The Kettlebell Push Press

What is it good for?

The kettlebell push press is the simplest of the overhead ballistic kettlebell lifts and is basically just adding some leg drive to the overhead kettlebell press.  A ballistic lift is an explosive lift, so speed is an important element of a ballistic lift.  Explosiveness in a lift is synonymous with power, and power equals force times velocity (velocity is essentially the speed of something moving in one direction) – so in a nutshell you can’t do a ballistic lift slowly or it’s no longer a ballistic lift.

The ballistic nature of the kettlebell push press means that in addition to all of the benefits you’d get from the overhead press, there are the added benefits of:

• Developing leg power.
• The ability to increase volume lifted overhead in terms of either kettlebell weight or number of repetitions because you’re using your legs rather than just relying on upper body
• Developing greater full body strength/strength endurance  and stability through lifting more weight overhead
• Developing really good shoulder stability through stopping a rapidly moving weight overhead (fixation)
• Taking some of the pressure off the shoulder joint – for some people grinding through an overhead press is painful but accelerating through a push press with the help from the legs is comfortable
• Teaching the body to move quickly and to generate power from the ground up, which is important in many athletic pursuits.
• Having technique elements such as the first “dip” of the knees and fixation that carry over to more complex ballistic overhead lifts such as jerks.

Where to begin?

The push press is straight forward.  All you need to do is link a leg dip and drive to an overhead press.  So the first step to push pressing is very simple: master the kettlebell overhead press!

The dip

The leg dip for the kettlebell push press is different from a barbell push press.  The aim of a push press with any implement is use leg power to help get the weight overhead, and this means effectively generating power from the ground and transferring it to the weight.

With a barbell push press, the bar should be sitting across the anterior delts and this means the lifter can transfer power up through their legs, into their torso and then through their shoulders into the bar to launch the bar off their body.  A barbell push press done this way will be far more efficient (and therefore enable the lifter to move more weight) than one where the barbell is held away from the body – if the barbell is held in front of the shoulders it can’t accept power directly from the shoulders and will result in greater reliance on the upper body to press the weight overhead, when the point of the push press is really to use the legs.

Watch the energy transfer through Kocklyaev’s body straight into the bar:

Bearing all of this in mind, we can now look at kettlebell push press.  With the kettlebell, we rack it differently from a barbell and the body/weight contact point is the elbow when the kettlebell is in rack – the body of the kettlebell should sit in a “V” made by the biceps and forearm, with the elbow underneath the kettlebell and holding it stable by pressing into the body.

So, with the kettlebell, instead of the power generated in the legs moving up to the shoulder and into the weight as with a barbell, the power moves up through the legs, into the hip, then into the elbow and finally to the kettlebell.  The elbow/body connection with the kettlebell push press therefore becomes crucial – without it energy can’t be transferred directly into the kettlebell and this effectively defeats the purpose of doing a push press (you may as well just stick to pressing).

To maintain the elbow/body connection in the dip, only the knees bend.  The hips have to stay extended (in the same position they are in rack) – if the hips bend then move the body away from the elbow.

The dip of the kettlebell push press should just be a knee bend, so the knees slide over the toes while the heels remain planted (it’s very important that the heels remain planted and support bodyweight for stability, coming up onto the toes in the dip is a bad idea).

If that’s a difficult movement to understand, and for people who’ve done a lot of squatting or barbell push presses then it’s very foreign, think about having a broomstick stuck to your body from knee to shoulder and having to keep your hips and shoulders glued to that broomstick while only your knees bend.

The biggest mistake people make with the kettlebell push press is thinking that the first dip is exactly like that of a barbell push press, and they break at the hips.  It can take a while to get used to the dip for the kettlebell push press, practise it on its own for a while if need be, and then with a kettlebell in rack before trying to add it into a full push press.

Is it safe?

People are often concerned about their knees passing in front of their toes because there is a misconception out there that this is unsafe and will lead to a knee injury.  The truth is this is a perfectly safe movement, and I’ve double checked this with a very knowledgeable physio for anyone who is still in doubt.

The only time knees passing in front of the toes may be a problem is with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, however even people with a snapped ACL can perform this movement safely if their hamstrings are strong enough.  Having said that, anyone with ACL issues should consult a good physio to see whether they can perform this movement safely.

To be clear, knees passing in front of the toes is safe but knees moving forward and collapsing in is unsafe – the knees must track in line with the toes.

