7 Things Successful Lifters Do Before Pressing HEAVY (plus BONUS tip)
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Here are 7 things that intelligent, wise – crafty even – lifters do before pressing, and while we’re at it, we’ll cover a bonus tip at the end that you might not usually think about.
#1 Grip
Make it narrow.
This isn’t the bench press. If you reach straight out in front of you as if you’re Frankenstein’s monster, you’re doing well. To oversimplify it (slightly), guys will have their index fingers right on the edge of the knurling, i.e., close to the smooth part of the bar but not on it, and gals will place their index fingers right on the smooth part of the barbell with the rest of their fingers on the knurling.
There’s a little more variability in reality, but this is a good place for most people to start.
#2 Grip . . . Again
Support the bar in the base of your palm – not up by the pads of your fingers.
Simply pronate your grip slightly so that the base of your palm is pressing hard against the bar and then squeeze the bar tightly. Your wrists will be nearly straight (but not completely) – so if your wrists are bent back at 90°, rack the bar and fix your grip. Squeezing the bar tightly helps tighten up the muscles in your forearms and keeps the wrists from bending backward.
Check out the video below for a demonstration of the error as well as the solution.
#3 Legs, Elbows, and Wrists
As you approach the bar to unrack it, dip down far enough with your legs so that you can rotate your elbows into a position where they are slightly in front of the bar when viewed from the side. Keep a tight grip on the bar so that your wrists remain neutral (and not bent backward at 90°).
At this point, simply stand the bar up with your legs. You unrack the bar using your legs, and nothing – nothing – from your waist up should change position after you unrack it.
If you have to adjust your elbow or wrist position after you unrack it, then you set up incorrectly before standing it up. Rack it, fix it, then unrack it again.
#4 Stay Close
This is not a distance event. After you unrack the bar, stay close to the rack.
Stand the bar up, take one small step backward with each foot, and your stance should be set permanently.
#5 Focal Point
Pick something directly in front of you on the wall at eye-height and stare at that spot — stare at it before you unrack the bar, throughout the entire set, and until you rack the bar again.
#6 Breathing and Bracing
Before every rep, take a breath, hold that breath by performing a Valsalva maneuver (check out the video below), and tighten every muscle in your midsection. Hold that breath and keep clamping down on the muscles of your trunk through the rep until the bar is back at the start position. At this point, take a new breath, brace again, and perform the next rep.
If you’re not sure how to correctly breathe and brace when training, check out the very useful video below.
#7 Knees
When you breathe and “get tight” (i.e., brace), be sure to tighten your knees, too. Flex your quads hard so that your knees don’t bend when you reach forward with your hips. You can remind yourself with any of the following cues:
Flex the quads
Tight knees
Pull the kneecaps up
Keep the knees back
Bonus Tip: Shoes
Wear lifting shoes.
The press is already very susceptible to deviations in the bar path, so don’t make things worse by lifting on a soft, squishy lifting platform like that found in running shoes, Chucks, etc.
Once you’ve trained on the noncompressible sole provided by a lifting shoe, lifting on anything else feels like standing on a pillow.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
-Phil
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