Press Q for Coach Wolf

[SteveC]

question for Michael Wolf – I’ve been watching your lifting sessions on youtube and am curious about your press technique on multi-rep sets. It looks like you are using the 2.0 method on the first and last rep with “strict” form on the middle reps. Is that right? If so, I’m interested in your breathing pattern. Are you breathing at the top for the “strict” reps and at the bottom for 2.0?

btw – It’s very generous of you to share videos of your workouts on youtube. They are of tremendous educational and inspirational value for folks like me so thanks very much.

[Michael Wolf]

My press technique on sets of 5 is, as you noticed, a hybrid of the old style press and the press 2.0: first and last rep done in the 2.0 style, and the middle three using the stretch reflex. I have discussed this general idea before on a number of threads scattered across the various sections here. After years and years of performing the strict press, along with training alone 99% of the time, without coaching, it took me quite a while to learn and become competent at the press 2.0. I de-loaded at first, but still wasn't getting it sufficiently to make progress, and my press 2.0 was weaker than my strict press. Even though the 2.0 allows more weight to be lifted, this assumes actual competence in the movement, which I had not yet achieved. I did not want to stagnate in my press, but also wanted to learn the new movement so that eventually I could lift more weight with it.

After thinking about ways to attack this problem, and talking about it with Stef, I decided to do all the warm-up sets I could with the 2.0, and then switch to what I was better at - the strict press - when the weight became heavy enough such that I would basically revert to my old form anyway, and not get my hips very much involved. The goal being to build up my skills with practice at the 2.0, but not sacrifice actually getting stronger in the press.

This worked pretty well. When I started, I believe I was still doing my last warm-up set strict. Eventually I was able to do that last warm-up set with the press 2.0. And then I was able to do the first rep of the work-set with press 2.0 form. And then the first and last. Which is where I am now. This is basically what I suggested to Jarret in this recent thread.

I am probably able to do the whole set using the press 2.0 at this point; I need to sack up and actually try it. I'm on a run of 5RM PRs, and am hesitant to change anything while that is still going strong, since ultimately the goal is still getting stronger. But once I do stall, I'll switch over to all 5 reps done that way and see what happens. I know that I can certainly do more for 1 rep with the press 2.0 now than I can strict pressing.

As far as breathing: As you might expect, I switch in the middle between the two styles of breathing, back and forth. I take a big breath in just before unracking the bar for the first rep, get in position quick, and press with the hip-whip. I breathe out at lockout, and breathe back in again on the way down, finishing before I get to the bottom of the second rep, so my valsalva is set before I begin the second rep. I breathe using this pattern for the next two reps as well. For the last rep, I pause at the bottom to get set, big breath in and hold, and then press the 5th rep.

After a few months of struggle learning the new press, I found out that I was far from the only coach who had not taken easily to the press 2.0, which eased my mind about it a little bit. Apparently it's quite common to have trouble transitioning from the old to the new press, if you've been doing it the old way for a long time. The good news is, if you learn it this way to begin with - with the hip movement - it's pretty easy to learn and become competent at fairly quickly. Much easier than it is if you've done the strict press for years. At least that's what I tell myself!

I hope this was helpful, Steve, let me know if you have any other questions about it. The press 2.0 was definitely a long and winding road of a learning experience for me, and really for all of us. We have tweaked and improved the way we teach it at the seminars as recently as the past few months, as we learn more and more about how to effectively communicate it's most important points.

If anyone else wants to check out my youtube channel, feel free. I post some of my lifts there; I try to get something up at least once a week, either from volume or intensity day, but don't always make it.

[SteveC]

This is really helpful – thanks so much. You are inspiring me to try something similar. I just abandoned 2.0 this week but I’m not yet willing to give up completely.

I think my problem is a loss of lower-body tightness as soon as I throw the hips. Once that happens, I’m pressing from a loose base and it’s over. My volume workouts were at 150 in February but I’m now struggling with 135.

It seems to be a mental thing in that it takes commitment to keep tight and move at the same time. Coach Dana had me doing it successfully at a seminar but it’s been tough to replicate without her steely blues burning a hole in me.

Does it make any sense to you to reverse the hybrid order? That is starting/ending with strict reps and using 2.0 for the middle 3? By starting with a strict press, the mental/physical priority for tightness might be established before bringing the variable of hip movement into play. I am theorizing that 2.0 doesn’t work unless it is predicated on a strict form.

I really don’t know though. At least it is good to learn I’m not alone in this.

[Michael Wolf]

You're right, everything needs to be really tight prior to reaching with the hips. We coach squeezing everything tight prior to the hip-reach for that very reason, especially the abs. But if your quads aren't cramping, or at least fatigued, by the time you finish a heavy set of 5, you're doing something wrong. Everything must be tight. I've also found, subjectively, that the reps where I get as tight as I can even before I unrack the bar are easier.

Why don't you try it your way to see if it works? It doesn't flow for me, physically, as much as my way, but give it a try and see if it works for you. Maybe the tightness of a strict rep will induce compliance better for you.