This blog post is dedicated to the strong ladies out there who have asked me how on earth I am able to press a 24kg kettlebell with ease. I can tell you from personal experience that perfecting this press takes patience, persistence and a ton of practice. However, if you place all those lovely p words together over time, you WILL master this move. Today, I want to talk about what I have found to be very helpful in terms of pressing nearly half my own body weight above my head.
So…here we go.
While I was in Boston, I was able to perfect my breathing patterns to release some awesome power to press the 24kg Kettlebell over my head. Now, I realize that properly tensing your muscles is the great starting point of your press, but I have found over time that correctly tensing our muscles AND breathing correctly helps perfect the military press. The reason for that has to do with how the nervous system functions under heavier loads. If you remain too tense into your press, your body may actually work against itself. Our own fight or flight response can actually create an effect where our muscles lock up too much and work against us. Breathing may actually aid in releasing the power and force that is generated from our initial tension. In real time, here’s how this breaks down.
Making more sense now?
I should note one thing here that I had failed to mention in this video. When you are starting out with the military press, you want to envision yourself pushing or “driving” your feent into the floor. This will force your body to tense properly in your core and legs to generate enough force to load and press the kettlebell. Breathing out slowly will allow for a more fluid press. Hope that clarifies things even more for yinz!
So…all you strong ladies out there, get your 24kg press on! And that’s real talk, ya heard?
Remember to eat smart, train hard, and enjoy your life!
Love Always,
Janelle Pica-HKC, CPT
