Don’t press it like a dumbbell!
If we want to maintain a healthy shoulders, this move should be fully understood and mastered. A very common mistake when pressing a kettlebell is simply pushing it vertically over your head on a bent wrist. This usually happens when the weight is too heavy for you, or due to lack of control over your shoulders. Kettlebell just rests on the shoulder and is pushed up by the deltoid muscles.
This can be a quite dangerous, because apart from the fact that we don’t use the maximum tension of the upper back and shoulders muscles, the risk of injury increases.
Understanding how the kettlebell is moving in this pressing pattern will take your shoulders health to a completely different level.
How to do it right then?
A solid rack position is the basis of a good press. The ability to create a tension after the clean is absolutely must. Upper back muscles and core muscles should be firing even before the press start. The kettlebell rests on the forearm, and the wrist is straight.
During the squeeze, keep focus on pushing your forearm away from you and tightening it into an overhead position. The bell is resting on your forearm and neutral wrist at all times!
Great ways to train your press technique is to work at a given tempo. For example, it’s a good idea to focus on pressing up accurately for 3 seconds, and lower it to the starting position for 3 seconds. Another way is to include 1-2 second pauses at the moment of the movement that is most difficult for us to master („sticky point”).
