Kettlebell Side/Bent Press
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rickyw
Level 7 Valued Member
coachnathanwhite
Level 6 Valued Member
Riley O'Neill
Level 3 Valued Member
I enjoy the Bent Press. I don't have much of a program with it but I do it from time to time and enjoy it immensely. Its one of those moves that makes you happy, and when you think about it, isn't that why we are doing all of this?
Shahaf Levin
Level 5 Valued Member
Bent pressing for 3 weeks (4-5 times a week). Better posture, better T-spine mobility and stability, this leads directly to better shoulder function. My rotation/counter rotation feels better, my OH position never felt stronger. The lift just makes me feel better.
From muscular point of view lats and obliques work hard, when I'll go up the weight I assume I'll feel the hips extensors as well. But I think breaking the bent press to muscles is really doing it wrong. It's a body-lift.
Oh, my basic-level-awesomeness also went up
From muscular point of view lats and obliques work hard, when I'll go up the weight I assume I'll feel the hips extensors as well. But I think breaking the bent press to muscles is really doing it wrong. It's a body-lift.
Oh, my basic-level-awesomeness also went up
masa
Level 10 Valued Member
Windmills, side presses and bent presses, all good. I learned them in that order. I'm not that good at them thou. If one decided to start to practice them, it will take time and lots of reps to be good at them. That's why I use mostly one arm military press with kettle bell. Maybe because I'm lazy. I'm planning to use bent press somewhere near future. With bent press you can use biggest weight.
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DavThew
Level 6 Valued Member
I spent a while bent pressing heavily about a year ago now.
Main benefit was really tying the body together, eveything was just happy to work towards getting a big weight overhead. My lats were also noticably more engaged in other lifts. I didn't notice much hypertophy, but my reps were mainly singles. I'd like to come back to bent pressing heavy sometime soon.
Main benefit was really tying the body together, eveything was just happy to work towards getting a big weight overhead. My lats were also noticably more engaged in other lifts. I didn't notice much hypertophy, but my reps were mainly singles. I'd like to come back to bent pressing heavy sometime soon.
North Coast Miller
Level 9 Valued Member
A while back I had to pare my workout down to 10 minutes, so Swings, Bent Press and Deck Squat complex.
I noticed several benefits to using it, for me at weights I can hit for 6-10 reps.
My triceps get a great activation from the initial balancing phase and giving them a solid lock out prior to ascending, especially after doing multiple sets.
They hit my entire shoulder in a way the TGU does not, same for my lower back, keeping in mind I most often do these to an overhead squat.
Obliques, erectors. For me normally not a lot of lat activation, certainly some but nothing compared to bent rows.
A great tie in for the entire body and I get that same heavy upper body compression feeling I used to get doing barbell back squats.
If I do these as a two hands anyhow and reverse the movement, the core gets a truly massive workout and the lat recruitment goes way up as well. I do not run this variation often as it blows the rest of my workout if done with a solid amount of weight...maybe I need to do it more often.
I noticed several benefits to using it, for me at weights I can hit for 6-10 reps.
My triceps get a great activation from the initial balancing phase and giving them a solid lock out prior to ascending, especially after doing multiple sets.
They hit my entire shoulder in a way the TGU does not, same for my lower back, keeping in mind I most often do these to an overhead squat.
Obliques, erectors. For me normally not a lot of lat activation, certainly some but nothing compared to bent rows.
A great tie in for the entire body and I get that same heavy upper body compression feeling I used to get doing barbell back squats.
If I do these as a two hands anyhow and reverse the movement, the core gets a truly massive workout and the lat recruitment goes way up as well. I do not run this variation often as it blows the rest of my workout if done with a solid amount of weight...maybe I need to do it more often.
JeffC
Level 7 Valued Member
I dedicated about 6-7 months to the Bent press, starting late last year. It took a lot of time, and hard work for me to gain the flexibility, and positional strength to hit the right positions, and I discovered I had been training a false style as the weights got heavy.
I got up to 5ea bent presses at 70kg barbell, reps of 140lb fat grip dumbbell, and 8olb+50lb kettlebell in one hand. A two hands anyhow reps at 80lb+30lbKB and 40kgKB press, and 60kg barbell and 40kg KB press.
I felt good about those numbers. Once I had acquired the flexibility, the weight increased quickly. I did Bent and Sinister, and Justifyed Singles for programs.
