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Press Exercise for strength after I have progressed past my top bell?

dfanelli83

Level 2 Valued Member
I train in a home gym and while I have a decent amount of equipment and options, I'm wondering how I should proceed with my push/pressing strength.

My top KB is 32kg and I can press it 10-12 times on a good day. I've been working on learning ring dips (can only do them assisted right now) and also can do TB floor press, but the setup isn't great, and the range of motion is limited.

Looking to get back into an "Easy Strength" type program and trying to decide what to do for presses:

1. Just continue with pressing the 32kg, starting around 3x5 and over time just add more reps. (I can also add a little more weight with wrist weights, or taping 5-10 pounds to my KB).
2. Ring dips - starting with 3x3 or 3x5 assisted and progress toward unassisted.
3. 1-arm pushup progression
4. Or a combination of the three doing some kind of rotation. I feel though all three of these exercises need a decent amount of consistency to progress.

What would you recommend? Thanks in advance.
 
dfanelli83 said:
I train in a home gym and while I have a decent amount of equipment and options, I'm wondering how I should proceed with my push/pressing strength.

My top KB is 32kg and I can press it 10-12 times on a good day. I've been working on learning ring dips (can only do them assisted right now) and also can do TB floor press, but the setup isn't great, and the range of motion is limited.

Looking to get back into an "Easy Strength" type program and trying to decide what to do for presses:

1. Just continue with pressing the 32kg, starting around 3x5 and over time just add more reps. (I can also add a little more weight with wrist weights, or taping 5-10 pounds to my KB).
2. Ring dips - starting with 3x3 or 3x5 assisted and progress toward unassisted.
3. 1-arm pushup progression
4. Or a combination of the three doing some kind of rotation. I feel though all three of these exercises need a decent amount of consistency to progress.

What would you recommend? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
There’s still a LOT of value to be had in building with your 32kg for presses. Building from sets of 5 to sets of 10 will do huge things for your shoulders and - if doing cleans - your conditioning.

I’d add dips as well. Especially paired with pull-ups. If you have doubles, start working those in. And if that’s the case check out Easy Muscle from @Geoff Neupert - clean and press and squats day alternated with dips and pull-ups. Solid program.

If you only have singles and can also snatch the 32kg well, you could look into Kettlebell Hard, also from Geoff.
 
My vote would be progressing to OAOL push up while retaining the press … 32 kg press and unlocking the OAOLP will have a nice carryover to dips and you will not be even talking about assisted dips unless you have quite a big engine as Dan John calls it.

Ps: I can’t talk about a direct carryover to dips however I don’t picture a person who can press 32 kg for reps and has OAOL push up on a dip station struggling with dips.
 
Thanks for the suggestions all. My takeaways that Im going to look into for setting up my program are:

1. Keep doing the 32kg Press and building up the reps/volume (when I get to where multiple sets of 12-15 are "easy" i'll worry about findings something heavier)
2. Work the OAOL pushup progress and ring dips as my main "strength" moves.

Im not big on KB snatches, or cleans, but will look into those.

I'll post my whole A-B program here once I get things written pu.

Thanks Again!
 
Have you considered pressing your bells bottoms up? Other ways to milk the most out your kettlebells for pressing are Z-press(seated press), half-kneeling press, tall kneeling press, then you could do those bottoms up too.
 
Paul R said:
Have you considered pressing your bells bottoms up? Other ways to milk the most out your kettlebells for pressing are Z-press(seated press), half-kneeling press, tall kneeling press, then you could do those bottoms up too.
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Bottoms up presses are the ultimate technique builders for me. They are amazing I guess for grip strength and learning the full tension as well.

But since the weight drops versus normal press. I don’t know what it builds … This sounds like a stupid question but if you have experience with them, do they increase your press strength as well? If they do, and probably they do, what is happening :) ? Because indeed the load is lower …
 
dfanelli83 said:
Thanks for the suggestions all. My takeaways that Im going to look into for setting up my program are:

1. Keep doing the 32kg Press and building up the reps/volume (when I get to where multiple sets of 12-15 are "easy" i'll worry about findings something heavier)
2. Work the OAOL pushup progress and ring dips as my main "strength" moves.

