Bottoms Up With a 28k

[Atl]

I started fooling with stacked and bottoms up presses 2 weeks ago after reading Adam Glass writing about them in his Radiant Dawn program. I was shocked at that time how low my BUP was...about 20k...considering I can clean and press 40k that is shockingly low. Today I was just fooling around and bottoms up cleaned and pressed a 28kg with not too much trouble. It felt rock solid...not shaky and unbalanced. It sort of took me by surprise. I guess my BUP is catching up to my regular press a bit.

[Stephen]

That is pretty low for someone who can press twice as much. While I haven't done a BU press in a while the heaviest I have done is with a 24kg bell with both arms and at the time I could only press the 32kg bell about 3 times with each arm. You might find that specificity is the key factor if you haven't BU pressed all that much up till now.

[Atl]

Until the last two weeks I never trained or even attempted bottoms up presses beyond a couple of times.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Atl

Until the last two weeks I never trained or even attempted bottoms up presses beyond a couple of times.

I wouldn't be surprised if you could BU press the 32kg bell pretty quickly if you choose to focus on the BU press for a little while. I'm working towards pressing the 40kg bell right now and wonder at what level my press strength needs to be to BU press the 32. I can BU clean it now but it feels like I would have to bend over a long way to get it moving upwards.

[Atl]

When I got my 40k I could not press it at all, though I could press a 32k nearly 20 times right side. However I spent 30 minutes or so on two different occasions in the same day playing with it...like doing cleans and just handling it. By the end of the second session I could strict press it on one side. I believe that a lot of one's strength with heavy weights can come from confidence and losing the fear of the weight.

[sicklameandlazy]

Agreed. CNS has a lot to do with it. Similar experience with weighted pistols.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Atl

When I got my 40k I could not press it at all, though I could press a 32k nearly 20 times right side. However I spent 30 minutes or so on two different occasions in the same day playing with it...like doing cleans and just handling it. By the end of the second session I could strict press it on one side. I believe that a lot of one's strength with heavy weights can come from confidence and losing the fear of the weight.

Thanks for the info. I guess that is part of the genius of the program minimum. We can all swing way above anything we'll ever be able to press and if I can work up to a full TGU with a certain bell I'll certainly be pretty confident with it prior to trying to press it. You obviously had the strength already it was just a matter of lallowing your body express that strength.

I'll keep your experience in mind when I go for the 40. It'll be my ETK goal of pressing a half body weight bell. Hopefully it will happen early in the new year.


Stephen