California Press
Also known as: Cali Press
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Description
On a flat bench, lower a barbell to your forehead, bring it over to your lower chest and press it up with a close grip to train your triceps heavy. Each rep is a skull crusher on the way down and a close-grip bench press on the way up, in that order. Behind your head the long head of the triceps gets a deep stretch, and because you lift with a press, you can handle more weight than in a skull crusher. Your lats and teres major move the bar from head to chest, and your chest helps the press. Good for intermediate lifters whose skull crushers have stalled.
How to Perform
- Lie on a flat bench with your head, upper back and hips on the pad, knees bent about 90 degrees, feet flat on the floor.
- Grip the bar overhand at shoulder width or a touch narrower, hands not touching. Wrap your thumbs around it; it sits low in your palms.
- Get the bar to lockout over your shoulders: unrack it, take it from a spotter, or lie back with it on your thighs and press.
- Lower the bar like a skull crusher, elbows pointing at the ceiling, until it reaches your forehead and just past the top of your head (about 2 seconds).
- Keep that elbow angle and pull your upper arms down to your sides; the bar travels back over your face to just above your lower chest.
- Press straight up from there, exactly like a close-grip bench press, and breathe out as your elbows lock out over your shoulders.
- Start each rep from straight arms. After the last, rack the bar, hand it to your spotter, or lower it to your thighs and sit up.
What Muscles Work
Primary Muscle:
Secondary Muscles:
Tips
- Use 3 or 4 sets of 5 to 8 reps for strength or 8 to 12 for size; with a lighter bar you can go up to 15.
- Add reps first: when you get the top number on all sets with the bar going all the way behind your head, add 2 to 2.5 kg (1 to 1.25 kg per side) and drop back to the low end.
- Behind your head you should feel a deep stretch along the back of your upper arm, then your lats working as the bar comes over to your chest. Sore elbows mean the skull-crusher half is too deep or too heavy: stop at your forehead, switch to an EZ bar, or train the two halves separately for a while.
- The bar passes over your face, so never use a thumbless grip, and have a spotter or a bench rack once the sets get heavy. If a rep stalls behind your head, don't try to straighten your elbows from there. Bring the bar to your chest and finish it as a press.
- To make it harder before adding weight, pause for 1 to 2 seconds with the bar behind your head, or take 3 to 4 seconds to lower it.
- Substitutes: Lying Barbell Triceps Extension for the first half on its own, Close Grip Bench Press for the second half, JM Press if your elbows prefer a shorter skull crusher, and Lying EZ-Bar Triceps Extension if a straight bar bothers your wrists.
Common Mistakes
- Doing the phases in reverse: lowering to the chest first and then sliding the bar toward your forehead. The bar goes to your head first, then to your chest, and the way up is always a press.
- Elbows flaring out as the bar comes over to your chest, so the press turns into a wide-grip bench press. Bring them down close to your ribs, about 30 to 45 degrees from your torso, pointing at your hips.
- Straightening your elbows on the way from your head to your chest. That's a pullover, and the bar tends to crash onto your breastbone; keep the elbow angle fixed and move the bar slowly.
- Bouncing the bar off your chest to get the press going. Stop it just above your lower chest and press from a dead stop.
- Wrists bent back under the load. Keep the bar low in your palm, over the forearm bones, with your knuckles in line with your forearms.
Recommended Exercises
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