The Press: Make the Bar Go DOWN?!
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 11/25/22)
Not sure about the hips movement in the press? Maybe you can “reach and bounce” just fine without the barbell, but when you add the bar to the movement, everything turns to garbage. Perhaps you just don’t know what it’s supposed to look like. Let’s fix it with a simple cue.
Becky in the start position (note the bar’s position relative to the horizontal barbell in the background)
Bar Cue vs Body Cue
Cueing yourself to “reach and bounce” with your hips is a perfectly good approach, but if the timing of your hips and pressing is still off, trying using a bar cue instead of a body cue, i.e., try telling yourself what you want the bar to do, and let your body figure out the rest.
Becky demonstrates the initial downward movement of the bar (again, note the bar’s position relative to the horizontal barbell in the background)
The Bar Goes DOWN First
When the hips reach forward, you get a bit shorter (since you’re no longer standing up straight), and since you are getting shorter - briefly - the bar should go down, so remind yourself of this. Simply tell yourself to make the bar go down before it goes up.
When the hips go forward, the bar goes down, and as the hips bounce back into place (i.e., as you stand up), the bar starts to go up. The cue is: “Make the bar go down.” More simply, you can cue yourself: “Down-then-up.”
Try this out the next time you press and see if it helps. Additionally, watching this motion in action can be very helpful, so I’d recommend watching the video at the end of this article. In the meantime, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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FIX Your Bench Press in under 2 Minutes: STOP Benching Vertically
/Are you bench pressing with a vertical bar path? Don't. Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers why this is a problem and how to fix it.
At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?
The Testify Chronicle - November 25, 2024
/THIS WEEK'S SUBMISSION
From our video The Mistake that is RUINING Your Deadlift (FAST FIX) (click the title to watch):
TacticalLumberjack
Whelp, I’ve definitely been doing that.
Phil
It’s an easy and very common mistake to make, and I hope this helps!
TESTIFY ONLINE COACHING
Want to get stronger working remotely with one of our Starting Strength Coaches? Click here to contact us and learn more.
Get Stronger. Live Better. Start today.
ARTICLES & VIDEOS
The Mistake that is Ruining Your Deadlift (fast fix)
This deadlift mistake is easy to make and it makes the deadlift harder than it should be, but it's also a quick fix. Click here to watch.
The Truth About Lifting (What No One Tells You!)
Phil briefly covers why lifting weights is pretty stupid and - more importantly - why it isn't. Click here to read.
Blast from the Past: Starting Strength Squat/Low Bar Squat | Fix Your HIPS and KNEES!
Is the timing of your hips and knees ruining your squat? In this video - our sixth in a series of Saturday Shorts on fixing the squat - Phil and Becky quickly discuss and demonstrate how to solve this problem. Click here to watch.
Blast from the Past: Timing and Bounce on the Jerk
Phil discusses the timing for getting a forceful bounce out of the bottom of the jerk. He also gives a cue to help get that bounce. Click here to read.
TESTIFY BALL CAPS ARE AVAILABLE!
Represent your favorite gym and keep the sun out of your eyes in style with this cap.
Click here to head to the Testify Store.
WHAT'S COMING UP
Congratulations to everyone who competed at Benching Bonanza this past Friday, and thank you so much to everyone who helped out! Judges, loaders, spotters, those who helped set up and tear down - you all were great, and we couldn't have wonderful events like this without you!
Reminder: Below are the hours for Thanksgiving week (you can also find these on our Location & Hours page). Any days not listed retain their normal hours.
Wednesday, 11/27/24: Regular hours
Thursday, 11/28/24: Closed
Friday, 11/29/24: 5:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. (no afternoon/evening hours)
Saturday, 11/30/24: Regular hours
Below is the information for the upcoming Barbell Blizzard, and you can always find out what else is on the calendar by heading to our events page at www.testifysc.com/events.
Barbell Blizzard! A Winter Wonderland of Weights
December 14, 2024
Barbell Blizzard is a team strength meet wherein the contested lifts will be the squat, press, bench press, and deadlift. Competitors will form teams of 2-4 lifters/team and perform all 4 lifts; each lifter will receive 3 attempts for each lift.
Click here to register or for more information.
