1st post hello and a question

[tk7209]

Hi all,

Been lurking and reading here for a while now, thought it was about time I posted. First of all a bit of background. Started training a few years ago when I weighed about 125lb, I'm 5'10" so if I turned sideways I disappeared, lol. Made a lot of mistakes, didn't eat right, used to follow the routines in Flex etc (yeah I know ), y'know all the usual . Anyway, as of last year I was 158lb, discovered this forum and the 5x5 routine and thank god I did. Now at 175lb and growing. All my weights have increased to levels I never thought I would get to.So, all in all very happy

Now, my question is about the Military Press. As I bring the bar down to chin level I start to bend my knees very slightly, then as I push the bar back up I straighten them, it seems to add more power to the lift and feels a very natural thing to do. Now I've seen a couple of videos of guys demonstrating this with very light weights and they don't bend there knees at all, maybe becasue they don't need to as the weights they are using are very light?.

Just wondering what the general concensus is on this. Is it a case of; yes, bend your knees if it feels natural and helps to explode the bar upwards

or

Don't bend your knees because that's cheating and it's taking away some of the work from your shoulders?

cheers

 

[silver_shadow]

first off - great progress. good to know

the bend in the knee is a legitimate technique and is called a push press. a full push press would use more than a slight bend in the knee. also to take maximum advantage of the leg drive you would need to "rack" the bar similar to a clean - basically the bar rests on your upper chest/shoulders to begin with so you can transfer maximum momentum to the bar.

the clean and "press" which was actually the push press was an olympic lift till maybe the 70s (not too sure about which year). they then made that the clean and jerk.

on the question about do you want to do it all the time. well the answer isn't a simple yes or no! you can do both variations (strict pressing or push pressing). you could do one day strict one day push. or maybe some heavy push presses followed by 1 or 2 strict sets (lowered weight obviously) or maybe do them in 6-8 wk cycles. how you do it is your choice. you are right about the fact that push presses enables you to move more weight and hence become stronger so it'll also improve your strict pressing.

 

[tk7209]

Thanks SS, I think I'll try your suggestion and try rotating between push press and strict.

That's one of the things I love about this forum, loads of people who actually know what they're talking about. Everytime I log on I learn something new - great stuff!!

 

[Kabeetz]

Welcome and keep it up!!!

 

[al420]

I think PP or even BTN PP have more functional cary over that a strict military press - carry over to bench and really anything dynamic (like jerks, etc)

Military Pressing, IMO, is to build 'pretty' shoulders. Push Presses or Rack Jerks build explosive, raw power. Which to me is way mo betta...

Really great progress BTW.

 

[Guinness5.0]

Just my $.02, but I think strict OHP has its place, esp. for a raw lifter. I tend to think that for someone who benches without a bench shirt (99.9% of gymgoers) it is beneficial to develop a strong OHP to carry over to the bench.

But I definitely prefer PP to strict overall -- I just don't think that strict should be entirely neglected.

Besides, when you've got more weight locked out over your head than the frat boy next to you is 'squatting', you know you're doing something right

 

[fortunatesun]

Hello all.
Agree w/above post on this one. Though you lose in raw power potential, you gain in ability to control an amount weight through the overhead plane of travel. It comes down to getting an intuitive sense of what each one can do for you and then applying that towards your overall goal.
Also,bending your knees for the final 1 or 2 reps on your heaviest set is the Weider Cheat Principle and should be allowed.

 

[s8nlilhlpr]

I would be careful pressing PP too high above your strict press. You will lose control of the bar on the way down. I injured my back b/c I can PP quite a bit more than I can control. If you can pitch the bar at the top, instead of having to bring it down, thats different. I jammed a vertabrae (sp) in my back, b/c I couldn't slow the weight and absorb the impact.