Fix Your Press - Part 1: The Awful Timing of Your Hips
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Today’s article is the first in a series of articles designed to help you improve various aspects of your press. Today’s topic - the timing of the hips movement.
The problem of incorrectly timing the hips movement shows up quite a bit with lifters as they’re learning the press. You’ve read the book, you’ve watched the videos, you’ve even done a couple of reps pretty decently, and then something suddenly gets off with the timing of your lift. What gives?
When we initiate the press, the hips should go forward first, and then they simply bounce back into place, i.e., we reach forward with our hips and then stand back up again. As we stand back up again (as the hips come back into place), we want to then use that upward momentum to start driving the barbell upward as well.
In other words, the hips should bounce first, and then we press, but the mistake we often see is that of reaching with the hips and trying to press upward at the same time (watch the video above for an example of this as well as how to do it correctly). When this happens, it will usually feel extremely weird, but it can be difficult to figure out what’s actually happened unless you have a coach watching, so this is where recording yourself on video can be a useful approach.
To solve this timing problem, simply cue yourself, “Hips then press,” or if that doesn’t work, you can remind yourself that the bar needs to go down first (not up) as you start the movement. In other words, we want the bar to dip downward a few inches as the hips reach forward, and the mistake you’ve made is that of trying to press it upward as the hips reach forward, so simply cue yourself “The bar goes down first.”
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
-Phil
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