The Westside Barbell club run by Louie Simmons, is one of the current institutions of the iron game. Known for producing champion powerlifters and even effective machines such as the Reverse Hyper Extension, there is little doubting the club’s importance for lifters, whether or not they adhere to powerlifting itself.
In today’s short post, we’re going to examine a hugely underrated but effective exercise developed by yet another Westside Barbell alumni.
Developed by the American powerlifting JM Blakley, a man renowned for his benching ability, the JM Press is unlikely to be an exercise you see everyday on the gym floor. Something like a hybrid between a close grip bench press and a tricep extension, the Press helps to isolate the triceps without calling the delts in to play.
The result? One of the best tricep pumps of your life!
Performing the JM Press
Start the exercise the same way you would a close grip bench press except this time, make sure that the bar is directly above the upper pecs. To help visualise this, imagine running a line from the bar down towards the upper pecs, this is going to be your arc for the exercise. Blakley himself recommended using the area between the upper chest and the chin.
Now once in place, you’re going to lower the bar down this line until you reach about the halfway point. At this stage, you’re going to let the bar roll back about one inch so that the elbows are pointed forward. From here, press the bar back up in a controlled manner.
For a real demonstration, you needn’t look any further than Blakley’s own video on the subject posted below. Though it may take a few attempts to truly utilise this exercise, it’s worth it in the long run.
Happy lifting!
Thanks for sharing the Jim press! I can’t say I had ever heard of it, but there is pretty good odds I have done a few reps this way while trying to isolate my triceps 🙂
Thanks for stopping by. Delighted it’s of use. I only came across it recently thanks to a powerlifting friend. As you say, it’s something we’ve all probably done at some point when trying to hit the triceps…now we have a name for it!
Awesome way to avoid the shoulder. Great to see it.
Thanks so much for dropping by. As you rightly point out this is a great way to avoid shoulder involvement and trouble. Now if only more people did it!