Kettlebell The strictness of the press

[Antti]

How strict do you do your press?

I've been pressing both a barbell and a kettlebell. I've done less dumbbell pressing. I've noticed that even minute differences in form can have a big effect. I've also noticed that it's instinctive to alter the form. When I started pressing, my body wanted to turn the press into a jerk, without me as a novice being able to give it much thought.

In the gym, most of the time, when someone talks about pressing overhead, they turn the exercise into a push press. Some do it only at the later reps of a tough set, but it's obviously not something to be avoided. A push press is clearly different from a press. That is not to say that we do not use the legs in a regular press, or that a push press isn't a good exercise - it's just that it should be called a push press and a press a press.

When doing the barbell press, some like to recommend a degree of hip action. The legs stay locked, the feet don't leave the floor, but the hip moves and the upper body along it. Once again, a major difference, even if it fulfils a certain criteria. But everybody moves their upper body when the weight gets heavy enough. How much do you do it, and how?

Now, if we have a glimpse at how the rest of the body works, how do you press with your arms? Do you do the press from a dead stop? Do you do your next rep right away after the earlier rep ends, or how long a break do you take? Do you dip down with your arm before the move, or does the 'bell only move up after you decide to move? Do you rest the barbell on your chest, do you use the olympic style front rack, or do you drop it only to your chin like some do? Have you tried pressing from a true dead stop, like from the pins of a power rack with a barbell.

All of it makes a difference - but how big a difference do you think it is? When you say you do the press, how do you do it?

 

[jef]

When I do the press, I expect a few things.
Barbell:
- knees locked all the time;
- minimal back bend. Just enough to clear the bar path (I try to use the hip forward move for this, no back hyperextension!);
- start with the barbell low on the chest;
- finish with fully extended elbows (but no shoulder shrug);
- pause at the bottom, pause at the top; showing control.
I also clean the bar. Not mandatory, but I like it for two reasons:
1. I can do the lift, even if the rack is busy;
2. It looks cool.

Kettlebell:
Same points. For a single kettlebell press, I move my hip on the side. With a 28kg, I also have to bend a little on the side at the start. This is physics, 28kg is 40% of my bodyweight, I need to align the system center of mass...

 

[Marc]

When I do the press, I expect a few things.
Barbell:
- knees locked all the time;
- minimal back bend. Just enough to clear the bar path (I try to use the hip forward move for this, no back hyperextension!);
- start with the barbell low on the chest;
- finish with fully extended elbows (but no shoulder shrug);
- pause at the bottom, pause at the top; showing control.
I also clean the bar. Not mandatory, but I like it for two reasons:
1. I can do the lift, even if the rack is busy;
2. It looks cool.

Kettlebell:
Same points. For a single kettlebell press, I move my hip on the side. With a 28kg, I also have to bend a little on the side at the start. This is physics, 28kg is 40% of my bodyweight, I need to align the system center of mass...

Exactly like this!

 

[WhatWouldHulkDo]

Personally, I like the oblique stress that comes with a truly strict one-arm press. Dead stop between every rep, no movement in the legs. My pride in how much weight I'm moving is able to take a back seat to the core tension that I like feeling out of a strict press - that's one of the reasons I do the movement.

So in the end, I suppose my goal with the movement is to learn tension, as opposed to getting as much weight as possible over my head.

 

[Shahaf Levin]

When I do the press, I expect a few things.
Barbell:
- knees locked all the time;
- minimal back bend. Just enough to clear the bar path (I try to use the hip forward move for this, no back hyperextension!);
- start with the barbell low on the chest;
- finish with fully extended elbows (but no shoulder shrug);
- pause at the bottom, pause at the top; showing control.
I also clean the bar. Not mandatory, but I like it for two reasons:
1. I can do the lift, even if the rack is busy;
2. It looks cool.

Kettlebell:
Same points. For a single kettlebell press, I move my hip on the side. With a 28kg, I also have to bend a little on the side at the start. This is physics, 28kg is 40% of my bodyweight, I need to align the system center of mass...

Like that.

I think of wedging under the load and my body movement is what needed to align the system. No leg drive on presses, I save that for push presses, and in a way, for Bent presses

 

[jef]

I should add that, of course, anatomic particularities have to be taken in account. I listed the criteria for myself.
Someone with long forearms, for example, will not be able to start with the bar low on the chest, but maybe as high as the chin. A more generic criteria would be elbow under or slightly in front of the bar, and then the bar starts where it can (for me, it is low on the chest).
Some people cannot fully lockout the elbow.