 Hey everybody, let's learn how to press from the very beginning strict press all the way up to the classic Olympic press Which you're probably gonna suck at but you're gonna do well on the beginning stuff So what we're gonna do today is we're gonna talk about the press and we're gonna take our Viewers all the way from the most basic strict press all the way to the Olympic press and this is really our Olympic press video But I want to show the progression of the press on how we get to an Olympic press You don't know how to Olympic press nobody's really ever taught you how to do the Olympic press I'm gonna try We'll see how it works. She ain't the greatest athlete And we're gonna learn how to do the press but first let's show what an actual strict press is So when somebody comes into the gym and they've never pressed before I Will often teach them most of the time I'll teach them just a basic strict press Military press overhead press where we want to call it. It's just strict. That's the idea I don't really care what you call it I pretty much just call it the press or the strict press So what you're gonna do there is you're gonna take a close grip closer than you think you should maybe index fingers might even be on the smooth That's right bar is gonna be in the bottom of the palm of your hand. So it's gonna be close grip Wrist straight elbows forward. So throw your elbows forward elbows are gonna be close together stand up tall You're very vertical forearms here step back just a little bit right there. That's fine Nice deep breath in your belly. You're not gonna move anything in here hips aren't gonna move Belly's not gonna move you're just gonna press straight up overhead and you're gonna shrug at the top and Bring it right back down. That's good. You're gonna keep it as close to your face as you can The aiming point on the way up and the way down is your nose one more time and That is a strict press and down and walk it in touch the uprights The second step in the progression of the press is the press 2.0 The press 1.0 is the strict press the press 2.0 adds the hip movement And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna stay really really tight on the press We're gonna lock our quads lock our knees and we're just gonna push our hips forward and when our hips go forward The bar is gonna come down. I don't want to worry about my shoulders going back and forth as my hips go forward The bar and my shoulders stay over my midfoot and they get lower and then fires up So it's sort of is like compressing a spring and then boing it pops back up And it helps throw the bar off your shoulders to complete the rep. So let's show that press 2.0 elbows forward and in just a tad Slow bit like big hips forward Bar goes down and up just like that bring it back down take a breath hips forward bar goes down and up That's the press 2.0. Let's do one more Good and down When we program the press We almost always start by programming it in a basic novice linear progression for three sets of five Once they get proficient in the strict press we add the hip movement. We do press 2.0 We also do often three sets of five a Few years ago Michael Wolf one of our coaches at BLOC came along said man It takes a long time to do five reps all 2.0 We're taking the breath at the bottom and he said I've realized that you can do more weight If you do the first rep with the press 2.0 Hips throw but then after the first rep you breathe out breathe in And then you just bring the bar down and right back up and you don't pause at the bottom After rep one you pause at the top and we call that I don't know. I think Michael Wolf's fans He's got a lot of fans. I don't know. He's been mentioned on the Joe Rogan podcast He called it the press 1.5 or his fans did I don't know one of the two So this is what the press 1.5 looks like so we actually go press 1.0 first press 2.0 second Press 1.5 third. We didn't invent this stuff. This is just what we do So you're still going to do a press 2.0 for the first rep big breath hips Throw hold shrug breathe out breathe in down and up good now this time as you bring it down I actually want you to push your hips forward as you come down and fire up. There we go. Good a little more hips forward Good one more Excellent, and that's a press 1.5 That was the preamble to the actual video that was our intro now Let's talk about the actual classic press or the Olympic press and I started to look at videos of guys from the 60s And 70s when presses were like the absolute highest. They're actually three men who have pressed 500 pounds or more in actual competition and they all did it in the kind of late 60s to early 70s by 1972 that all was kind of over they got it got rid of it in the Olympics But I started to look at like what is different about their press Compared to the way we're teaching the press and what I noticed was that for everybody that had a giant hip movement But the hip movement was slower For everybody the bar was touching their shoulders or at worst was resting on their clavicle So there was no space between the barbell and their shoulders, right? So that was going to make the grip have to change Based on how long your forearms are because we've got to be able to get the bar on your shoulders So number one is contact of the bar on your shoulders And then step two is a big giant hip throw where they would throw the bar as hard as they could and then step three Was a