THIS WEEK’S CONDITIONING
Option 1
Sled
Outdoors:
10 rounds of:
Push sled 100 ft
Pull sled 100 ft (hand over hand)
Indoors:
20 rounds of:
Push sled 50 ft
Pull sled 50 ft (hand over hand)
Compare to 2024.09.23.
Option 2
Bike/row:
4 x 800m
Rest 3 minutes between each round. Score = slowest time.
Compare to 2024.09.02.
Option 3
Outdoors:
10 rounds:
25 yd yoke carry
Rest 1 minute
Indoors:
10 rounds:
30 yd yoke carry (15 yd down-back)
Rest 1 minute
Compare to 2024.08.05.
Option 4
10 x 50 ft farmer carry
Each carry is 25 ft down and 25 ft back and is for time. Rest 1 minute between carries.
Women: 97# per handle (80# of plates)
Men: 137# per handle (120# of plates)
(Note: Each handle weighs 17#.)
Compare to 2024.08.05.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better!
The TRUTH About Lifting (What No One Tells You!)
/Lifting is a rather stupid activity.
Now - when I say that, of course I’m being a bit facetious, but you easily can see where I’m coming from. You pick up weights and then you set them right back down again. You squat weights down and then squat them right back up again. The barbell ends up right back in the same place it started.
It’s like running the 400m dash in track - all that work and you end up right back in the exact same spot.
So what’s the point? If you literally accomplish no work whatsoever (and it’s true - you do zero work against gravity when it’s all said and done), then what’s the point of all this effort?
The point is that training makes the quality of your life better.
Don’t get me wrong - the act of training itself is not always enjoyable. There will be days when you enjoy your training, of course. On the other hand, there will also be plenty of days when you’d rather not head to the gym, and on those days you go anyway because you understand that sometimes - most of the time, even - you just need to punch the clock and put in the work.
However, we’re not talking about the training itself - we’re talking about the results of training. This is what makes life better.
You train because you get stronger in the process, and getting stronger makes everything else easier.
If you’re in high school, this means you get better at your sport. The stronger version of you can now generate more force than you could previously, and you’re now a stronger, more powerful athlete who can practice harder and longer.
But as we get older - as we enter our 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond - this newfound strength has a far more profound effect. It is absolutely life changing. Getting stronger changes the quality of your life, and the logic is pretty straightforward.
You’ll note that your training never gets any easier. You absolutely get stronger, yes, but you simply add more weight to the bar, so your training is always challenging. But because of this - because your training never gets any easier, what you do out there - in life - does become easier.
Suppose I’m eighty years old, weak, and have never trained before. Now, I come in and start to train. My squats on day one are only a couple inches deep (just to a relatively high box), and perhaps I’m not strong enough to use a barbell yet. But I start training.
Slowly, day by day, I squat lower and lower and soon get to the point where I can squat to depth. Then I add a light barbell - perhaps 10-15 lb or even less. Then, session by session, I add a little more weight to the bar. Over time, I get my squat up to 50 lb, 75 lb, 100 lb, etc. The exact numbers don’t matter.
What does matter, however, is that I have gotten significantly stronger. I’ve gone from originally not being able to squat my own body more than a few inches all the way to squatting 100 lb all the way down and back up again. It is very possible - and we see this all the time - for a new lifter to double their strength in a short period of time under the guidance of excellent coaching.
everyone can get stronger. everyone.
Now, as a result, every step that I take up a flight of stairs is much easier than it used to be - in fact, it only takes half as much effort as it used to. By the time I get to the top of the stairs, I’m no longer exhausted like I used to be.
I’m not exhausted after climbing those stairs, so I’m much more stable, which means I’m not at risk of falling anymore, either. At the very least, the risk of falling is significantly reduced, and even if I do fall, everything about me is stronger. My bones are denser and my tendons and ligaments are more resilient because not only do your muscles get stronger when you barbell train - everything else does as well, so even if I do fall (and we all trip now and then), I stand a much greater chance of surviving that fall relatively unscathed.
This is why our motto is “Get Stronger. Live Better.” Strength makes everything better. It increases the quality of our lives. It never gets easier in here (i.e., the gym), but because of that, everything out there does get easier.
This is why you train. This is why you do Stupid Things like picking up barbells and setting them back down again.
Keep doing Stupid Things. As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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