IN OPPOSITION OF THE PUSH PRESS: AN ARGUMENT FOR STRICT PRESSING

First, a rant.  I will be discussing the strict press, or press, today.  Not the Overhead press, or OHP.  Why?  Because OHP is not a lift: it is a classification of lifts.  Specifically, lifting of weights over one’s head.  There is no one lift known as the OHP: ANY lift over one’s head is an overhead press.  Strict press, push press, log, axle, etc etc: all overhead pressing.  This is why, when internet nerds freak out at a 400lb overhead press because “they used leg drive”, they show that they are weak AND stupid.  Pressing without leg drive overhead (a strict press) has never been known in any traditional circles as “the overhead press”, but was instead simply “the press” back in the era when they lift was included in the Olympics.  Also on that topic, can people PLEASE stop lamenting about how pressing overhead is no longer a competition lift: you folks ever watch a strongman competition?  And, of course, there’s always Mark Rippetoe’s “Strengthlifting” federation…I feel so dirty…

"Strict" press...

I’ve started wearing my glasses again, and had to push them WAY up my nose for that rant.  Anyway, more to the point of today: an argument in opposition of the push press.  It’s should be of no surprise that I, a self-admitted oaf, oppose anything that requires coordination and skill in support of the more basic and brutal variation, even if the end result is less weight moved.  But it’s worth analyzing the cons inherent in the focus on the push press.  As noted, more weight gets moved in the push press, which tends to make it a preferred lift for MANY trainees compared to a strict press.  Ego is very much a thing, and for many trainees, when they set up for a working set of strict presses, they load an empty bar with some nickles and dimes rather than the big plates, whereas once the push pressing starts, some of the heavier weight can start getting added to the bar. 

And hey, speaking of ego, there’s a weird new form of ego out there where lifters take pride in NOT building muscle?  Doubt me?  Think of how many trainees are in a race to talk about how they don’t do any curls.  Or how they don’t care about building “mirror muscles”, and they just want a strong posterior chain.  The ironic to the point of critical mass focus on the glutes while doing everything possible to NOT build the pecs.  We’ve bred a generation of counter cultural lifters that are trying their hardest to NOT look like they lift, so they can prove how hardcore they are about lifting?  What the hell?  And why do I bring this up?  Because to develop a strong strict press, you NEED to develop all those horrible “mirror muscles”.

The goal of the current generation

Doubt me again?  Think about it for a second: the lamentation about the “slow rate of improvement” in the strict press is due to the “small muscles” involved.  The primary movers are going to be the delts and triceps, with the back and rear delts providing the counter balance.  Before you science nerds go any further, I got a C in biology, my undergrad and masters are in POLITICAL science, and I’m sure you’re much smarter than me.  Back on topic, yeah, those muscles ARE small…if you let them be.  BUT, what if you make them bigger?  You suddenly have a VERY impressive physique.  A dude with big shoulders, big triceps, a big back and big rear delts is JACKED.  Think of every strong presser you’ve seen and think about how impressive their upper body was.  Kaz was inhuman, Big Z and Eddie Hall were basically strict pressers, Radzikowski, etc etc.  Also interesting to observe is the change in physiques with weightlifters in the era when press was a competition lift compared to the current generation.

I'm certain my blog just attracted a whole new demographic with these photos

The push press though?  Don’t get me wrong; it’s a good idea to develop those same muscles to make sure you can achieve a stable lockout, but most trainees tend to overemphasize the muscles involved in the leg drive rather than the actual pressing/locking muscles.  Some take it steps further, and focus so much on the execution of the lift that they effectively turn the push press into a jerk, driving with the legs, then diving under the bar to lockout again (the “double dip”), effectively removing the upper body pressing muscles from the equation.  Once again, much weight moved overhead…but how much strength are we building here?  Did we, instead, develop power?  Certainly an admirable physical quality, but also a DIFFERENT one, and one must be aware of this in their training.

So why do I argue against training the push press in favor of developing the strict press?  Aside from the benefits inherent to the physique, when you take the time to make those “small muscles” bigger, you’ll also find that strength in the strict press is more reliable than strength in the push press.  The example I love to provide stems from my 5^th strongman competition, wherein our first event of the day was a squat for reps, followed by a press medley.  Athletes found themselves floundering on lifts they had crushed in training on the plus, as now their legs were fatigued, and their ability to drive the weight was compromised.  When they tapped into the well of shoulder strength to find a way to get the implement overhead, they came up empty.  All that time spent emphasizing their ability to move as much weight as possible overhead came at the detriment of their ACTUAL ability to get weight overhead, as they developed legs and power, but no for real pressing strength.  I ended up taking first for the first time ever in a press event, because these were weights I could still strict press.

