JM Press: How to Do It, Muscles Worked and Variations

The JM press is a triceps exercise that blends a close-grip bench press with a skull crusher. Lying on a flat bench, you lower the bar towards your upper chest or chin while your elbows drift forward, then drive it back up by straightening your arms. It was popularised by powerlifter JM Blakley, who used it to build the lockout strength that finishes a heavy bench press, and it's a good pick if skull crushers bother your elbows but you still want to load your triceps heavily. Below is how to set it up, the cues that make it click, and how to fit it into a week.

How to do a JM press

You need a flat bench and a barbell, EZ bar or Smith machine. A bench that doesn't wobble matters more than people think, because the bar ends up close to your face; our guide to the best weight bench in the UK covers solid flat and FID options.

1. Set up like a close-grip bench. Lie flat with your eyes roughly under the bar, feet planted, shoulder blades pulled back and down. Grip the bar with your hands about shoulder-width apart or a little narrower, roughly where your thumbs can just reach the smooth part of an Olympic bar.
2. Unrack and position. Hold the bar over your upper chest or lower neck with your arms straight. That's further towards your face than a normal bench press start.
3. Lower with a hybrid path. Bend your elbows and let the bar come down and slightly back towards your chin, while your elbows travel forward towards your feet. Your upper arms move a little; your forearms do most of the travelling.
4. Stop short. Pause when the bar is around 5cm to 10cm above your chin or throat and your forearms are pressed into your biceps. Don't touch your face or neck.
5. Press back up. Push the bar back along the same path, flaring your elbows out slightly as you straighten your arms to full lockout.

Bar choice: barbell, EZ bar or Smith machine

A straight Olympic barbell is what Blakley used, and it's fine if your wrists tolerate a pronated grip. An EZ bar puts your wrists at a friendlier angle and many lifters find it more comfortable; check our EZ bar weight guide before you work out the load, as bars range from around 7kg to over 11kg. If you're buying one, see the best EZ bars in the UK.

The Smith machine version is underrated. With the bar on a fixed track you can focus purely on the elbow movement, and the safety stops give peace of mind when you're pushing a set close to failure on your own. It's covered in more detail under variations.

Muscles worked

The triceps do almost all of the work. Narrow grip pressing shifts more of the effort onto them; one study of novice and trained men found triceps activity was lower with a wide bench grip than with medium or narrow grips, and loads were lower with a narrow grip too (grip width and EMG in the bench press). The JM press takes that idea further by making the elbow extension the main event.

• Lateral and medial heads. These do a lot of the lockout work, which is why the JM press has a reputation for thickening the outer part of the arm.
• Long head. It still works, but your arm stays closer to your side than in an overhead extension, so the long head isn't as stretched. How much each head contributes changes with shoulder angle (role of each triceps head in elbow extension), which is a good reason to pair the JM press with an overhead tricep extension.
• Chest and front delts. They help at the bottom of the rep, though less than in any bench variation.

For the bigger picture on training the back of your arm, our tricep exercises guide ranks the main movements by what they do best.

Loading it without wrecking your elbows

The JM press has a split reputation. Some lifters swear it's easier on the elbows than skull crushers; others find it brutal. The difference usually comes down to load and bar path, not the exercise itself.

Start light. An empty EZ bar or roughly 20kg to 30kg in total is plenty for the first two sessions, even if you close-grip bench far more. Once the groove feels natural, most people settle at around half to two-thirds of their close-grip bench weight for sets of 8 to 12, although that ratio varies a lot between lifters, so treat it as a rough starting point rather than a target.

Warm up your elbows properly first, with a couple of high-rep sets of tricep pushdowns at a light weight. Keep the reps in the 6 to 15 range; heavy triples on a movement where the bar ends near your face aren't worth the risk. And if your elbows ache the following day, drop the weight by 10% to 20% or switch to the Smith or dumbbell version for a few weeks.

Common mistakes

Turning it into a close-grip bench. If the bar drops to your mid-chest and your elbows tuck to your sides, your chest and shoulders take over. Bring the bar higher, towards your chin.

Turning it into a skull crusher. Letting the bar go past your face with your upper arms fixed vertical defeats the point. Let your elbows travel forward.

Going too heavy too soon. This is the big one. A weight you can close-grip bench for 10 is usually far too much to JM press for 10.

Bouncing at the bottom. Stopping just above your chin with forearms squashed against your biceps loads the elbow joint hard. Control the bottom and press out smoothly, no rebound.

Wrists bending back. Keep your knuckles pointing up and the bar over your forearm bones. An EZ bar often fixes this straight away.

Flat feet, loose back. Treat the setup like a proper press. A stable base and tight upper back give your triceps something to push from.

Variations

Smith machine JM press. The fixed track removes balance from the equation, so it's the best place to learn. Set the safety stops a few centimetres above your face. If you're kitting out a home gym, the best Smith machines in the UK roundup has options, and our Smith machine bench press guide covers bench positioning on a Smith.

Dumbbell JM press. Hold two dumbbells with a neutral grip (palms facing each other), lower them towards your shoulders with elbows travelling forward, then press up. Each arm works on its own, and the neutral grip suits sore wrists.

Tate press. Lie flat with dumbbells over your chest, palms facing your feet, then bend your elbows outward so the dumbbells come down to touch your chest end-on before pressing back up. It's lighter and hits the lateral head with a very short range, so it works well as a finisher.

Close-grip bench to JM press. Do a set of close-grip bench press and, once you tire, carry straight on with JM press reps for a mechanical drop set.

Programming

The JM press works best as your main triceps lift of the session, done after your bench or overhead press but before isolation work.

• Strength and lockout: 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps, once or twice a week, resting 2 minutes.
• Muscle building: 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps, resting 90 seconds, then follow with skull crushers, an overhead extension or pushdowns.
• Elbow-friendly block: 3 sets of 12 to 15 on the Smith machine or with dumbbells.

Add 1kg to 2.5kg when you hit the top of your rep range on every set with a clean bar path. The NHS recommends muscle-strengthening work for all major muscle groups on at least two days a week, and a JM press slot on one or both upper-body days fits that neatly.

Recommended reads

1. The best tricep exercises
2. The best weight bench in the UK
3. The best EZ bars in the UK
4. The best Smith machines in the UK
5. Overhead tricep extension: how to do it