He Stopped Pressing Like This. You Should Too.
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Today’s press error is not difficult to correct from a technical standpoint, but it can be an annoyingly persistent habit, so let’s address it quickly (i.e., before the mistake becomes more ingrained in your movement patterns).
The Mistake: Winding Up the Hips
When you correctly initiate the press, you do so by sending the hips forward (Figure 1). As you reach forward with your hips, the barbell dips slightly, and you get a nice bounce out of the bottom of that movement.
figure 1: Mike demonstrates the correct initiation of the press.
In anticipation of the forward motion of the hips, however, some lifters will make the mistake of accidentally pushing the hips backward first - “winding up the hips” in a subconscious effort to get a bigger forward reach (Figure 2).
figure 2: Mike incorrectly reaches back with his hips at the start of the press.
Why Is This a Problem?
This backward movement of the hips causes the bar to travel forward, which means you’ve now introduced unnecessary forward motion of the bar. As the press is already very susceptible to perturbations in the bar path, this forward motion is the last thing we want to happen.
The Solution
First of all, you need to be aware of this error, and many lifters are not, so the next time you press, record yourself and then watch the video to see if you’re committing this mistake (compare your video to the demonstrations that Mike provides in the video below).
If you’re winding up the hips, simply cue yourself “hips only go forward.” You are reminding yourself that the only place for the hips to go at the start of the press is forward (and therefore not backward).
If you still find yourself pushing your hips backward first, then slow yourself down and use the following mantra: “Breath, stop - then hips forward.” In this situation, you’re commanding yourself to breathe in and get tight, then stop all motion for a moment, and only then do you push the hips forward.
By the way . . .
Don’t bother telling yourself to avoid reaching backward with the hips. Negative cues - cues wherein you try to avoid doing something - rarely work in these types of situations. You are far better off focusing on what to do as opposed to focusing on what not to do.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
-Phil
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