Alternative Matt Groening punchline: "Strict pressing: that's where I'm a viking!"

The unreliableness of push pressing doesn’t just extend to fatigue legs, but to implement as well.  The master of a weightlifting bar can move a tremendous amount of weight overhead by relying on bar whip and precision timing, along with keeping the bar as close to the body as possible, to generate as much possible vertical force as they are able.  However, with the axle, the implement is stiff, there is no whip, and the bar is further out in front.  With the log, the implement is even further away, the hand spacing is wrong, and again, there is no flex.  A sandbag?  Forget about it.  But actual raw pressing strength?  It’s a universal; you’ve made those small muscles big and, in turn, developed an ability to manipulate any mass in any shape over your head.

And perhaps this is all very obvious to you, but from my observation, it seems many miss this point.  “I’ve been stalling on strict pressing: does push press have any carryover?” “I just started push pressing, and I’m FINALLY seeing progress moving weight overhead”  “I don’t spend time working on my strict press, because it’s just weight overhead that matters”, I’ve seen it all, and thus I argue against the push press in favor of the strict.  Take a page from some bodybuilders and build a big set of shoulders, triceps, traps and back.  Take some weight off the bar, swallow your pride, and grind some weight overhead.  Let your back bend some, do some “dangerous” behind the neck pressing if you can, do a ton of raises, pull aparts, etc etc.  Up the volume and up the food.  Build a big, strong STRICT press, and I’ll bet your push press will get better too.

NO RESPECT

(Hey folks, full disclosure, I started writing this post, got hit with a stomach bug midway through, and finished it in between bouts of vomiting and delirium.  If it sounds crazy, it probably is.)

I’m really tempted to open this one with a Rodney Dangerfield bit, but he was too awesome of a comedian for me to butcher one of his routines for my blog.  Instead, go watch “Back to School”, one of the greatest 80s college movies ever, featuring a very young Robert Downing Jr and home to one of the best scenes ever that summarizes the whole “experience vs education” paradigm.

 I live this experience constantly

Anyway, what I’m here to discuss today is the concept of NOT giving respect to certain lifts.  The two biggest issues I see this in are the bench and the strict press (known as the Overhead press to many…despite being silly, considering there’s no such named lift and overhead press refers to any manner of pressing a weight overhead).  Trainees get themselves so wrapped up on these two lifts, get in their own heads, spin their wheels forever, make zero progress, and come up with zero plans for success.  Meanwhile, I’ve got Stretch Armstrong arms and a right shoulder that is effectively hamburger after a torn labrum, 6 shoulder dislocations and a dozen subluxations, and I’ve never encountered the struggle that trainees run into with these lifts, and I attribute this to the fact that I’ve NEVER considered them somehow special compared to any other lift.  These lifts get no respect from me; why do they get it from you?

Let’s start with the bench, because hell, everyone else does.  (That’s a Monday “international bench press day” joke, and yes, I hate myself for making it).  I’m by no means a great bencher, but I’ve bypassed many of the stalls other trainees have hit and, specifically, I’ve done it knowing absolutely nothing about benching.  I hit my first 300lb bench at age 18, on a standard bench press (as in, 15lb non-olympic barbell and skinny bench) with zero arch, following a program of basically 10 heavy triples, and then some tricep work.  I did it as a dare from my dad, after hitting a 275 max in the fall of my freshmen year of college and then just stalling there until the summer.  It was only after doing this that I got on the internet that I heard all the typical moaning of “I hate the bench/it’s a dumb lift/who cares about benching anyway” etc etc.

Not like benching builds a solid physique or anything...

Holy crap, the bench press isn’t that hard folks. It’s a lift in the special AND para Olympics; it can literally be done by anyone.  Yeah yeah, sure, if you wanna super duper powerlift it, you’ll need to master your arch, grip the bar, set your lats, perform 8 voodoo rituals, spray hairspray on the bench, etc etc, but if you just want to bench?  Go to any gym, anywhere on the planet and you’ll see guys doing it.  “But they’re doing it wrong!”  Maybe, but are they benching more than you the “wrong way”?  It just means the gap will be even crazier once they do it the right way.  So maybe, just maybe, you need to take a lesson from them instead.

