For functional fitness
For functional fitness, push press rates higher on our research criteria: more injury protection.
Both are good choices that build different things for functional fitness, so a plan can use both.
The research score comes from these, scored by hand from the studies. Lifter scores appear once an exercise has 10 ratings. How scores work
Push Press. Overhead power with leg drive, as in jerks and thrusters.
Thruster. A competition staple that joins a front squat and a press.
For functional fitness, push press rates higher on our research criteria: more injury protection. Both are good choices that build different things for functional fitness, so a plan can use both.
About the same: both take some practice.
Push press needs a barbell and a squat rack, so for most people it’s a gym exercise. Thruster needs a barbell and a squat rack, so for most people it’s a gym exercise.
Push press: it rates Good for injury protection in our research rubric, against Fair for thruster.