We have a saying in our lifting community: “The meaning of life is pressing heavy shit above your head!”. If there is one lift I absolutely LOVE, it’s the military press. In fact, over the years I believe the military press as become my favorite lift of all time, the kettlebell snatch being a close second. In a previous post, I talked about some tricks of the technique trade when it comes to getting a seriously sizable kettlebell up into the air. Over the past few weeks, I have received a number of questions about how to actually program a 1 rep max. To be good at pressing, you have to press. . .A LOT. Trust me, it won’t happen overnight, but the good news is that you can expect some pretty incredible feats if you’re diligent about your practice. As a 5’4” female, I can now easily press a 28kg kettlebell, and my mission in this post is to explain how you can get there yourself.
Before you even begin pressing a kettlebell, determine your current 5 rep max. This means you need to find a kettlebell you can easily do 5 strict military presses in a row with precision. There should be no break in your cylinder of strength. You want to maintain adequate control of the kettlebell from the racked position to the lock out position and all the way back down to the rack again. You should not be pressing your kettlebell out to the side of your body, but rather straight above your head. In my personal experience, most women are able to start with a 10kg or 12kg as a complete beginner for their press weight. A completely new beginner level male should be able to start with a 16kg or even a 20kg. Again, individual pressing weights will vary so be sure to spend some time figuring out where to begin. A good coach can help you with determining how to start lifting correctly, so if you need more advice on how to get started, email us at info@primalfitensspittsburgh.com.
Once you determine your 5 rep max, you’re going to need to train in a manner that will tax your body and nervous system to sustain a heavier load. That may sound kind of technical (or what I like to call “nerdy science wizard speech”), but in short, what you’re going to do is stack the number of repetitions to increase the demands of your lift. Kettlebell pressing ladders work wonders for this sort of goal, so here’s a way to do a ladder to train for a heavy 1 rep max. Grab your usual 5 rep max and set yourself up with the following.
Kettlebell Press Ladders
Week 1
1 press per arm
2 presses per arm
3 presses per arm
Complete as many rounds as you can get done in 15 minutes.
Week 2
1 press per arm
2 presses per arm
3 presses per arm
4 presses per arm
Complete as many rounds as you can get done in 15 minutes
Week 3
1 press per arm
2 presses per arm
3 presses per arm
4 presses per arm
5 presses per arm
Complete as many rounds as you can get done in 15 minutes.
Week 4.
This week you will complete no ladders. This is an active recovery week. Retest your 1 rep max on 1 day.
Instructor Note: This program can be used for single or double kettlebell presses. If you are completing single kettlebell presses then you will switch arms after completing each set of your reps. This means that when you complete 1 rep on your right arm, you move to the left arm and complete another 1 rep of the press. You will then switch back to the right arm and complete 2 presses, then switch back to the left arm for two presses and so on and so forth. If you want to groove your press, I would do this routine 2 times a week, but NO MORE THAN 3 TIMES PER WEEK MAXIMUM. The volume on this program is significant.
Let’s talk about WHY this works. My current 5 rep max is a 20kg (singles and doubles). A few months back, I set up a ladder system like this lifting 2x per week and worked up to ladders of 5 on double 20 kg presses. In 15 minutes, I was able to get through 7 sets of the ladders. With a ladder system that maxes out at 5 repetitions, you are lifting a total of 15 lifts per round of the ladders. That means that double 20kg ladders (total of 40kg) lifted for 15 lifts is 600 kg moved in 1 round of the ladder. 7 rounds x 600 kg equates to 4,200 kgs moved in 15 minutes. In pounds that is 9,240 pounds lifted in 15 minutes. SAY WHAT?!?!?!
At this point you have conditioned your body to sustain thousands of pounds worth of lifts. Take you’re off week SERIOUSLY at the end of this cycle and test your 1 rep max either on a Wednesday or Friday after having a solid 4-6 days off of training. This will give your body enough time to relax and gear up for your 1 rep max attempt. You should notice some significantly awesome things occur. One of our clients at the studio recently followed a similar sort of protocol in our power training sessions to work himself up to a 32kg military press. Here’s the result of his hard work.
GNARLY!
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