“But I already say I hate benching; aren’t I disrespecting it enough?”  No you fool; you are being BULLIED by the bench press.  Hate isn’t the opposite of respect, hate is just a few degrees off of love.  The opposite of respect is apathy and ambivalence.  The dudes benching with flat backs and flared elbows clearly don’t give the bench any respect: it’s just laying down and pressing.  The “trick” is to just get big and strong.  If you get strong pecs, strong shoulders and strong triceps, you’ll probably have a strong bench press.  You’ll PROBABLY even get it even IF you only bench press once a week (GASP!) because you’re following a “bro-split” (DOUBLE GASP!) that has you hitting chest once a week, despite the fact that the internet swears up and down on a stack of Bibles that you MUST bench press 3 times a week if you ever want it to grow.  Quit respecting the bench so much that you have to fit your training schedule around it and start making it grow on YOUR time.

Ok, so SOMETIMES the bench gets to decide the schedule

The press is the same damn animal.  I legit did not do any manner of overhead pressing until I was a college senior, and only because at that point I had read “Beyond Bodybuilding” by Pavel Tsastouline, where they were described as quite the bee’s pajamas.  My very first workout, I managed to hit 135 for an easy 5x5 (once again, Pavel).  And then, years later, I saw people online stalling at 95lbs for even fewer reps, only for the internet to assure them that it was ok, the press was just a lift that was impossible to progress on, and it was VERY uncommon to just reset the weights, 4, 5, 6, 900 times before you actually make some progress. 

What the hell is wrong with you people?  It’s just a press overhead.  It’s literally the most instinctive thing to do with a weight.  At my 6th strongman competition, we were at an outside venue, and a methead wondered onto the scene, spotter a barbell loaded with some bumper plates, and proceeded to clean and press it overhead a bunch of times.  Two points of interest are that the weight he used was above a stalling weight most internet denizens encounter while training “the right way”, but also of interest is that, when I paid the dude $10 and told him to go get some lunch, he gave me a bro-fist pound and proceeded to do 3 BACK HANDSPRINGS away from me before running down the street to Carl’s Jr.  It was honestly the most athletic thing I ever saw at a strongman competition.

And here you suckers were running imitation meth...

Quit giving these lifts respect and treat them like any other thing: expect results!  If you go into your training anticipating failure, it’s exactly what you will get.  If you go in thinking that of COURSE your bench and press are going to go up, they will as well.  Learn from the meatheads in your gym that figured out that, if you make the muscles involved in pressing strong, you’ll get strong at pressing.  Treat the lifts without respect and you will develop lifts that are respectable.

 

DEEP WATER INTERMEDIATE* PROGRAM REVIEW

In continuing with my adventures into Jon Andersen’s Deep Water training, I took on the intermediate program from his book, with a few changes.  This was challenging like the beginner program, but in a different manner, and the results were still very awesome.

BRIEF PROGRAM OVERVIEW


You basically walk around like this for 3 out of the 6 weeks

You can buy the ebook this program is in for $10 on amazon, or get it for free off Jon Andersen’s Instagram account, so I’m not going to spell out the whole thing here.  For a recap though, it’s 4 days a week of lifting.  3 of those days feature a 100 rep workout (a squat or deadlift, a powerclean and a press or push press) with some other moves, and 1 day is a bench workout.  There is a 5^th day for conditioning.  In weeks 1-2, you get the 100 reps done 10x10, week’s 3-4, it’s 100 reps in 9 sets, weeks 5-6, 100 reps in 8 sets.

WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT


Same but different

The beginner program was about staying at 10x10 for the big days and focusing on reducing rest times from 4 minutes between sets to 2 minutes between sets.  This, as you can imagine, sucks.  The intermediate program was about hitting the same total number of reps (100) but using 10x10 the first time, 9 sets the second time, and 8 sets the third time.  As you can also imagine, this ALSO sucks, but differently.  Rest times stay at 4 minutes per set the first 2 times, and you are granted as much rest as needed to get through the 8 sets on the final stretch, just so long as you get it.

In addition, there is 1 extra 100 rep day in here compared to the Beginner program. The beginner program had a “back day” that was more bodybuilder-esque, whereas this one uses a back day based around 100 reps of power cleans.  This means you spend 3 days a week working with 100 reps (A squat or deadlift day, a clean day, and a press or push press day) and 1 day doing a bodybuilder style chest workout.

