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Strength Training for Yogis: Presses for Upper Body Strength

Building stability in the shoulder girdle has a huge carryover to strengthening our yoga poses.

Stephanie Ring

Written by Last updated on Apr 25, 2022

Flexible and strong shoulders are an important part of your yoga practice. The shoulders provide support in downward facing dog and vinyasa flows and help us stand strong in poses like warrior I and warrior II.

Presses translate directly to strength and stability in the shoulder girdle and have huge carryover for the yoga poses we practice most often. The two pressing exercises I detail below – strict presses and push presses – form a foundation for more advanced movements like the push jerk and split jerk.

The strict press is a controlled movement that builds raw strength and stability in the shoulders. The push press uses leg power so you can move heavier weight. Add both exercises to your training to build strength and stability.

5 Steps to a Strong Strict Press

Remember these five performance points for strong strict presses:

  1. Stand with the feet hip distance apart, with the weight in the center of each foot.
  2. Bring the dumbbells slightly outside shoulders with a full grip. Elbows should be slightly forward.
  3. Bring the front ribs down and lock in the core.
  4. Press the dumbbells overhead.
  5. Extend the elbows fully at the top.

Strict press good and bad form.

5 Points of a Powerful Push Press

Here are five points of performance for a powerful push press:

  1. Stand with the feet hip distance apart.
  2. Bring the dumbbells slightly outside the shoulders. Elbows should be slightly forward.
  3. Dip torso straight down.
  4. Legs and hips extend fully, then press. Keep the heels down until you extend.
  5. Keep the core strong while the dumbbells are overhead.

3 Press Building Workouts

When choosing a weight for your presses, start light. Mastering proper technique is crucial. Once you feel comfortable with the mechanics of pressing the weight overhead, give workout #1 a go. Start with a lighter weight and increase the weight with each set.

For workouts #2 and #3, pick a weight challenges you but also allows you to keep the performance points intact. You can use these three workouts to incorporate presses into your weekly routine.

Warm Up:

  • 100 jumping jacks
  • 5 sun salutations
  • 5 push ups
  • 2x 30-second plank or handstand hold
  • 10 arm circles (each side, each way)
  • 5 sun salutations
  • 100 jumping jacks

Workout #1

  • 5×10 dumbbell strict press (increase the weight with each set)

Workout #2

  • 18 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)
  • 15 box step ups
  • 12 burpees
  • 9 dumbbell strict press

Workout #3

  • 3 x max effort handstand hold
  • 10 minute AMRAP
  • 10 dumbbell push press
  • 20 sit up
  • 30 squats

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Stephanie Ring

About Stephanie Ring

Creator of Endure Yoga, Stephanie is an athlete who loves yoga and understands the benefits of it as part of athletic training. Movement has always been an important part of her life, starting with ballet at age three and moving to competitive cheerleading at age sixteen. She started practicing yoga in college but it was years later when she started training for triathlons that her yoga practice was taken to the next level. Stephanie utilized yoga as cross-training and as a way to increase her overall performance, prevent injuries and improve recovery time. She completed more than a dozen races including two marathons, a century ride, and two half Ironmans.

Eventually, her love of endurance sports began to wane. It was then that her interest in gymnastics and CrossFit started to grow. When she was introduced to CrossFit in 2013, it wasn’t long before her training days out numbered the days on the yoga mat. It was around this time when she created WOD Recovery Yoga. A yoga practice designed to help athletes recover mentally and physically from training.

Beyond coaching, she is a student at heart. She loves learning new forms of movement to improve her performance and the performance of her athletes. She challenges herself daily to move past physical and mental barriers. She is a CrossFit Level 2 Coach coaching at Crossfit Marin and certified 500 Hour Yoga Teacher teaching at Yoga Flow SF.

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