Anyone who’s followed this blog for any length of time knows that I’m a big fan of landmine presses for a number of reasons:

1. As a “free scapula” pressing exercise, they’re an effective way to train scapular upward rotation.

2. They’re much more shoulder friendly than overhead presses.

3. They provide a great core stability challenge.

4. You can implement a lot of variety in terms of stance (tall/half-kneeling, standing, split-stance, rotational, etc) and lower body contributions. This week’s feature is a great highlight in this regard:

This drill fits well as a first exercise on a full body day and pairs well with horizontal or vertical pulling. I really like it late in the offseason when we’re trying to keep sessions a bit shorter and get extra bang for our training buck. I’d do sets of 3-5 reps per side.