Other factors to consider are that the lunges have been removed from the lower body days and replaced with box jumps on the deadlift heavy day and hyperextensions on the squat heavy day.

WHAT I DID DIFFERENTLY


Because I'm an individual, just like everyone else

Whereas with the Beginner program I tried to stick with the source material as closely as possible, with this one I made a few more deviations.  In part, this is because I couldn’t quite understand some of the decisions made with the program.  In the book, the trainee is supposed to push press 5 out of the 6 pressing days, with a strict press workout in the final week.  I preferred to stick with the beginner structure of alternating push press and press days per week.  In addition, between weeks 3-6, the squat and deadlift days quit alternating, and you end up doing 2 squat workouts back to back on consecutive weeks with the deadlift workouts book ending it. I honestly thought these were just transcription errors, because it wasn’t consistent with how the other training programs were built, so I stuck with alternating each week.

However, the biggest changed I made was in weights used.  Jon prescribed 70% of your 10rm for weeks 1-2, and then 80% for weeks 3-6.  Having just come off the beginner program, 70% with 4 minutes rest for weeks 1-2 woulda been a massive step back.  However, 80% for the next 4 weeks ALSO appeared insurmountable.  So I compromised and stuck with a hard 75% throughout the program.  It was challenging and absolutely awful, and I can only imagine what sort of animal could’ve made the jump to 80%.  This is why I put the asterisk by the title, as it technically was not the intermediate program, and in my own training log I called it the “intermediate bridge”, closing the gap between the two.

Other small changes are that I replaced the hyperextensions with reverse hypers, I did all the ab work separate from the main exercise (lift in the morning, abs in the evening), and my lightweight technique work for the lowerbody days was done AFTER the heavy workout, rather than before.  I added 100 band pull aparts on my overhead pressing days.  For the conditioning work, I stuck with using the prowler.  These were just personal preferences.

NUTRITION


This was pretty much me for 6 weeks

I discussed nutrition in my previous write-up, and nothing much changed here.   Still went with the “no carbs, all proteins and fats” approach prescribed by Jon.  Only real interesting game change here is that I implemented a legit cheat meal the evening before the last squat workout wherein I had 5 slices of stuff crust pizza.  I did this because thanksgiving fell during this training cycle and I enjoyed a good meal there that wasn’t quite cheat meal status, but still significant, and I observed my next training day being very successful, so I decided to implement this as a nutritional trump card.  I think it’s worth undertaking if you run the program, but only for the squat workout.  I wouldn’t make it a regular occurrence.  And, once again, I ate unrestricted as far as portion sizes went.  It was basically impossible to overeat on the program.

RESULTS


Deep Water has a proven track record of making you unstoppable

I started the program at 202.2lbs bodyweight, and my heaviest weight reached was 205.6.  This is a much smaller weight gain compared to the 10lbs I put on running the beginner program, but it’s also the heaviest I’ve been in about a decade, and I’m much leaner than I typically am at this weight (and also means I’ve put on 13lbs in 12 weeks).  My abs are blurry, but the telltale sign for me of fat gain is love handles, and usually by 202lbs they start spilling over my jeans, but right now I still have straight lines on my sides.  Lower back fat is accumulating, so the handles will be here soon if I keep pushing the weight up, but still in a better place than usual, and I’m still fitting a size 31” waist jeans.  Also worth keeping in mind that I’ve had zero dietary restriction as far as portion sizes go.  For 12 weeks now, I’ve been able to eat as much as I want, whenever I want, with minimal concern of fat gain.  If you like eating, that’s awesome.

As far as lifts go, the program carried me all the way through.  I went from squatting 290lbs 10x10 to finishing with 290 for 1x16 and 7x12.  Deads went 365 10x10 to 100 in 8 sets.  Similar results for cleans, presses and push presses.  I started benching 3x10 at 266lbs and finished 2x10 and 1x7 at 286lbs, going from 4 minutes rest between sets to 2 minutes rest between sets. 

