-->
Designing a Weight Lifting Routine Part II
In Part I of designing a weight lifting routine, we talked about the cornerstone; a large, multi-joint movement. Training at home, I recommended the deadlift. The next step is to choose another multi-joint movement; a press.
There are a few choices for the press. There’s the classic bench press, the overhead press, the side press, and the bent press, to name a few options. Out of these, I recommend the overhead press or the side press, and I’ll tell you why.
The bent press is a great exercise, but there’s a technique to it. It’s just not the best press to start with.
I’m probably being controversial in not recommending the bench press. Oh well, it’s my informed opinion. First, it’s not very functional. How often are you called upon to lay on your back and press up a heavy object? Maybe to help a friend change a tire, but that’s about it. If you think it would make you stronger for pushing moves in football or some other sport, you’d only be partly right as there’s much more involved.
The bench press can also be very hard on the shoulders. Ever hear of Brooks Kubik? He’s the author of Dinosaur Training, and highly respected in the strength community for his no-BS stance on gaining size and strength. He’s recently turned away from heavy lifting to bodyweight training, and blames heavy bench pressing for destroying his shoulders.
Granted, he was probably lifting quite a bit more than most folks would even consider, but he’s not alone in wrecking his shoulders with heavy bench presses. I’m sure one can be taught proper technique to help spare the shoulders, but most of us are training at home alone.
So, I’ll move on to my recommendations, the overhead press and the side press. One major advantage of both of these presses is that you remain on your feet for the duration of the lift. This has you using your full body, which is what makes these two more functional than the bench press.
Both of these exercises warrant a detailed explanation. I’m not comfortable describing the side press here. I don’t do it often, and wouldn’t want to misinform anyone. A detailed description can be found in Pavel’s Power to the People.
For the overhead press, here I only want to give a few tips to keep in mind:
- If possible, clean the weight first
- Keep your forearms vertical
- Tense your entire body when pressing
- Press slowly
- Imagine pushing your body away from the weight, keeping the shoulder in the socket
- Don’t hold your breath, breathe slowly and shallow
- Bring the weight back down in a slow, controlled manner using muscle tension
I recommend doing the overhead press with kettlebells if possible. They allow you to work each side independently, adding even more functionality to the exercise. You also won’t have to work around your head as you do with a barbell.
Once you’ve added a press to your weight lifting routine, you’ve basically got a full-body workout. Do both the deadlift and press, and follow the same set/rep scheme given for the deadlift.
For very detailed instructions on the kettlebell overhead press (and everything else you need to get started with kettlebells), check out Pavel’s Enter the Kettlebell. It’s everything you need both to get started, and advance with kettlebells. For detailed descriptions of the deadlift and side press, as well as little-known tension techniques to advance your progress, pick up Power to the People.
Popularity: 26% [?]
Comments
Leave a Reply
