One of my students pressed 48kg after training for one year, and he started with 16kg. I hope these programs help you in pressing bigger kettlebells, too.
www.strongfirst.com
Tried this one before, but it's a bizarre program. I could press the 36 at that moment, but I got stuck when I had to press the 36 for two. A friend of mine actually did this program after
completing V2 with 24,28,32 and ultra heavy 36, and still had a hard time!
Yes, I've never done that program because it just didn't look realistic (at least for me) on paper.
In contrast, I've done a couple of rounds of the 5TRM program from an article here, with good results. It's based on a 5TRM (Technical Rep Max) and uses two different bell sizes, a main working weight (90% 5TRM) and an overload weight (105-110% 5TRM). Although it's billed as a squat plan, the article says it's based on a Plan Strong press program. So I just adapted it back to the press:
5TRM Program
There's another article with a similar plan based on a 1TRM. It has a little more waviness in the volume from week to week and uses three different bell sizes, a main working weight (75% 1TRM +/-5%), and two overload bells (85-90% 1TRM and 95-100% 1TRM). The article says you can approximate the percentages somewhat with bell sizes, and it gives the example of a 36kg 1TRM, where you could use 28kg as the main bell, 32kg as the first overload bell, and 36kg for the second overload bell. I haven't done the 1TRM program, but on paper and based on my positive experience with the 5TRM program, it looks very promising for someone with a 36kg max who wants to get to 40:
1TRM Program
Both programs use 2, 3, 5 ladders, have medium, low, and high volume days, and incorporate singles with the overload bell(s) on the low volume days. I really enjoyed this format in the 5TRM program. Even though the volume escalated over the course of the program, the perceived level of effort stayed about the same throughout. By the end, it didn't feel any easier, but I was doing a higher volume, and after the deload in the last week, I felt really strong. I did it for one-arm C&P with 28kg as my main bell and 32kg as my overload bell. During the actual program, I had some 5 rep sets where I had to grind the last rep, but on test day of the deload week, the bell all of a sudden felt a lot lighter. I didn't test my 1RM, but I tested my 28kg RM and got 12L/10R, holding each rep locked out overhead for a count of three, and stopping when the last rep slowed down. I was happy with that because I'm usually bad at higher reps and usually run out of gas pretty soon after 5, even with lighter weights.
