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Kettlebell Can you do the Bent Press?

jayjo

Level 5 Valued Member
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?
 
I think you are going to find a wide variety of opinions on the bent press. For me, it falls into the same category as the windmill and the get up. All 3 of these helped to stabilize my left shoulder joint after a labral tear and equalized my thoracic rotation.

I think that most people CANNOT perform this as a result of their thoracic spine mobility limitations. I also would not characterize it as unnecessary. I personally can do more weight confidently with the bent press than the get up, it is a good alternative for practitioners with flared up knees from get ups.

The ultimate KB, IMO is the long cycle.
 
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?
I enjoy doing it, and I do them from time to time, but they are not mainstays in my program.

I would highly encourage working with an SFGII. I had no idea how wrong I was doing them or the windmill until I did.
 
Back in the day, I was OK at it. Before I could strict press the 32 I could Bent Press it. 40 was my best. It's even more fun with a barbell. And the ultimate fun is a 2 hands anyhow. It's a great skill that carries over in WTH effect to many other moves.
 
Yeah, I can.

But once I skilled up on it, I stopped doing it.

I got more out of learning to do the bent press, and the pre-requisites, than I did out of practicing the bent press.
I got more out of learning the bent press, specifically it made me really pay attention to my hip position during the TGU from the tripod position. I have a similar experience as @jayjo in that some days I can hit it and others I just can't, even with light weight. It's fun to do it for a little bit, but I find I still don't have the form dialed in like I do other lifts.

And I agree with @Anna C that the long cycle is the ultimate lift. I would rather spend time on the LCCJ than the bent press, which ends up being more a reset for my mind and body each time I decide to give it a try. I am not saying the bent press isn't worth it to pursue if you have the skill and mobility for it, it just isn't something I depend upon for my fitness.
 
Yes but I haven't gone deep with them in a while

Chances are you need more tspine work if you struggle performing them on some days.
 
My right hip is less mobile than my left, most likely due to an old knee injury, even though I do lots of hip mobility. It’s not overly bad though, just an imbalance I don’t like.

I like doing TGU because they help with making my right hip more mobile and strong. And my left shoulder, it’s less strong than my right.

I generally do one very slow paused 24kg on each side after KB strong 3x a week. I’d like to get to 32, but it’s not a huge goal. I get a lot out of it in regards to hip mobility and shoulder stability.


Plus, there’s an annoying bloke at the gym who seems to copy cat what people do because he thinks hes awesome bro. I’ve never seen him copy me when I do TGU.


EDIT. Woops I thought I was in the TGU thread. I have tried the Bent press. Very humbling but I think a lot of value for mobility. I prefer TGU
 
Great video. This may help from seeing it from the back.
The only aspect you can't really see from the rear is pushing the hips back to create space when bending rather than just bending forward. This really helped me btp heavier bells.
 
Or it is seen as strange, difficult, unnecessary? Or it is seen as the ultimate lift?
I used to include it often and felt it had a lot of value. In retrospect it is a highly technical lift that has nearly zero carryover to any other movement you might encounter in even an extraordinary day.

In practice the bulk of the load is poised over/supported skeletally, with a minimum of big muscle recruitment - and this was with me executing to a low overhead squat.

Its a fun lift, and has some value as a mobility drill if done from a low squat, but really no more than a regular overhead squat or windmill. Don’t feel like you need to study it further if you don’t feel a strong pull of curiosity.

My tip for learning it is to use light to moderate load and go to failure. As you get weaker you will be forced to shift / support more of the load with your skeleton.
 
Yes ! Had a go today Quite a surprise .... Today I succesfully did 6kg Windmills and Bent Presses ...... have been doing a lot of thoracic mobility exercises seems like they are achieving something .... The last time I tried windmills a 3kg weight got away from me.
 
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