So I’m gonna take you through today's training session and it's a good one.
Some days you don't get that much done or you don't really feel it or it's hard to get yourself out there, don't sleep that well, whatever.
Today was a good day.
Today was there that I felt like getting it done.
So I’m going to show you exactly what I did and speak through why I’m doing what I’m doing.
So this is an experimental standing press workout.
So that's 50 kilos and I’m going as fast as I can.
I only want to get the bar just above my head so I actually did an empty barbell before this.
I did 30 kilos before this say 40 kilos before this.
Now in the past, I wouldn't have used those sorts of weights but what I’m interested in at the moment is tension more so than weight or load.
What really matters is tension.
What really matters is the amount of force that has been produced.
Don't worry about my daughter down there, she was just being a lizard soaking up some of the heat that was absorbed into those mats.
So I did some of these before I did the 50-kilo ones since I had to load up to the 60s.
I thought I'd show you what I did.
And I did some behind the neck.
So being able to go fast in that behind-the-neck position is definitely not something I would have been able to do in the past and it's something that I’ve been working on, the ability to get more comfortable there.
You can check out the shoulder rebuild video if you want to understand more about that behind-the-neck work but basically, by going so fast with the bar there's actually a lot more force there. Like if I want to break someone's nose with 100 kilos and I have to hold on to it it's actually kind of gonna be difficult right, well maybe it's not that difficult but the idea of like putting something through a wall, the heavier it is the slower it's going to go.
If it's a one-kilo object then you can create massive speed with it and therefore there's a lot of force created, a lot of tension.
So when it's too light here, that's not going to create enough tension to really do anything special but as I’m going up here in the weights, it does become more tension and therefore it's going to give a bigger result.
So now I’m going to the 60 kilos.
I’m going on the minute with these.
So I was waiting for the beep, every time it comes around and the kids are out here enjoying with me.
So I still want to go really really fast on these early preparation repetitions. So you see 60 kilos.
I’ve kind of lost that pop that I had with the 50 but I’m still able to get it up kind of to the sticking point or a little bit higher if I can get acceleration out of the bottom then I’m probably going to finish the rep.
So the faster the bar is moving when it hits that sticking point, the more likelihood of blasting through the sticking point.
So they're different ways to kind of bring up your max.
One of them is to pause at the sticking point to get super strong there at that sticking point but another one is to have more acceleration when you're getting to it.
So you could see, I could use bands for this as well but do I really need bands when I’m dropping and catching that kind of weight probably not.
So get up to 70 kilos here.
I got this for three later in the workout, spoiler alert, but you can see, now it's not really just a weight that I can throw around, it's not just popping like the 50 kilos was.
50 kilos are kind of the sweet spot for these reps to go fast and to really feel like I can drive the bar but I’m going to continue to go up.
So I’m potentiating. I’m getting strong in the bottom. I’m getting that feeling of pushing hard against something.
I’m supporting the weight, my body's getting used to all of this process.
So I kept going up with these today.
Here we go. So you see I’m only just getting to the chin with 80 kilos but even just having in the hands and not being intimidated by the weight is a big part.
When you unrack the weight sometimes you already know that you might be gonna lose before you even try and press the weight and to be honest I wasn't too sure if I would make the top weight of this session but now we go with 90 kilos.
This one's not going to move all that much, it's kind of carrying the quad board across. Here we go.
So this is really like I don't know if this is going to move at all, I don't know if I’m wasting my time with this and you can see look I’m not getting a lot done but there's an exposure here, there's a concept, there's an idea on some maximum rest, lots of sets, all of this is going on the minute.
So there is some level of accumulation of fatigue, there's also potentiation but if I can move that 90 kilos a little bit then when I go back to 70 kilos, I go back to 60 kilos then it should feel like a paperweight and that is the idea of potentiation.
Some people are more potentiated by super-maximal efforts.
So 100 kilos just kind of bobbles a little bit, it doesn't really go anywhere but I felt the weight and that was all I really wanted to do.
To not be crushed by 100 kilos like holding it off the body it's not the same as just supporting it in the front squat.
There is definitely a big active component, stabilizing the shoulders, getting ready to press, etc.
So now the idea is to do some full reps. So I’ve potentiated the body and I’ve got a lot of practice about getting out of the bottom and now let's see if that transfers to getting out of the bottom in some other reps.
I’m doing some isometrics here holding my arms above my head just to make sure my shoulders are going to be happy and they know where that finishing position is that they're about to go to.
Frans Bosch talks a lot about your finishing position.
Here we go, 60.
The first one's a little bit tentative, the second one's okay, that's fine.
I’m like “okay”, probably trying to save a little bit at this stage because I’ve done a lot of sets by this time.
None of the sets are maximal but it still accumulates especially when I’m going for maximal tension there. It looks like I’m not doing much but it's still maximal tension.
I’m going to close that door. Don't let anyone tell you you can't have a home business because you've got kids.
I love having him out there with me training, it's the best.
So 70 I was like it was okay but didn't really feel that confident with it so I was like the idea is to go on the minute for one and then on the minute for two and then for three so like a wave and I didn't know if I'd be able to do that at this point.
