It’s Movement Wednesday where we talk about a movement we’re doing tomorrow, WHY we’re doing it, and other fun facts and tips about it!
Movement: Push Press
Description: Start standing with the bar in the front rack position. Perform a shallow dip with the knees while keeping the chest tall and elbows high. Use powerful leg and hip extension to drive the bar upward off the front rack. Finish by pressing the bar overhead while keeping legs fully extended.
Primary Movement Pattern:
Physical Skills Developed:
Tips, Tricks, and Fun Facts: The push press is a foundational core-to-extremity movement that teaches us to generate power with our large, strong core (legs and hips) and smoothly transition to finishing the movement with our smaller, weaker extremities (arms). You should be able to push press about 30% more than you can strict press. The push press builds strength and power in the legs, core, and arms as well as shoulder flexibility, coordination, balance, and accuracy.
Setup:
– Start standing with bar in front rack position
– Bar resting on shoulders, high elbows, maintain a relaxed but full grip on the bar
Initiation:
– Perform a controlled, shallow dip, keeping the chest vertical; not as deep as a quarter squat
– Explode out of the dip with leg and hip extension while bar is still connected to shoulders
– At full leg and hip extension as bar becomes weightless off the shoulders, begin overhead press
– Finish with full arm extension with bar over the centerline of the body
Common faults:
– Chest and elbows falling during dip. This results in a bad position to start driving from, with the bar coming off the shoulders and onto the hands. Keep the chest up and the elbows high throughout the dip, so that the bar stays resting on the shoulders.
– Dipping too deep. No need to go all the way down to a quarter squat; it’s more work and a harder position to maintain, and it doesn’t gain us any more power for our press.
– Pressing with arms before full leg and hip extension. This results in using our smaller, weaker extremities (arms) to support the weight before our larger, stronger core (legs, hips) is done working. Keep the bar connected to the shoulders until the moment legs and hips are fully extended to maximize your power.
Have one of our coaches check your technique tomorrow!
Dean