The Sound Of One Hand Pressing
David Whitley, Senior RKC
By David Whitley
The Bent Press (and its cousin the Two Hands Anyhow) was commonly practiced a century ago. It is rarely seen these days. The bent press is about as far away from pretty chrome machines and pink dumbbells as you can get and that is one of the many reasons it is one of my absolute favorites. If you have aspirations of becoming a true oldetime strongman, you should get familiar with this lift.
To move any significant amount of weight in this fashion you must possess a good degree of strength, balance, coordination and flexibility. Likewise, practice of the bent press will develop all these things evenly with a single movement.
If you can find someone who knows this lift and will teach you the technique, do it. It will save you time and effort to avoid trial and error. I originally learned it with a kettlebell and recommend you do the same. When learning the lift, a barbell is very difficult to balance, so it is easy to wind up concentrating less on body positioning. Dumbbells, while easier to balance, are difficult to hold in the “rack” position before beginning the bend because of their shape. I rarely use dumbbells for the bent pressing at all. A kettlebell fits perfectly in the groove made by the bent elbow. In a future article I will discuss the barbell method, but for now I will focus on using the kettlebell.
Preliminary Exercises
The first preliminary exercise for the bent press is the windmill. It is a lot like the bent press, without the press. Get a weight overhead with one arm, kick out your hip and lock your knee on the same side as the weight. So, if you are holding the weight in your right hand, lock the right knee and kick out your right hip. Turn the toes out forty-five degrees in the opposite direction of the kettlebell, in this case the left.
Keep your eyes on the weight at all times. Push your hips back and bend forward and to the side, as far as your flexibility allows. Keep the spine straight. To come up, tighten the glutes and hamstrings using them to pull you back to vertical. You may also bend the knees and perform an overhead squat. The windmill will help with proper body alignment, balance and shoulder flexibility.
The next preliminary exercise is the side press. It is like a one arm military press with a slight lean forward and to the side. After pressing the weight to lockout, stand up straight and lower it to the rack position for the next rep. Keep the shoulder pulled down into its socket throughout the movement.
Once you are comfortable with the windmill and side press, it is time to move on to the bent press. Clean the weight and firmly plant the elbow onto the hip bone. Squeeze the handle and keep the forearm vertical throughout the entire lift. With the elbow on the hip and the forearm vertical, you will be creating a straight line of skeletal support from foot to hip to elbow to hand.
Looking at the weight, flare the lat and fold the body, push the hips back and “fall” away from the weight. As the upper body moves, the elbow straightens. Do not rely on the strength of the triceps; it will get you nowhere fast. Like wise, the importance of flaring the lat cannot be overemphasized. It may help to do a few sets of rows to pump the lats and some presses to fatigue the triceps. This will force you to use correct form.
The upper arm remains in contact with the side of the body until the elbow is extended. To the observer, the weight should stay stationary while the body moves into the bent position, which is very similar to the low position of the windmill. With a heavy weight, allow the forearm of the empty hand to rest on the thigh.
From this position, squeeze the glutes, dip the knees and stand up. You may use the empty hand to push on the thigh when using heavier weights. Move quickly but without rushing. Going to quickly will result in losing balance and dropping the weight. Too slow will fatigue you and make things much more difficult than they need be.
A tip that I have used that dramatically speeds up the learning process is to use a dog leash to lock yourself into position. I chose a dog leash because it has a loop in one end, but anything long and strong will do: a piece of rope, karate belt, etc.
Put the loop around your hand and let the length of the leash run behind your back to the opposite heel. Get your elbow on your hip and stand on the bottom of the leash. Now fold forward like I described earlier. The leash will keep you in position. Once you have the feel for it, try with the weight again.
The bent press is one of those peculiar exercises that require a relatively heavy weight to develop the technique. Consequently it should always be practiced in an area where you have no reservations about dropping the weight. Do not try to recover a rep gone bad. A good bent press will make you strong. A bad one can get you hurt.
Once you are standing with the weight locked out overhead, the safest and easiest thing to do is push it forward slightly and let go. Yep, just drop it. With a kettlebell on soft ground, you will wind up with cool craters, so watch your step. If you are on a beach or have a sand pit, this isn’t a concern. If you don’t want to drop it, then you can simply lower it in military press fashion. Be careful.
Now that you have an understanding of the technique, let’s talk about getting strong. I recommend doing low reps, no more than five per set. With heavy weight I usually do singles. Sometimes I’ll do doubles or triples with a lighter weight. If you are using a kettlebell, one way to get stronger is to steadily increase total volume over the course of several workouts.
For example, let’s assume you can bent press a 24kg kettlebell, but not a 32kg. To work up to the bigger bell, train the bent press 3-4 times per week for fifteen to twenty minutes each workout. If you get ten singles in the first workout, shoot for at least eleven next time. Do not go anywhere close to muscle failure. If you get too fatigued to continue in perfect form, stop. Training to failure can be beneficial in some rare instances, but bending over with a big piece of iron balanced over your head ain’t one of them. Think of it as “practicing the lift” instead of working out.
Initial progress will come quickly and you will be doing 20+ reps in 20 minutes within a few weeks. When you can do that many total reps with perfect form, you should be able to get the 32kg. It is also a good idea to practice the windmill with a weight that is heavier than your Bent Press. This gets your nervous system, bones and ligaments accustomed to the heavier weight before you have to concentrate on technique.
Skill in the Bent Press will help your ability in other pressing movements; strengthen the core (which seems to be a very popular phrase these days. Do they do Bent presses in Pilates?) and increase your overall strength. Plus it looks really cool. Give it a try; you’ll be glad you did.
David Whitley is a Senior RKC Instructor and Up and Coming Oldetime Strongman. He can be reached through his website @ www.irontamer.com.