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Sots Press: How to Do it, Benefits, Variations

female athlete doing Sots press

Weightlifting is not for the fainthearted, but it doesn’t mean you can never work your way towards challenging movements. An exercise appropriate for experienced athletes and lifters, the Sots press may be one of those lifting routines you can’t do just yet. Once you have built enough shoulder and core strength, this is an excellent addition to your training program.

What is the Sots Press?

The movement itself is actually quite simple. The Sots press is a behind-the-neck press done in a squat position. You perform it with a snatch grip, so your hands are wide. It’s an advanced exercise you can perform to achieve strong, healthy shoulders, but it can also work for people with limited mobility.

However, it’s best to first perform simpler routines such as the overhead press and overhead squat before exploring the Sots press. Start light and gradually practice until you get to that weight that is feasible to control yet challenges your strength with each repetition.

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Where Did It Come From?

The Sot press was named after retired Soviet weightlifter Viktor Sots, one of the strongest lifters in the 1980s. The first known athlete to do a power jerk instead of the split jerk in a competition, he set six world records and won many weightlifting championships in the 100-kilogram class. He credits his amazing power jerk technique to the Sots press, a unique exercise he, himself, developed.

Muscles Worked in the Sots Press

This movement primarily works the shoulders, abdominals, and hamstrings. It also engages the traps, triceps, calves, and upper to lower back muscles.

The Sots press can benefit you just as it benefited a weightlifting champion. It’s for athletes and anyone else who wants to improve their full-body strength, balance, and mobility.

How to Do the Sots Press

To do this movement safely, we recommend that you first test your mobility by performing the Sots press with an empty barbell or even a PVC pipe. Then, slowly add weight. Keep in mind that you won’t be lifting as much as you do in a traditional press!

Here’s how we break it down.

  1. Put the barbell on your back and then squat. (Some people do the Sots press in the front — more on that in a minute.)
  2. At the bottom of a squat, be sure to keep your core engaged!
  3. Gradually press the load up, squeezing your shoulder blades until they hit their lockout position.
  4. Once you have stabilized the weight overhead, slowly lower it back onto your shoulders. That’s one rep.
  5. When you’re done with the set, finish with the barbell on your back and stand up once again.

Here’s what it looks like:

5 Benefits of the Sots Press

1. Improves Full Body Strength

The Sots press doesn’t just improve shoulder mobility and core strength. The squatting and pressing movements alone strengthen your knees, ankles, thoracic cavity, and upper to lower back muscles, promoting full-body strength

2. Helps Improve Posture

It’s impossible to do the Sots press without the correct posture. But if you don’t have the perfect posture just yet, this exercise is still for you. This movement can address postural dysfunction and help you work your way towards good posture.

3. Improves Balance, Mobility, and Flexibility

The Sots press significantly improves trunk stability and back extension strength. This movement helps you achieve tension, stability, and flexibility while in a squat. The longer you press and remain in a squat position, the more you challenge yourself to balance and stabilize your lower extremities.

4. Perfect for Warming Up

If you’re looking into doing more advanced presses, pull-ups, and squats specifically, the Sots press can be a good warmup exercise (or even an accessory). Eventually, you will develop stronger muscles and build strength to do more complex routines.

5. Effective Corrective Exercise

The Sots press is a corrective movement for those suffering from shoulder and thoracic spine issues. It can also uncover underlying mobility, balance, stability, and motor control deficiencies. However, it’s only for those experiencing mild mobility issues and can do the routine without pain. If the movement is not in range, it can do more harm than good.

3 Sots Press Variations

The Sots press can be modified according to your own strength and fitness level. If you want to challenge your body and take on movements you haven’t tried before, here are some Sots press variations you may want to try.

1. Press in Clean

The press in clean is a more challenging variation of the Sots press (in fact, some people consider this the Sots press), demanding a massive level of thoracic strength and scapular mobility. First, put the bar in the front rack position. Then, squat to your bottom position. Next, press the bar up in a direct line and stay in that overhead position before gradually returning the bar to your shoulders. That’s one rep.

2. One-Arm Kettlebell Sots Press

Using kettlebells is a great alternative. First, hold the kettlebell in the rack position on one side. Then, go into a squat. Press the load overhead while engaging your core. Return the kettlebell to your shoulder. That’s one rep.

3. Partial Sots Press

If you want to stick with the traditional Sots press but your mobility isn’t there yet, work your way toward it by squatting only to parallel and performing the press from there.

