Pam's Overhead Press

This is Pam pushing 55 pounds overhead easily on her last press attempt on the CrossFit Total.  There are some key elements you should notice.

• Her shoulders are active, meaning pushing up into her ears
• Her elbows are locked out
• Her head is neutral and she is looking forward
• The bar is locked out over her shoulder blades, not over her forehead, that called full range of motion.

This is an excellent example of an overhead press, and the significance of this captured moment cannot be overstated.

When Pam walked in the garage doors in September in 2009 at our first location, she came in with a couple of daunting chronic issues.  One was a recurring sharp low back pain that could incapacitate her for days.  The other was a pain in her shoulder that prohibited her from raising her arm higher than parallel.  Six plus months of physical therapy had had limited effect.  I honestly thought… “Crap, what am I getting myself into?”  when I told her, we could “absolutely” help her.  She could not squat more than 9 inches or so without her back protesting sharply.   Heck she could not MOVE without her back or shoulder expressing some sort of veto.  And reaching over head… forget it!

Look at the pic again.  What you see captured is the current result of courage, hard work, and a supportive environment.  Pam could not press PVC pipe overhead when she first came to Ground Zero.  Now she is pressing 55# and on the verge of doing legit scaled CrossFit workouts.  How did we get here?  Highly varied workouts, consisting of functional movements, executed at as high intensity as she could stand.  That’s CrossFit and it works.

Notice that we managed to capture her with a slight smile on her face as she holds the bar overhead, directly over her shoulder blades.  Full range of motion, over a strong back.  This was a momentous moment as we realized we had won.

Triumph! (and we’re just getting started…)