The drive

Once the dip is sorted, the next phase to consider is the drive.

The drive is really a natural reaction to the dip – once the knees have bent into the dip the drive is just a matter of extending (straightening) them quickly.  Extending the legs quickly provides the power for the push press.

If done correctly, and if the first dip is good, energy stored from the movement of the first dip should travel up the legs in the drive, into the hip, into the elbow and into the kettlebell.

Fixation

Fixation is a very important concept for safe and effective ballistic overhead lifting.  Fixation is when the legs and arms are extended and the weight has stopped moving in overhead lockout position.

Good fixation will help build incredible shoulder stability.  At the other end of the spectrum, a lack of fixation will weaken the shoulder joint.

Fixation is a skill, for most people it doesn’t happen automatically and it takes time to feel the difference between a perfectly still and still moving kettlebell overhead.  It will take practise.  And as you get better, your fixation should get quicker – a good lifter will have instant fixation.

Starting the kettlebell push press

If you have the dip and the drive sorted, then all you need to do is tack an overhead press on the end and you’ve got a push press.  Therefore, the best way to ensure your push press technique is good from the get-go is to master the overhead press, then practise the dip and drive, then put them all together.  Be aware of fixation, consciously stop the kettlebell as quickly as possible overhead until it becomes automatic.

Sometimes people think that because they can move a heavier weight with a push press than with an overhead press that they should do so automatically.  This is not the case, just like with the overhead press you’re best off starting light, get the skill component sorted then look at increasing the load.

There’s also a great video on the push press by Maya from the Ice Chamber here:

Breathing for the kettlebell push press

Breathing for the kettlebell push press is dictated by the need to keep the elbow connected to the body during the first dip.

If you inhale during the first dip, or inhale before the first dip then hold your breath, you will automatically disconnect your elbow from your body.  This in turn reduces your ability to power the lift with your legs.

If you exhale during the dip you will actually allow your elbow to sink into your body more so and this will increase your ability to transfer energy into the elbow to launch the kettlebell upwards.  Exhaling on the dip will also help you relax, which will help you extend your legs more quickly into the drive and the quicker your leg extension the more power you will generate.

There are two basic anatomical breathing patterns you can choose from.

The first goes like this:

• Exhale as you drop into the first dip
• Inhale as you drive upwards
• Exhale as you bring the kettlebell back to rack

Even if you do plan to go relatively heavy, an anatomical breathing pattern is the best one to use as it is enables you to use your legs most effectively.

How heavy?

For safety, because you can’t drop a kettlebell from the overhead position (it’s effectively stuck on your hand) you shouldn’t lift heavier than your 5 rep max weight, and you shouldn’t go to failure.  If you want to lift really heavy, grab a barbell or sandbag or anything that you can drop and get away from safely if the lift goes wrong.

Technique tips for the kettlebell push press

A lot of the mistakes people make with the push press are mistakes they would make with the overhead press, so a really helpful tip for the push press is simply to get the overhead press right first.  Some other things that will help:

• Make sure you don’t break at the hips on the first dip and keep your elbow connected to your body
• Keep your heels on the ground throughout the push press (you can do a variation where you come up onto your toes but if you want a more explosive lift a jerk is probably the way to go)
• Make sure your knees track in line with your toes
• Relax into the first dip and extend your legs quickly into the drive to really get some power into the lift
• Make sure you know exactly where you overhead lockout position is and stop the kettlebell as soon as it gets there
• Hold the kettlebell overhead for a second before bringing it back to rack, this will help build shoulder strength and stability

Getting some push pressing into your training

The kettlebell push press can be used in training like an overhead press to provide an overhead component in your training regime, for balancing out upper body pulling movements and in complexes like the clean and push press.

The push press is ballistic, so it’s quicker than the overhead press and can be used to help train speed.

Because it uses your legs for power and then your upper body kicks in to finish the lift it much more of a whole body lift than an overhead press, in particularly it will give your quads a good workout.

Using more of the body also means that it will have more of a cardiorespiratory training effect than the overhead press and you’ll usually be able to lift longer with the push press because the shoulders won’t fatigue quite as quickly, so it’s great for training power endurance.

The kettlebell push press is a great way to begin perfecting fixation for more technical overhead ballistic lifts such as the jerk and snatch.

For more information

For more info on kettlebell lifting technique check out the Iron Edge workshops.