What’s of more particular interest is that this was my first time seriously power cleaning since…ever.  And though I’m still awful at it, 100 reps a week, performed under a significant amount of fatigue, really forced me to get good at them.  I have a much better understanding/appreciation of triple extension than I did before, and this in turn showed up in the push presses.  I had the best push press workout of my life the very training session for them, going 4x13 and 4x12, because I was so exhausted I couldn’t rely on strength to move the weight so I suddenly discovered every single trick I could to get to lockout.  This is especially so because the push presses are the workouts AFTER 100 reps of squats, so my legs would always be shot and I’d have zero hope of using them, instead having to rely on my hips and ankles to get things moving.

But honestly, all this pales in comparison to the psychological growth of the program.  I like to think of myself as pretty tough, and this program honestly broke me.  Specifically, the squats.  I never much cared for them in the first place, and after blowing out my ACL they’ve REALLY become something I can’t stand.  After doing the very first 10x10 workout, the sheer thought of having to get it done in 1 fewer set in 2 weeks filled me with dread.  I’d honestly get upset when the next workout in the program rolled around, because it meant I was now 1 workout closer to the NEXT squat workout.  I’d catch myself thinking about it and feel my heart racing.  I did the second squat workout in the program and just about quit on the first set of 12, because I could not get my heart to stop beating and I was sweating way too much for just 1 set.  I had anxiety and fear and a whole bunch of emotions I was genuinely not accustomed to for training. 

However, after THAT workout was done, a switch flipped in my head.  Don’t get me wrong: I still racked the bar on the 100^th rep (which I failed on the first try, had to strip the bar, re-rack the weights, and then hit the final rep) and started a countdown in my head for 2 weeks, but the fear was gone.  I knew it was going to suck and I was going to hate it, but my mind was at peace with that.  To the point that, the day before the final squat workout, I was hurting.  I ate something bad, and was passing blood in my stool through 10 trips to the bathroom.  I was dehydrated and my guts were cramping, but once the workout started, I knew I was going to finish it.  I hated every single rep and set, but I knew it was getting me closer to being done, and that was enough to get me through one of the hardest workouts of my life.  Jon talks about “portals” in the program, and I’m pretty sure this was me diving through one.  I realize how dramatic that all sounds, and it’s cringe inducing to have to write it out, but it’s the honest truth.

LESSONS LEARNED, TAKEAWAYS AND CLOSING THOUGHTS


For me, it's that reason more than just "sometimes"

-Just like the beginner program, expect to limp for 6 days after the squat workout.  Also expect to field a lot of questions of “are you alright?”

-On the above, I know people are going to get chapped that you only squat heavy once every 2 weeks (same with deadlifts) and they’re going to get in their own heads about frequency, but here are 2 things to consider.  1: as someone that had knee surgery, this is the best my knees have felt in a LONG time.  Yeah, the day that I do the squat workout my knee flares up pretty good, but after that I feel awesome and very painfree.  Been a long time since I felt that.  Meanwhile, I’m definitely still getting stronger while employing the frequency of the program, and this is easily measured by the fact that I’m able to progress per the schedule.  Getting 100 reps done in 10 sets, then 9, then 8 is absolute progress.  This leads to the second point in that Jon talks about being in a constant state of recovery in order to ensure you are growing as much as possible, and I believe the frequency achieves this effect.  People observe that they are always sore when they train a bodypart less frequently, and with the frequency of this program, your legs get sore as hell after squats and your back tends to get beat up with deads, and it’s because they never get a chance to really adapt to the training style.  Sure sure “soreness doesn’t mean anything”, but maybe it DOES mean that we threw some stimulus at the body that it needs to recover from.  I think there is a method to the madness.

-I think I made the right call on the program changes here.  You can make a sound argument that push press is more “full body” than strict press, and better fits with the Deep Water paradigm, but with a goal of maintaining strict pressing strength, alternating seemed right.

-I honestly wish I pushed the calories a little harder.  I was getting nutritionally lazy as time went on.

-You have to remember that this program is more a challenge than anything else.  I’ve seen people get chapped about doing 100 power cleans in a workout or 5x10 box jumps and how that won’t train power well, but it’s honestly more about just gutting it out and getting it done.

-This program remains one of the most effective programs I’ve ever used for increasing my bench press, and that is while still benching only once a week.

-I originally planned to do 75% of my 10rm for this program and then re-run it with 80% to do the “true” intermediate program, but in all honesty this put me through the wringer so bad that it’s just not on my radar.  Instead, I’m going to give the advanced program a shot for 6 weeks, and from there I’m thinking of just doing it all over again with the beginner program set to higher percentages.