weight gain stopping in these past few weeks. If so, it might take an extra snack or slightly larger serving sizes. Doesn’t need to be a dramatic change.
I’ve been lifting for 2 years. Started overhead pressing 10 months ago. Hit 145 for 1 within a month. This morning I put up 155 for 8. 2 weeks ago I did 185 for 1. My goal for the year is 205 for 1 and I’d like to put up at least 225 next year.
I’m 6’5” tall 201 pounds as of this morning so still pretty skinny. My shoulders have always been strong though.
That’s amazing, man! Nice job! Good luck getting 205 and then 225!
Hi Griff, tell us how people stare at you if you will put up 225 lbs for reps in a normal comercial gym. 185lbs at 201lbs is already very strong at this young lifting age.
so as a complete beginner I hit 135 in 3 months while dropping 20lb down to 194. 36 never lifted a weight 17yrs alcoholism behind me. Great I thought However 18 months later I’ve only managed to increase it to 140lb. Are push presses a good idea to switch it up for a few months?
Congratulations on kicking the alcohol, Richard! That’s amazing.
135 in 3 months is great. Even more impressive that you were able to do it while losing weight. Nice job, man.
Have you been gaining a little bit of weight these past 18 months? If your body doesn’t have the nutrients it needs to build muscle, it can’t. Before, it was able to take nutrients from your extra body fat. But now that you’re leaner, it might be hesitant to keep digging into your dwindling reserves of fat.
Push presses are great, yeah! If you’re really keen on getting stronger at the overhead press, I’d do both. Do your overhead presses one day per week, your push presses on another. That will give you extra volume, frequency, and variety. Combine that with some protein and calories, and I bet you’ll see great strength gains again.
I started lifting a 10 and by 18 I was weighing around 200 and could press 225 behind the head seated.
At 35 I went into my first strongman competition thinking my 300lbs OHP would make me highly competitive in the HW (265?) class Push press event. There were 7 guys there who did more than 300, one did 370.
225 is decent, but in any group of strong guys you should see a few. At my fire department there’s like 50 guys and 3 of us can do way more, maybe another 5 are in that ballpark.
A 300-pound overhead press is wild! I’ve never seen anything like that.
It sounds like among a profession that selects for stronger guys, and where there’s a massive benefit to being stronger, both to save yourself and others, we’re seeing a bunch of guys who are probably naturally strong and also train quite well. Probably also helps to be in a community like that, pushing each other onwards.
The survey respondents lean a little thin. They were absolutely killing it with the push-ups and pull-ups, where it pays to be both strong and light. They did less well on the brute strength lifts like the squat, bench, deadlift, and overhead press.
Being big helps with being strong. Your body has as much energy as it needs to build as much muscle as it wants. In my case, I’m lean (by accident), so I don’t build muscle unless I’m actively trying to eat more, which is difficult.