Im not big on KB snatches, or cleans, but will look into those.

I'll post my whole A-B program here once I get things written pu.

Thanks Again!
Click to expand...
I would love to see your program and progress. I don’t know if it is a good idea to improve all presses (dips, push up and press) at the same time but would love to see what you will end up doing and your progress. Btw, how old are you? If you are 18 I think you will survive and recover a lot of push movements easier than me who is 50.
 
dfanelli83 said:

Press Exercise for strength after I have progressed past my top bell?​

What would you recommend?
Click to expand...

Kettlebell Band Pressing ​



This is one solution.

Ascending Strength Curve

Exercises in this category are hard at the bottom and get easier as the movement nears lockout.

Research by Dr Gideon Ariel determined that only 30% of any exercise movement is Overloaded, the remaining 70% of there movement is UnderLoaded.

To increase strength and size, muscles need to be OverLoaded.

While the 70% of a UnderLoaded Movement provides a little training effect, it is not as effective as OverLoading the Mvement

Banded Ascending Strengh Curve Movement ensure that the muscles in the Movement are OverLoaded through a greater Range of the exercise.
 
Many roads you can choose
Pike pushups
One arm pushups
Handstand push-ups

Turn the 10-12rm into a 12-14rm

It's all up to you what excites you
 
dfanelli83 said:
I train in a home gym and while I have a decent amount of equipment and options, I'm wondering how I should proceed with my push/pressing strength.

My top KB is 32kg and I can press it 10-12 times on a good day. I've been working on learning ring dips (can only do them assisted right now) and also can do TB floor press, but the setup isn't great, and the range of motion is limited.

Looking to get back into an "Easy Strength" type program and trying to decide what to do for presses:
Click to expand...
How about clean and press a barbell?

-S-
 
A lot of good recommendations here, and a lot of things to consider.

Here is the program I came up with. I know this ventures quite a bit from easy strength and I'll likely need to cut out some things and make some changes, but I'll try to start with this initially for the first few weeks.

For reference, I am 40 years old and have been training about 25 years. Been "bulking" for the past few weeks and am up about 4-5 lbs at 202lbs at 5'11"

Warm-Up Before each workout
a. Swings or Glute Bridges with band
b. Pushups
c. Facepulls
d. Bulgarian Split Squats (done easy mainly for mobility and maintaining the movement)

Workout A
1. Trap Bar Squat 10 total reps
2a. OAOL Pushup Progression (don't know what I'm going to do here. I'll have to research)
2b. Trap Bar Deadlift, high handles (Leave the same weight from the TB squats which should self regulate this for me)
3a. 1-arm ring row progression 2-3 sets
3b. Pushup or pike pushups 2-3 sets (Decided to cut these out for now. If I need more pressing volume I'll add them back in)

Workout B
1a. Pullups 10 total reps (May occasionally switch this us for BW and do a bit higher reps)
1b. Ring dips progression (Similar reps to pullups)
2. Press (starting with around 10-15 total reps and go from there)
3. Stepups (something a bit higher reps like 15-20 reps)

Extra Workout (approximately 1 time a week instead of one of the other ones. These are things I find help to keep in my program)
1a. Gliding Leg curls
1b. Ring assisted sissy squats
2a. Ring Facepull
2b. Pushups (ring or regular)
3a. Glute Bridge
3b. Calves

Other: I try to get carries in when I can. Sometimes, its just Trap Bar marching in my garage, or when I can get out I do either rucking or sandbag carries in the hills in my area.
 
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I decided to simplify what I had set up. I feel like it would be better to do fewer movements throughout the week and instead of an A-B, it will be just the same workout everyday with a few caveats.

There are a few moves that I tend to do well to NOT do every day (ex: pullups, Deadlift) so these have substitutes listed.

This means the OAOL pushups have been dropped for now, but I'll keep that ready to be rotated in when I feel I need to rotate out dips.

1a. Press
1b. TB Squat
2a. Pullups (Rotated with ring pullups as needed)
2b. Ring Dips
3. TB deadlift OR split squat variation (RFESS or Stepups)
4. Carry Variation (rotated frequently)

Also, for reference for others, I found this article on ring dip progression that seems pretty good: Ring dip progressions to master this movement
 
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