For warm up and assistance exercises I did get ups, side pressing get ups, Brettzels, barbell sit ups, get up sit ups, heavy bent arm bar presses, pull-ups, pendelay rows. KB Snatch, Heavy Two Hand Swings, heavy high/low windmills, Jefferson Deadlifts, Kennedy Deadlifts, heavy BB and KB Shouldering/side racking, Behind the Neck pressing power Jerk Balance and Pressing Snatch Balance.
I very rarely failed reps, trained a lot of volume, and 5-6 days a week. I was not working near my max. The fear factor is high as the weights become dangerous. I stopped training the bent press due to over stressing the wrists, hands, and lower arms. It took a months or two to resolve those issues.
Going back to barbell strength training are my lifts were significantly stronger even though I had not trained them in over 6 months. I hit a 315lb bench, and 225lb military press very quickly. Also people at work asked me what I was doing and if I was doing steroids. I looked thicker and stronger, and no I have never taken anything more than Creatine.
I got up to 5ea bent presses at 70kg barbell, reps of 140lb fat grip dumbbell, and 8olb+50lb kettlebell in one hand. A two hands anyhow reps at 80lb+30lbKB and 40kgKB press, and 60kg barbell and 40kg KB press.
I felt good about those numbers. Once I had acquired the flexibility, the weight increased quickly. I did Bent and Sinister, and Justifyed Singles for programs.
For warm up and assistance exercises I did get ups, side pressing get ups, Brettzels, barbell sit ups, get up sit ups, heavy bent arm bar presses, pull-ups, pendelay rows. KB Snatch, Heavy Two Hand Swings, heavy high/low windmills, Jefferson Deadlifts, Kennedy Deadlifts, heavy BB and KB Shouldering/side racking, Behind the Neck pressing power Jerk Balance and Pressing Snatch Balance.
I very rarely failed reps, trained a lot of volume, and 5-6 days a week. I was not working near my max. The fear factor is high as the weights become dangerous. I stopped training the bent press due to over stressing the wrists, hands, and lower arms. It took a months or two to resolve those issues.
Going back to barbell strength training are my lifts were significantly stronger even though I had not trained them in over 6 months. I hit a 315lb bench, and 225lb military press very quickly. Also people at work asked me what I was doing and if I was doing steroids. I looked thicker and stronger, and no I have never taken anything more than Creatine.
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Shahaf Levin
Level 5 Valued Member
I just wrote this in my training log, thought it might be appropriate here as well...
Oh! one more thing about the bent press groove...
Due to an old (3 years ago) ski injury I have a torn labrum and an accompanied dislocated bicep tendon in my right shoulder. I used to think I am completely rehabilitated and have full ROM and control on my right shoulder.
Than I started bent pressing...
In about 15 seconds I learned the hard way that I probably had some compensation hiding somewhere (somewhere is the thoracic spine) and felt my bicep tendon acting out and "clicking" around there. I took OS reset back more seriously along with some stuff from the FMS exercise book. When bent pressing I focused on grooving the bent press well.
3 weeks later, I'm going over my recent log post and think "hey! didn't I use have a this weird bicep thingy in my right shoulder not long ago??"
Well, flowing Taming the Bent Press technical instructions to the letter and focusing on practicing the movement did it's thing
Thanks @Iron Tamer!
The thing I like most about the bent press is the inability to hide things. It will expose your weaknesses!
Joshua
Level 4 Valued Member
T
Thankyou so much guys, really appreciate you passing on your experiences!!
That was a great thread to read through!
Thankyou so much guys, really appreciate you passing on your experiences!!
El Cid
Level 3 Valued Member
If you're asking something along the lines of, "Is the bent press worth the investment of time?", I would answer a resounding yes.
I put it on par with the Get Up in terms of being a foundational Kettlebell movement. If you invest the time to learn it you can expect your thoracic mobility to make a healthy jump, your torso and spine to become strong and healthy, your lats to support your shoulders better (read less prone to injury) and a nice benefit to hip function as well.
There's a reason the first iteration of Enter The Kettlebell was built around Bent Press as the grind.
I put it on par with the Get Up in terms of being a foundational Kettlebell movement. If you invest the time to learn it you can expect your thoracic mobility to make a healthy jump, your torso and spine to become strong and healthy, your lats to support your shoulders better (read less prone to injury) and a nice benefit to hip function as well.
There's a reason the first iteration of Enter The Kettlebell was built around Bent Press as the grind.
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