Bill Starr on pressing, and much more...

[nisora33]

Check out this excerpt from the website The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban (http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/search?...&max-results=7).

In part one of his article on pressing, Mr. Starr has this to say:

??I read what Bill Clark wrote in his Journal. In part, he stated that the press is a tremendous builder of upper-body strength ? the lower back, the entire shoulder girdle, plus the hips. Then he recommended using iron weights. ?There would be no more dropping of the bar. A lifter would control the weight from overhead to the shoulders, to the waist, and to the floor. Thus working the negative resistance . . . more for the price of one effort??

When learning how to press, clean the weights rather than taking a bar off the racks. Believe it or not, that makes the lift easier. And if your primary goal is a solid fitness base, clean and press each rep. It?s a perfect push-pull exercise. Most trainees, however, want to improve their pressing power. In that case, just clean the weight and proceed to do all your presses?.

When the set is completed, follow Bill Clark?s sage advice and lower the bar back to your waist, then to the floor.?

If I?m not mistaken, he?s suggesting that first cleaning the weight makes pressing it somehow easier, or at least makes it ?seem? easier. How could this be? What mechanisms might account for this?

Any thoughts, Rip?

-Stacey

[Mark Rippetoe]

When the weight is cleaned to the shoulders, it is caught in position to press it with the whole body ready to do so. The system is essentially neurologically "awake" to press the bar if the press closely follows a clean. There is no mechanical reason for this effect; in fact, the elbows will have to be repositioned form the rack position to the starting position of the press. The effect is neurological.

[MrTambourineMan]

Do you advise doing this then?

[Mark Rippetoe]

When it fits in your programming, yes. I did them last night.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I also did my presses this way this morning. I'm just starting back up training again after taking a week off after a PLing meet, and I'm using light weights with short rest intervals to build my work capacity back up. I added a clean before every pressing rep today to add a little bit of a metcon element to an otherwise easy exercise.

[TyphoidYellow]

When would it fit into someone's programming? Are there any downsides to powercleaning a rep of moderate weight before each of the worksets on the press? I've been on SS for like 2 and a half months, and my press is finally beginning to stall. Is this technique gonna help me out?

One more quick, random question. I was on another message board, and there was talk of doing heavy walk-outs before worksets on the squat. They said to add like 30-50lbs of what you're doing worksets with, unrack, hold it for like 3-5 seconds, and rack. The general idea behind this was that your nervous system is going to be overcompensating when you begin your worksets, and make the weight seem lighter. Wha do you think?

I swear, all this talk of neuro-muscular forces goes way over my head.

[kaisermetal]

coach rip i want to put clean & press on my SS workout please please please?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I don't know, Typh. Try cleaning the first reps of your sets of 5 on every other press day and see what happens. It's not going to hurt either your press or your clean.