On Training ‘The Press’

About a dozen of you trained the press, the push press, and the push jerk with us this past Saturday as Barbell Club took a detour over to DEUCE Gym. Today you’ll have an opportunity to train the press, as well. As a foundational power lift, the press is a seemingly bare bones lift. Breathe. Squeeze. Press.

Well, that’s true. This simple lift is a great developer of raw strength. In addition, it’s a pretty low skill movement. However, there are some things we, as athletes, can do to improve our performances in something as elementary as the strict press. Take a look at Rob Orlando taking on the exact training session we did Saturday:

On the strict press portion, we can learn a thing or two from Rob:

Routine. Watch again. Rob begins each movement the same way. Finding routine in your approach, prep, and breath can remove performance inhibiting variables before you lift.

Speed. Yes, Rob is a strong individual. But, speed on the bar is critical. Even on the heaviest lifts he tries to maximize bar speed into the “sticking point.” Don’t buy into the press being slow.

Head Through. Especially when he needed it (on the set of 245), Rob works hard to drive his head forward as the bar passes his face to create leverage and keep the bar in his frontal plane. Chances are the bar weighs enough, guys and gals, don’t make matters worse pressing with it out front.

In today’s training session, keep it simple. But, to increase your performance in the press on game day, have attention to these few details. Have fun!

 

Logan Gelbrich

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Monday’s Workout:
Spending 20 minutes to find:

5RM and 10RM Strict Press

Then, complete the following for time:

Buy In: 50 Squats

2 rounds:
50m Sprint
50m Frog Jumps
50m Sprint
50m Prisoner Lunge

Cash Out: 50 Squats