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Kettlebell Best way to improve my press

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Eric Wilson said:
Why do you guess that? I'm honestly curious.

I assumed that I was simply weaker than most men because:
- I'm small and very thin
- I've always been one of the weakest and slowest
- I've been pretty sedentary for the last quarter-century
- I'm nearly 50 years old
- I'm pretty new to weight training.

I guess that you are saying that even with all of these factors considered, you would expect me to be able to press the 16kg for reps, so it must be technique? I'm not discounting what you are saying, but just curious how you come to that conclusion.
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I am going to suggest you try and "bulk up" via some complex/hypertrophy. The bigger you are, the stronger you can get.

Just a fact. You can press that 12kg 10 times or so and that is a good starting point for most complexes.

You can get KBS for free
strongashec.com

Quick Kettlebell Workouts for Men

Busy Dad Reveals How To Get In Shape In Less Than 45 Minutes Per Week... have more time to himself, his wife, and still make time to horse play with the kids!
strongashec.com

It has some 1 KB complexes in there.
 
Steve Freides said:
@Eric Wilson, I have a simple suggestion for you - work with an SFG. My guess is that technique is your issue.
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Eric Wilson said:
Why do you guess that? I'm honestly curious.

-snip-

I guess that you are saying that even with all of these factors considered, you would expect me to be able to press the 16kg for reps, so it must be technique? I'm not discounting what you are saying, but just curious how you come to that conclusion.
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Eric, I don't mean to sound old, but I've been teaching since around the time you were born (you're 49, I'm 65, and I started teaching when I was 16), and I'm willing to stick out my neck here and say any healthy adult male can learn to press a 16 kg kettlebell for reps, even the proverbial 98-pound weakling. When I was your age, I was pressing a 32 kg, and although you're smaller than me, you're not all that much smaller than me (I weighed 65 kg at my last PL meet), and I'm a lousy presser who has worked my tail off for what success I've had. And I'm far from a life-long athlete. I had a bad back injury in the Fall of 1997 and started lifting weights as I recovered, so 1998 or 1999.

I read a post in another thread earlier today - I'm paraphrasing but it went something like, "I don't understand how lifting a little every day isn't lifting a little every day." Me, I don't understand expecting to improve one's skill at anything without lessons. Strength is a skill one must learn. I suppose some people come by it naturally but I sure as heck wasn't one of them, and I'll willing to again stick my neck out and say you're aren't one of them, either.

I don't mean to be harsh, but I do mean to say that if you haven't had proper instruction in something you want to do but can't, I don't understand what you could be waiting for.

-S-
 
Steve Freides said:
Eric, I don't mean to sound old, but I've been teaching since around the time you were born (you're 49, I'm 65, and I started teaching when I was 16), and I'm willing to stick out my neck here and say any healthy adult male can learn to press a 16 kg kettlebell for reps, even the proverbial 98-pound weakling. When I was your age, I was pressing a 32 kg, and although you're smaller than me, you're not all that much smaller than me (I weighed 65 kg at my last PL meet), and I'm a lousy presser who has worked my tail off for what success I've had. And I'm far from a life-long athlete. I had a bad back injury in the Fall of 1997 and started lifting weights as I recovered, so 1998 or 1999.

I read a post in another thread earlier today - I'm paraphrasing but it went something like, "I don't understand how lifting a little every day isn't lifting a little every day." Me, I don't understand expecting to improve one's skill at anything without lessons. Strength is a skill one must learn. I suppose some people come by it naturally but I sure as heck wasn't one of them, and I'll willing to again stick my neck out and say you're aren't one of them, either.

I don't mean to be harsh, but I do mean to say that if you haven't had proper instruction in something you want to do but can't, I don't understand what you could be waiting for.

-S-
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I have often mentioned my first hands-on experience getting lessons from an instructor..

I realized I was doing a lot of things in a not so ideal fashion...

It's also the same reason if I have the opportunity, I always prefer to recertify via assisting. You get more than one extra set of eyes on how you can get better.
 
Steve Freides said:
I don't mean to be harsh, but I do mean to say that if you haven't had proper instruction in something you want to do but can't, I don't understand what you could be waiting for.
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I'm not taking it harshly. I appreciate your advice and perspective, and I might get instruction. Possibly even this year.

You can't understand what I'm waiting for? I find that hard to believe. Life is complicated, we all have far more that we want to accomplish than we can do well. And you know that many of us here are far less invested in strength and fitness than you are.

And as GK Chesterton said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly" -- pressing poorly is better than not pressing at all, so long as I'm not hurting myself.

Probably I'll get training if I come to feel that progress is actually stalled.

Thanks much.
 
You have received great replies from really knowledgeable and experienced folk. Two things came to my (not-so-knowledgeable and inexperienced) mind when I read your question. Take it for what you will. Here they are:

Pavel wrote about this routine somewhere. Where I don't remember, but I have used it to great effect. Mainly with bodyweight movements, like diamond pushps, archer pushups, etc. You do 5 reps of a movement - 1-1-1-1-1. The rest periods between are strength rest periods - 5-15 minutes. Next workout, you add 1 rep - ONLY TO THE LAST SET. It would look like 1-1-1-1-2. The next workout, you add another rep to the penultimate set - 1-1-1-2-2. You progress in this fashion - adding a rep the previous set. When you reach 2-2-2-2-2, then you go back to adding a rep to the last set - 2-2-2-2-3, and continue. Once you reach 5-5-5-5-5, then you can use this particular movement for more volume. It is a slow thing, but it works. The key is to rest a lot between reps. If you are alternating hands, then rest at least 3 minutes before trying out the other hand. I even used it for rope climbing, playing with leverages - two feet on the ground, one foot on the ground, with knees raised, etc. I was progressing, but they removed the climbing rope and put in a battle rope station there, so had to stop.

The second thing is this. On ironbodybyartemis.com, Artemis writes about how she achieved the Iron Maiden. She writes that she missed once and her coach made her go back to a lower weight, but with reduced leverage, like half kneeling presses, tall kneeling presses, etc. That whole series of articles (how she achieved Iron Maiden) is worth reading. Lot of good pointers there. I tried out a specially designed (meaning something created out of boredom) similar program and shared it here. As you said, you can lift the 12 kg bell for 12 reps. Maybe playing with leverages is what you need.

As I said, you have received lot of good advice here, from far more knowledgeable folk than me. This is just my 2 cents. Good luck!
 
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