I’m just thinking two would be nice. Let's see how two goes.
Stepping over the little one and the chances of me dropping in that weight one in a gazillion for those who are very very safety-minded.
So two is actually better than one and often playing with my laughing at my own jokes I’m saying strong like bull.
So if I’m strong out of the bottom then by getting the bar on the way down sometimes the second rep's actually easier than the first on the standing press because the first one is like a dead start.
So it's like a dead start bench press. Usually, you can't dead start bench press the same weight as you can go down and up with and dead start bench presses are a great exercise,
Dinosaur Strength, Brooks Kubik, was someone that Charles Poliquin had a lot of respect for, he was a huge fan of bottom-up bench press.
So basically when we're standing press we're doing an up bench press which is maybe part of the reason why it does help bench press and why some of the big lifters…
All right so this is the one I wasn't too sure about, second rep grinds it out, third rep yuck.
I don't really like doing many reps like that where I’m sort of like it's almost going to stop.
It just uses too much of the biological battery especially when you're training on the minute.
There's just a little bit too much but I was pretty happy with it.
Anyway, I’m telling my arms strong like a ball anyway with my clerk of voice.
So load up to 80 kilos since I got the 73 I’m thinking it's probably 80.
I’ve probably pressed 80, I would say maybe four-five times, three times something like that in my life and so I actually wasn't very confident about it.
I was thinking like this is probably actually silly.
I’ve just had a really good session. I don't want to finish it on a missed lift.
These kinds of thoughts are going through my head.
I don't like to fail lifts, I like to build success on success.
You can see doing those partials and whatnot like they are kind of like failed reps but it's… the thing of kind of grinding a rep and also just putting a limit like establishing a limit in your mind is not a healthy thing.
So the less you establish limits, the better, in my mind.
There are people who go at things in different ways.
Some people try and fail all the time and they're still super strong, they just keep going back.
Snatches and things like that I’ve actually missed, I’ve hit snatches on my 20th attempt because it's more of a skill thing.
Here we go. So it actually moved fairly well.
You see I’m leaning back slightly although I’m not too worried about the kind of technique police, I kind of like the looser form standing presses as well, this isn't super loose form but some of the guys with great thoracic mobility will really lean back and vertical press it.
Little pauses on the way down basically just to show the weight that I’ve dominated and get some extra work with that weight so you'll see the place that I’ve paused the weight here is pretty much where the bar started to go really slowly.
So if I can get a little bit isometric there then maybe next time I’m going to hit a little bit easier.
Maybe I was very potentiated by the work that I did or maybe I was a little fatigued because this was like set 20.
Even though this video is only 30 minutes long, I did a bunch of sets before I got to the 50. Now granted they weren't very fatiguing sets because I was just moving the bars as fast as I could but I’ve never pressed 85 kilos, I think 82 might be the best over press, 82 and a half something like that, that was probably last year.
Good signs that there might be a best ever and how many 38… most people do hit their best strength numbers like slow strength numbers in their 40s.
So no excuses with that. What would be more surprising and more impressive would be to hit some best jumps in my 40s and we'll see how we go with that.
I’ve hit 34 on the just jump map before I used to get reasonably consistent 32 inches on the just jump, people say that just jump algorithm it's not right and whatnot but that doesn't really bother me too much it's standardized against itself and it is accurate from that perspective.
That's probably the big one for me. That'll probably mean more to me than getting to 85 or even 90 kilos on the standing press I think is very doable and would be nice but if I can jump that would probably mean more to me.
If I can beat my jumps.
So the 34 inches was at Catalan Dragons, so 2011 I'd say that was or 2012 would have hit my best ever vertical jumps and that wasn't when I was in my best ever squats and I was power snatching around 80 kilos at that time, which tends to correlate quite well but yes let's put it to the test, that's the fun of it.
So I hope you enjoyed your training today after this one I went into chin ups and I did two different variations alternating on the minutes.
If you want to check that one out drop a comment and let me know that you want to check that out and I can do another video explaining a bit more about that.
I also made another video about my assistance work after that so presses and rows, I did a lot of different variations and had a bit of a conversation with that one as well.
That one should go up at some stage in the not-too-distant future.
Some of you will look at this and go like “what the hell is he doing”, like “why would you train like this” but if you know sports performance and athleticism then that actually being able to go fast with things is really positive.
The thing is we can sometimes lose track of the physics when we start to train like this and it really does matter what weight you're using.
Sometimes things get a little bit too abstract from my perspective but these are pretty clean and clear and they do make me feel athletic, they do provide that stimulus to the nervous system of going as fast as possible.
Inspiration for this sort of work probably comes from DB Hammer, Dietrich Buchenholz, apparently, it's a real person but no one knows where he is or what he does these days.
He had inno-sport website way back in the day inno-sport.net and his book was really interesting, that website was super interesting.
Check out DB hammer you probably can't find anything about him online but he won't be on my kindle either.
Anyway, I hope you really enjoyed this video.
I hope you're enjoying your training and I’m gonna go back to the kids.
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