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Kettlebell Can you do the Bent Press?

watchnerd said:
I'm curious what you're using the weighs only 3 kg?

Even my empty, unloaded dumbbell handles weigh 5 kg each.
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There are various things that are fairly light - ie hand weights for power walking, el cheapo plastic dumbells from Kmart, ankle weights, big bottle of water, a rock, a 1 litre bottle full of water is only a kilo but fill it with sand instead and its heavier, piece of threaded water pipe with caps on each end and either water or sand inside , my own el cheapo metal dumbell handles from Aldi weigh 2kg

What would "get" me ...... I was unable to keep the arm vertical, the straight arm usually traced a conical shape in the air and once it was off vertical was very hard to control.
 
jayjo said:
I am always looking for new lifts to spice up my Kettlebell routine. I love the Turkish Get Up. More recently I have been working on the Bent Press. Some days I can do it with light weight. But other days my body seems to lock up and almost prevent me from corkscrewing down into position. This is my struggle and I will continue to work on it.

But I would like to know from y'all if you do the Bent Press. In other words, is this something that most KB people can do or want to do? Or it is seen as strange, difficult, unnecessary? Or it is seen as the ultimate lift?
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I love the Bent Press, as you can see from my profile pic with the 40k years ago at a Level 2. That said, there are variations/regressions you could try that are less demanding than the actual Bent Press. @Brett Jones has shown me some great ones in the past. I don't recall the names of them all but I would recommend the bent arm bar, 1/2 kneeling bent arm bar, elevator press (my name for it), and the 1/2 kneeling bent press. All of these options allow you to gradually increase your range of motion so you can build up to an actual bent press in a methodical manner. Or you could just use them as movements on their own, which is often what I do.
 
BillSteamshovel said:
There are various things that are fairly light - ie hand weights for power walking, el cheapo plastic dumbells from Kmart, ankle weights, big bottle of water, a rock, a 1 litre bottle full of water is only a kilo but fill it with sand instead and its heavier, piece of threaded water pipe with caps on each end and either water or sand inside , my own el cheapo metal dumbell handles from Aldi weigh 2kg

What would "get" me ...... I was unable to keep the arm vertical, the straight arm usually traced a conical shape in the air and once it was off vertical was very hard to control.
Click to expand...

You tried get ups / windmills with all those things?
 
John Spezzano said:
I love the Bent Press, as you can see from my profile pic with the 40k years ago at a Level 2. That said, there are variations/regressions you could try that are less demanding than the actual Bent Press. @Brett Jones has shown me some great ones in the past. I don't recall the names of them all but I would recommend the bent arm bar, 1/2 kneeling bent arm bar, elevator press (my name for it), and the 1/2 kneeling bent press. All of these options allow you to gradually increase your range of motion so you can build up to an actual bent press in a methodical manner. Or you could just use them as movements on their own, which is often what I do.
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Yes, some good drills! I made this video for another thread a while back.

 
I recently tried Overhead Squats with a Kettlebell. I noticed that the KB traveled forward meaning I could not keep the KB over my feed as I stood up. I can do the T-spine rotation on a Bent Press with no weight. But it must be my shoulder mobility.
 
jayjo said:
I recently tried Overhead Squats with a Kettlebell. I noticed that the KB traveled forward meaning I could not keep the KB over my feed as I stood up. I can do the T-spine rotation on a Bent Press with no weight. But it must be my shoulder mobility.
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If you have one, try it with a Db.
 
jayjo said:
I recently tried Overhead Squats with a Kettlebell. I noticed that the KB traveled forward meaning I could not keep the KB over my feed as I stood up. I can do the T-spine rotation on a Bent Press with no weight. But it must be my shoulder mobility.
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Where is your bicep relative to your ear?

When I do KB OHSQ, my shoulder is externally rotated and my arm is almost behind my head; my bicep is a little past my ear.
 
watchnerd said:
You tried get ups / windmills with all those things?
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I started with empty hands then 3kg then 6kg dumbell from Kmart - I wrote the rest out as examples of what anybody might use if they needed a very light weight. I've used bottles full of sand or just big rocks on holidays for getups. I've used the water pipes on the end of 1" dowels as light clubs ie 1lb and 2lb you can screw the end caps off the pipes and put leadshot in for heavier clubs.
Feeling good so did 12kg today, kettlebell.
 
Don Fairbanks said:
If you have one, try it with a Db.
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Yes I do, and I will.
watchnerd said:
Where is your bicep relative to your ear?

When I do KB OHSQ, my shoulder is externally rotated and my arm is almost behind my head; my bicep is a little past my ear.
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That is exactly what I cannot do. As I go down into the squat, my arm travels forward. I believe my tight back muscles must be pulling my shoulder or something like that.
 
jayjo said:
That is exactly what I cannot do. As I go down into the squat, my arm travels forward. I believe my tight back muscles must be pulling my shoulder or something like that.
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I would say most people (including people who are otherwise athletic and generally mobile) who don't train a lot of overhead thoracic extension probably can't do it without a fair bit of pre-requisite work.

I'd regress to snatch grip overhead squats with a dowel / stick.
 
Anna C said:
Yes, some good drills! I made this video for another thread a while back.

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Great stuff, @Anna C. Your "give and take" press is my "elevator" press. One suggestion for those of us not as mobile as Miss Anna would be to do a regression on the half kneeling windmill, the exercise she does after the bent arm bar. You don't have to touch your elbow to the ground right off the bat. If your mobility is lacking, you will likely require side bend to get there and that's a big no-no. You can start by just hinging your butt to your low side heel enough to get your palm to the ground. Then gradually increase the amount of rotation so your empty hand travels closer to your front foot. Hopefully you will be able to work up to the elbow to the ground that @Anna C makes look so simple. ;-D
 
jayjo said:
I recently tried Overhead Squats with a Kettlebell. I noticed that the KB traveled forward meaning I could not keep the KB over my feed as I stood up. I can do the T-spine rotation on a Bent Press with no weight. But it must be my shoulder mobility.
Click to expand...
Don't feel bad, @jayjo, overhead squats with a kettlebell are much more difficult than with a bar. Your hands must stay vertical with KBs, whereas with a bar you have your snatch grip. Some people do work narrow grip OHS, but it's not the core movement. This doesn't mean you shouldn't work OHS with KBs, just don't be surprised at the level of difficulty.
 
John Spezzano said:
Don't feel bad, @jayjo, overhead squats with a kettlebell are much more difficult than with a bar. Your hands must stay vertical with KBs, whereas with a bar you have your snatch grip. Some people do work narrow grip OHS, but it's not the core movement. This doesn't mean you shouldn't work OHS with KBs, just don't be surprised at the level of difficulty.
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OK thank you. I have no problem with Overhead Walking Lunges. Not sure if that is relevant.
 
That's great news. It's relevant in the sense that if you have a hard time with walking lunges I would definitely suggest you see a PT. Lunges have a much lower mobility requirement. Firstly, assuming you're only using one KB you only have one hand overhead. Secondly, you're in a split stance which makes getting under an overhead load much easier. This is the reason the vast majority of competitive weightlifters (aside from the Chinese team) jerk the bar with a split stance.

If you're dying to overhead squat, find a good coach and start with some effective mobility work. I trained with Sean Waxman in So Cal for a few years and for the first month all he had me do was come in and do specific things on the foam roller to open up my T-spine. (And it was an hour drive each way!) After 30 years of Thai boxing and various other martial arts, I was pretty locked up. I think the most valuable thing I got from training weightlifting was the improved mobility. It was worth the drive.
 
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