Happy Friday! Everyone! Today, we are coving a powerful pressing variant ot make your strict military press STRONG AF! 😀
I received a question about this program recently that I wanted to address, and it’s all about the bottoms up press. I chose to include the bottoms up kettlebell press in our Powerful Pressing Program and the question about the bottoms up press was . . .well. . .why was it included in the program? Today, I’m going to talk about this often forgotten lift and talk about why it is so dang important to groove for your 1 rep max press.
The bottoms up press is a military press variant that involves doing a strict press when the kettlebell is inverted. Generally speaking, you don’t go super heavy nor do you go super high in number of reps and sets you complete with this press. The bottoms up press is hard. . .DAMN HARD! It demands a maximal amount of grip strength and maximal amount of full body tension to stabilize the weight properly (which is why you don’t do more than a few reps at a time with them). Think about it as adding extra gravity to your usual press. Inverting the kettlebell creates more pressure on your arm and will thus need more strength to move the kettlebell up and down as you are now working against gravity and the additional pressure of the inverted counter weight.
So. . .why was this included in our pressing program? If you guessed that it had something to do with grip and tensions, then DING DING DING! You’re spot on!
If you’re training for a 1 rep max military press, you’re going to need to teach your body the proper amount of tension to sustain a very large weight above your head. Full body tension is vital to sustaining a large weight above your head. Lose one little break in your chain of command and that bell isn’t going up. The bottoms up press demands the proper grip strength and full body tension to balance the counter weight. A tight grip will reinforce the lat and ab activation you need to sustain the inverted weight. Also, you’ll notice that you need to hyper contract your quads and glutes to balance the weight as well, which leads to lower abdominal tension as well. This is a sort of sneaky way to teach your body how to tense properly for a sizable single rep lift. Trust me! This works.
A good rep scheme to practice the bottoms up lift is to keep the sets and reps low. Here’s an example from our pressing program
Bottoms Up Pressing
Week 1: 1 Rep R x L x 3
Week 2: 2 Reps R and L x 3
Week 3: 3 Reps R and L x 3
You’ll probably have to go lighter than you think at first to train this lift. I recommend newbie lifters start at 1 weight lower than their 5 rep max on pressing. Ladies, shoot for anywhere between 8-16kg and guys, between 12-20kg.
A while ago I was practicing some of my own bottoms up pressing and came to find that I could do one with the 20kg. Just goes to show you that with the right amount of training, nutrition, and recovery, something that appears so impossible really is attainable. Take a look below!
Ready for more?
Click the link below to secure your spot. I’ll see you on the forum once you register! I cannot wait to have you press on into a whole new level of strength! Registrations will cease on May 5th, 2017 and all coaching and training will commence on Monday, May 8th 2017! Don’t delay! Register for Powerful Pressing Coaching Today!
Thanks for your support everyone. Like this post. Share it with your friends. Let’s show the world how strong we are as we press on to incredible new feats of strength together. Until next time. . .
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That’s it for today folks! Until next time. . .PRESS ON! 😉
Master your instincts!
