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California Press

The California press lowers the bar toward the forehead like a skull crusher, then glides it down to the chest and presses it back up along the same arc over the forehead to lockout, letting the triceps work through a long combined range under load. Because both halves of the rep pass over the forehead, the skull-crusher position sets the load, while the slide down to the chest adds a long elbow-flexion stretch under tension. It's an advanced move that takes practice to keep smooth and safe.

Equipment
Barbell, Bench
Body part
Triceps
Type
Strength
Muscles worked
Target
Triceps Brachii Long Head, Triceps Brachii Lateral Head, Triceps Brachii Medial Head
Secondary
Pectoralis Major Sternocostal, Deltoid Anterior

How to do it

  1. 1

    Lie on a flat bench and grip an EZ bar about shoulder width with an overhand grip.

  2. 2

    Press the bar to lockout over your chest, then bend the elbows to lower it toward your forehead.

  3. 3

    From the forehead, slide the bar down in an arc toward your lower chest, keeping tension on the triceps.

  4. 4

    Touch lightly at the chest with your elbows tucked to your sides.

  5. 5

    Press the bar back up and over to lockout, reversing the path.

  6. 6

    Repeat, keeping the whole motion controlled and continuous.

Tips

  • Keep the elbows tucked, not flared, through both halves of the rep.
  • Use a spotter and start light; the transition over the face demands control.
  • Keep the bar path smooth rather than jerking between the two positions.

Variations

Common mistakes

  • The bar stops at the forehead and the two halves become separate lifts. The value is the unbroken arc from forehead to chest and back, so keep it moving.
  • Pressing straight up off the chest to lockout instead of retracing the arc back over the forehead, which turns the second half into a close-grip bench and skips the range you came for.
  • Shoulders rotate back to bring the bar to the forehead, so the upper arms travel and the elbows barely bend, leaving the triceps with almost no stretch.
  • The bar bounces off the chest once the set gets long, and from there it takes a path nobody planned, with the elbows flaring out to catch it.
  • Loading it from your close-grip bench number. The skull crusher half sets the weight here, and that is usually little more than half of what you can press.

Frequently asked

How should I start with the California press, and what should I be able to do first?
Learn the path with an empty EZ bar for a few sets before loading it. A comfortable close-grip bench and pain-free skull crushers are the prerequisites, along with a spotter or a rack with the safeties set. From there, three sets of 8 to 10 at roughly half your close-grip bench weight, once a week, at the start of your triceps work while you are fresh enough to steer the bar. Add weight only when the arc stays smooth in both directions on every rep.
What can replace the California press if I have no barbell or no spotter?
Dumbbells trace the same path one in each hand, and a failed rep can be dropped out to the sides, which makes it the safest version for training alone. Splitting it in two works as well: skull crushers for the stretched half, then close-grip presses for the lockout, run back to back. On a cable, a lying rope extension covers the elbow-flexion half with no bar over your face at all.
What is the California press for, and who should leave it alone?
It loads the triceps across a long range in a single rep, from a stretched skull-crusher position down to the chest and back over the forehead to a full lockout. Lifters chasing bench lockout strength and triceps size get the most from it. It is a poor choice for anyone new to barbell pressing, since the bar passes over your face twice a rep and the transition takes practice, and a poor one for sore elbows, since the forehead position is exactly where they tend to complain.

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