The Sots press is indeed challenging, but you can make it easier repetition after repetition by gradually building your strength and increasing your mobility in each position. With the Sots press, you can leverage all the incredible benefits without lifting overly heavy weights. As you start, focus on achieving the proper form with light loads and getting stronger in the process.<

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4 Challenging (and Random) Movements You Should Be Practicing

When it comes to strength, mobility and skill, there’s always room for improvement. Use the following movements to improve weaknesses and take your everyday WOD to the next level.

1. Sots Press

If you want to snatch heavier weights but lack the mobility and shoulder stability necessary to add more iron to the barbell, the Sots press might be the perfect drill for you.

Named after Russian weightlifter Viktor Sots, the Sots press is a shoulder press performed from the bottom of a squat. It can be done with a barbell from the front rack position with a clean-width grip, or from the back squat position with a snatch-width grip. It can also be performed with kettlebells — one per hand, or just one side at a time to work your body asymmetrically.

In addition to building strength, mobility and stability in your shoulders, the Sots press also improves core strength, balance in the receiving position of the snatch or clean and mobility in your ankles, hips and thoracic spine.

Before performing the movement, we recommend doing the Sots press with a PVC pipe and having your coach assess and critique your position and mobility. Certain mobility restrictions may prevent you from performing a weighted Sots press correctly, so you should be fully warmed up and mobile before adding a load.

How to do it:

  1. Load barbell to preferred position (front rack or back squat) with proper grip width.
  2. Lower yourself to the bottom of your squat. Pause.
  3. Press bar upward, keeping your core tight and your shoulders fully engaged. The bar should travel in a straight line above the arches of your feet.
  4. Pause at the top with elbows and shoulders locked out.
  5. Slowly return bar to starting position. Repeat.

2. No-Hook Grip Work

We’re taught to use the hook grip because it helps you hang on to heavier weights for longer. Thus, it’s not surprising that doing no-hook grip deadlifts, barbell/dumbbell rows and Olympic lifts can work wonders. It benefits both grip strength and back engagement; and because the weight feels so heavy in your hands, it helps teach you how to keep the arms relaxed and not grip the bar too hard. Plus, when you go back to using a hook grip, heavier weights feel easier.

How to do it:

Grip the bar or barbell with your thumbs outside your fingers. Be sure to start with light weight and work your way up, as most people can’t lift as much without a hook grip.

3. Wide Grip Pull-Ups

Contrary to an old rumor spread in bodybuilding communities, wide grip pull-ups do not make your lats freakishly huge — but when done properly, they can lead to practical strength gains.

If you haven’t mastered regular strict pull-ups, wide grip pull-ups aren’t for you (yet). They predominantly rely on your back muscles — especially your latissimus dorsi — and all but remove your biceps and triceps from the equation. Also, because of the position of your shoulders, combining kipping with wide grip pull-ups is not a good idea.

If you can perform 10 to 15 strict pull-ups unbroken, you’re probably ready to try the wide grip.

How to do it:

  1. Grab the pull-up rig with your hands just outside shoulder width (your arms and body should form a “Y”).
  2. Engaging your lats, pull your shoulder blades together and drive your elbows straight down to the floor. Your whole body should stay tense throughout the movement, and your neck should stay in a neutral position, in line with your spine.
  3. Once you’ve reached the top, with your chin over the bar, lower yourself back down.

If you can’t pull yourself all the way up, just pull as far as you can and hold. Then, release and try again.

4. Single-Leg Deadlift

An ace at revealing muscle imbalances — and lack of balance — the single-leg deadlift also works as an antidote for those weaknesses. The unilateral movement primarily works the hamstrings; but when performed correctly, it also challenges the shoulders, back, core, glutes, and quads. It increases hip, knee and ankle stability, as well as hip and ankle mobility.

The single-leg deadlift can be done with just bodyweight or with kettlebells or dumbbells — one for each hand or just one to add asymmetrical challenge.

How to do it:

  1. With one foot planted firmly on the ground, slide your free foot backward and hinge at your hip to lower your torso to the ground. Your back should stay straight and neutral, and your shoulders and hips should remain parallel with each other and square to the ground.
  2. Once your torso and back leg are parallel with the ground, grab your weight(s) and make sure your lats are engaged.
  3. Hinge your hips forward and draw your torso up, bringing your back leg to your planted leg. Take your time. Maintain balance the whole way.
  4. Hinge hips backward again and lower the weight(s) to the ground.


Things to watch for:

  • Your standing knee can bend, but it should stay in line with your toe and not move forward much at all.
  • Your back leg should be controlled and treated as an extension of the spine.
  • Your shoulders should not collapse forward. Keep your lats engaged throughout the movement.
  • Your back should not curve downward or arch upward, but remain in a safe, neutral position.

Use these movements as drills in your warm-up or make them part of your WODs. Before long, you’ll start noticing improvements in balance, strength and stability.