Recently I described the old Olympic Standing Press on several discussion
groups (because of its special effectiveness as a ballistic training method for
the abdominal musculature in particular) and remarked that:
“Never relax the glutes or allow the lumbar spine to straighten or flex at
any stage of the lift, because of the risk of injury. The ballistic part of
the upward drive relies on carefully timed pretensing of the abdomen, the
characteristic double dipping action and pretensing of the shoulder girdle”
Someone asked for this description to be explained more simply. My added
comments may alos be of interest here.
*** The Olympic Press:
1. Hold the bar firmly on the front of the shoulders, using an action that
seems like bending the bar over the shoulders while tensing the glutes and
pretensing the musculature of the front of the body, especially the abs.
Keep the quads tightly contracted and lock the knees.
2. Slowly commence the layback by allowing the whole body to produce a
marked arch between the shoulders and the ankles, so that the entire body
becomes like a bow ready to project the bar upwards. (Wait for the chief
referee’s clap!)
3. Terminate this layback with a short, sharp ballistic action and thrust as
powerfully as possible upwards by using the prestretch and allowing a strong
body sway to propel the bar off the chest. Don’t lay back by flexing the
lower spine, bending the knees or dropping the shoulders.
4. As the upward movement of the bar provided by the initial ballistic
thrust and the pressing action slows down, once again lay back by pushing
against the bar and arching the body into a pronounced arc between shoulders
and ankles. Do not relax the glutes or round the lower spine while doing this.
5. Continue pressing upwards with all your might until the bar is locked
firmly overhead. (Wait for the chief ref’s signal to lower the bar!).
In the non-ballistic press and the military press, you do not dip backwards
ballistically or use two distinct laybacks during the execution of the
movement – one simply tries to press the bar straight upwards, using just
enough back bend to prevent the bar from colliding with the chin or nose on
the way up, much as you do in seated presses with the bar in front of the
head. A well-executed Olympic Press is almost as fast as the Olympic Jerk.
Refer to the following website:
http://www.olympus.net/personal/cablebar/PRESS.htm
The first single photograph, showing the Russian Kanygin pressing, exemplifies
what would often be considered as excessive backbend by officials. The second
series of photographs of Russ Knipp give an outstanding example of what a
well-executed Olympic Press should look like. Note that Russ started very
strictly in the first layback position. In practice, many lifters started
more upright and then very gradually sank into the prescribed pretensed
layback position, thereby producing a more dynamic (quasi-isometric)
pretensing start (as described in steps 1 and 2 above).
With that added ’sneaky’ action, I could add something like an extra 5kg to
my usual Press of about 120-125kg (264-275 lbs) in the 90kg division – it was
really very disappointing when the IOC discontinued the Press in 1971,
because quite a few of us were aiming at that imaginary 300lb barrier in the
sub-superheavy classes and 400lb in the superheavy class. Ah, well – we can
now but dream of those bygone times and continue to use privately the beloved
Press in our current training!
Paradoxically, many of us experienced more backache or minor lumbar injuries
while jerking, but rarely while pressing, because we were very well aware
that sloppy pressing habits could be dangerous. During jerking, however, one
would sometimes force the body into some unwise postures to correct for a
poorly executed thrusts overhead, some of which involved spinal rotation,
ballistic loading of the lumbar spine or lateral tilting of the pelvis.
Dr Mel C Siff