Intermediate

Pin Press (Overhead)

Setting the pins at your forehead or above kills the stretch reflex and forces you to grind the bar from a dead stop, which builds strength through your weakest lockout range. It is a favorite for lifters who stall near the top of the press or want to overload the triceps and upper delts. Program it as a supplemental strength lift with heavier loads and lower reps.

Equipment
Barbell
Body part
Shoulder
Type
Strength
Browse by muscle
Deltoid Anterior
Browse by movement
Vertical Press
Muscles worked
Target
Deltoid Anterior
Secondary
Triceps Brachii Long Head, Triceps Brachii Lateral Head, Triceps Brachii Medial Head, Deltoid Middle, Trapezius Upper
Tertiary
Erector Spinae

How to do it

  1. 1

    Set the safety pins in a rack at the height where your press tends to stall, usually forehead level or higher.

  2. 2

    Position the bar on the pins and grip it just outside shoulder width.

  3. 3

    Step under, brace your abs and glutes, and take the slack out of the bar.

  4. 4

    Drive the bar from a dead stop straight up until your elbows lock out overhead.

  5. 5

    Lower the bar back to the pins, let it settle completely, then reset and press again.

Tips

  • Start each rep from a true dead stop so you build strength rather than bouncing off the pins.
  • Keep your wrists stacked and elbows under the bar to grind through the sticking point.
  • Set the pins to attack the exact height where your full-range press fails.

Variations

Common mistakes

  • A short range flatters the numbers, so the bar gets loaded past what the shoulders can actually move; if the only way to shift it is to lean back, it is not building the lockout you came for.
  • The bar path is never checked against the uprights, and a press that drifts slightly backward jams the bar into the rack at speed; run the first set empty and watch where the bar wants to travel.
  • Nothing is laid over the pins to deaden the bar, so every rep lands on bare steel and the noise and bounce make it tempting to catch the next rep early.
  • The torso leans back to get the bar past the sticking point, which turns the lift into a standing incline press and puts the load on the lower back instead of the delts.
  • One pin height gets used for months, so the sticking point moves and the lift keeps hammering a spot that is no longer the weak one; re-test where the press actually fails every few weeks.

Frequently asked

How many sets and reps of the overhead pin press should you do when you are new to the exercise?
Keep it heavy and short: 4 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps, with the bar settling completely on the pins between each rep. Because those reps are effectively singles strung together, they take longer than they look, so give yourself two to three minutes between sets. Add weight before you add reps, and end the set when a rep needs more than about three seconds of grinding to move.
What can I do instead of the overhead pin press without a power rack?
A seated dumbbell press started from a dead stop at the shoulders, with a full second of stillness before each rep, removes the same stretch reflex. A band anchored under your feet loads the top half of the press specifically, which is usually the range this lift is bought for. Heavy close-grip pressing and triceps work covers the other half of what a stalled lockout normally needs.
What is the overhead pin press good for?
It exists for one job: pushing a lifter past a particular sticking point by making them start there with no momentum. That suits intermediate and advanced pressers who stall at the same inch every time and want to overload the triceps and upper delts. It is a poor first press for a beginner, whose press does not fail at one height so much as everywhere, and it builds little muscle size on its own because the range is so short.

Related exercises

Other movements among FitRay's 2,000+ exercises that load the same target muscle — same equipment and level first.

All Shoulder exercises