Viking Press: How to Do It, Machine vs Landmine Setup and Benefits

The Viking press is a standing overhead press where you push two neutral-grip handles attached to a lever arm, either on a dedicated Viking press machine or on a barbell anchored in a landmine. It came out of strongman, and it has crossed into ordinary gyms because it lets you press heavy with your palms facing each other and the weight travelling in a gentle arc, which most shoulders like far more than a straight bar. If you have a landmine and an Olympic bar at home, a £27 handle gets you the same movement.

Viking press machine vs landmine setup

Both versions do the same thing: a lever pivots behind or below you, and you press handles up and slightly forward. The difference is in how the arc behaves and what you need to own.

The machine. A plate-loaded Viking press machine has a fixed pivot near the floor behind you, a long arm, and handles at roughly shoulder height in the start position. Load sits on horns near the handles. Because the pivot sits low and far back, the handles move close to vertical at the top, so it feels like a heavy overhead press with training wheels. You'll mostly find these in strongman-friendly gyms.

The landmine version. You slide one end of an Olympic barbell into a landmine attachment, fit a Viking handle over the free sleeve and stack plates outboard of it. The pivot is at floor level in front of you instead of behind, so the bar travels up and towards the anchor. It's a slightly more forward arc than the machine, closer to a landmine press with two hands. Most handles fit 50mm Olympic sleeves only, so a standard 25mm bar won't work.

Got a power rack? Check if your rack's maker sells a landmine that bolts on; the rack attachments guide covers what's worth buying. Without a rack, a plate-post insert or floor platform will hold the bar.

Check GYM MASTER Viking press handle on Amazon£26.99

The GYM MASTER handle slides onto 2 inch Olympic sleeves and gives you neutral and wider grip positions. It's a simple steel attachment, so there's nothing clever to review; check your bar's sleeve diameter and that your landmine can swivel freely, and you're set.

How to do the Viking press

These steps assume the landmine version, which is what most home lifters will use. On a machine the setup is identical apart from where you stand.

1. Set your stance. Stand facing the anchor, with the handles at shoulder height in front of you. On a landmine, step forward or back until the handles sit just above your collarbones when your elbows are bent. Feet go hip-width apart.
2. Grip and stack. Take the neutral handles with your palms facing each other. Your elbows should sit slightly in front of the handles, forearms close to vertical, wrists straight rather than bent back.
3. Brace. Breathe into your belly, squeeze your glutes and pull your ribs down. You want your ribcage stacked over your pelvis before the weight moves.
4. Press. Drive the handles up along the arc until your elbows lock out. Let your head come slightly forward through the arms at the top, and reach a little so your shoulder blades rotate upward.
5. Lower under control. Bring the handles back to the start over 2 seconds, keeping the brace. Don't let them crash onto your shoulders.

Muscles worked

The Viking press is a shoulder and triceps movement first, with a decent core demand because you're standing and fighting a lever.

• Deltoids. The front delts do most of the pushing off the bottom, and the side delts take over as your arms rise. Standing presses produce higher deltoid activity than seated versions, according to a Norwegian study of 15 healthy men (body position and loading in shoulder presses).
• Triceps. They finish the lockout. The neutral grip lets your elbows travel in a more natural path, which keeps the triceps loaded right to the top.
• Upper chest. The clavicular head of the pecs helps off the bottom, more so on the landmine version because the arc runs forward.
• Upper traps and serratus. These rotate your shoulder blades upward as you finish the press. Weak serratus is one reason some lifters feel pinching overhead, so this is useful work.
• Core and glutes. Brace or fold. Your abs and glutes stop your lower back arching as the handles go up.

Benefits

It's shoulder-friendly. A barbell overhead press forces your hands into a pronated grip and your arms into full external rotation. The Viking press keeps your palms facing each other, which most people with cranky shoulders find far more comfortable. The arc helps too: the handles drift forward, so you never have to jam your arms back behind your ears.

You can load it heavily. The pivot takes some of the weight and you don't have to balance a bar, so you can push hard sets close to failure without the risk of a barbell tipping forward. That makes it a good hypertrophy tool for the delts and triceps.

It's easy to learn. There's no bar path to master and no chin to move out of the way. Most lifters can press it well in their first session.

It's measurable. The landmine press is a reliable test of upper-body pushing strength, and a 2026 study tracked bar velocity across 20kg to 35kg loads with good agreement between a camera system and a commercial transducer (landmine press kinematics study). The practical point: lever-based presses give you consistent numbers to progress.

It's cheap at home. A landmine plus a Viking handle runs well under £100 in total.

Common mistakes

Leaning back. The most common fault by a distance. Lifters arch their lower back to turn it into an incline press. Squeeze your glutes and keep your ribs down; if you still can't stay upright, drop the weight.

Standing in the wrong spot. On a landmine, if you stand too close the handles start too high and you lose the bottom half of the rep. Too far away and the arc pushes you forward onto your toes. Adjust until the handles start at collarbone height.

Bent wrists. Letting the handles roll your wrists back dumps the load into the joint rather than the forearm. Keep knuckles pointing up and the handles in the heel of your palm.

Half reps. Stopping short of lockout skips the part that trains your upper traps and serratus. Finish every rep with straight elbows and your head through.

Using a 1 inch bar. Most handles are built for 50mm Olympic sleeves. On a standard bar they rattle, slip or don't fit at all.

Variations

• Single-arm landmine press. Hold the end of the bar in one hand and press up and forward. It's the most accessible lever press and a good way to fix left-to-right strength gaps. Our landmine press guide covers it step by step.
• Half-kneeling Viking press. Kneel on one knee facing the anchor. You can't lean back as easily, so it's an honest test of your brace.
• Viking push press. Dip at the knees and drive the handles up with your legs. Great for overload, and the same idea as a barbell push press.
• Z press. Not a lever press, but if you want the opposite stimulus, sit on the floor and press with no leg or back help. The Z press exposes any weakness the Viking press hides.
• Strict barbell overhead press. Rotate it in if your shoulders tolerate it. The overhead press still builds the most transferable pressing strength.

Sets and reps

Treat it like any heavy pressing movement:

• Strength: 4 to 5 sets of 4 to 6 reps, resting 2 to 3 minutes. Good as your main press of the day.
• Muscle: 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps, resting 90 seconds. Take the last set close to failure.
• Accessory after barbell pressing: 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps with a lighter load.

Press once or twice a week. Add 2.5kg to 5kg when you hit the top of your rep range on every set, and remember the plate numbers won't match your barbell lifts, so compare the Viking press only against itself. For more pressing and shoulder work, browse the workouts hub.

Recommended reads

1. Landmine attachment: types and how to choose
2. Landmine press: how to do it
3. Z press: how to do it
4. Rack attachments worth buying
5. Overhead press: technique and programming