layback So what they would do is they would use this giant hip throw to throw the bar And they would get through it as high as they could and when they got it as high as they could that would start Laying back and as they laid back their elbows would get straight and then boom They'd come up and they would press tons more weight. So often Minor portions of this lift will kind of naturally occur with our good lifters our strong lifters who do the press 2.0 So they'll get a bigger and bigger hip throw and they'll kind of naturally start doing a layback What I'm gonna do is make sure we put all of them together So I want the bar to touch your shoulders or clavicle I'll kind of play with that with how long your forearms are make sure you do a big hip movement But I now want the hip movement to be slow and deliberate so rather than a bouncy hip where I go hip throw I'm gonna reach forward hips hips hips hips hips have stretch stretch stretch stretch stretch wham Right, that's what I'm gonna do and then I'm gonna throw it and I'm gonna start to lay back now This is an empty bar. So it's not that heavy So we may have to load some weight on as we go But I'm gonna try to do a layback with you since you're teaching from the very beginning With just the empty bar and your layback will probably get better as we get more weight on the bar Probably so we'll see so for the Olympic press because I need the bar to rest on your Shoulders clavicle like actually be in contact with your torso. You're gonna widen your grip just a tiny bit So probably an inch wider than you normally take it You're still gonna carry the bar low in your palm Elbows are still gonna be forward wrists are gonna be as straight as they can be While maintaining contact just like that elbows up just a little bit that'll lift your delts elbows up straighter wrist Good stand up tall just like that walk back now bars in contact. So I have what I need Now you're gonna push your hips forward as far as you can and let the bar sink sink sink and then uncurl and throw good That's better back down. Let's do it again elbows forward push forward and Then uncurl and throw no that was all upper body throw let your hips throw the way don't even worry about your upper body Just see how much your hips can throw it Just make your hips throw Okay, not bad a little bit more So think about this stretch and then you're gonna just stand up as tall as you can Stretch first and get short now get as tall as you can get tall first one more time. You can do it I know you're getting tired straight wrists Don't worry about pressing just get tall fast tall. Okay. That's fine now racket That's fine Yep in contact. That looks great. Just stand up as fast as you can. Okay. That's better Now don't even worry about pressing it hold don't even press it this first time. Just see how fast you can stand up with it Stand up good just like that. I'll do the same thing and let the bar jump off your shoulders and then press That's fine. No, it's good. It's good now that'll that'll tighten itself up do it again hips forward And then throw good better one more and then rest again. Okay. It's fine rests So while this lift in the end is going to be very explosive While you learn it, it's okay to be slow It's not a big deal The goal here is to break this movement up into two separate movements The first is the slow hip throw so lean forward lean forward lean forward and let your hips throw the weight and then Throw it to about your top of your head. I want to get to the top of your head Whether you feel like you need to or not I want you to start laying back to finish it So just lean back as far as you can. Let's see what it looks like So hips first lean back second Be patient elbows up more Good. Yep. Nice slow hips forward Throw with hips lean back lean back lean back more so lean back at the forehead So what you did was you threw it immediately lean back I want you to throw the bar as high as you can with your hips and then actually almost make the bar stop and Lean back while the bars holding in the same spot and see if you can get your elbows to get straighter and straighter as you lay back Stop it lay back lay back. Okay there now back down. Let's do it again one more time Big hips this time throw your hips forward big throw That's all everybody boom Big hips forward Throw lay back finish. Okay, that's not bad do it again hips forward harder It's stand up tall That's fine. Like you broke it up. I don't mind doing that. It's fine. Do it one more time last one throat Didn't come off your chest. Okay Okay, so we walked you through the strict press, which you did great We walked you through the press 2.0, which is great We walked through press 1.5 Which you did great and that's sort of about where you are right now So on the Olympic press you've never done it it takes some practice We walked through what the teaching progression looks like for that Olympic press And we'll show you here at the end of the video some of our more advanced lifters We've been doing it for a while What it looks like after you've practiced it with the big hip throw and the big lay back to finish that lift That's the progression of the press. We start with a basic strict press We move to a press 2.0 with the hips We move to a press 1.5 where we do the hips on the first rep then after that We pause at the top take a breath at the top down and back up and then we start to add slow big hips Connect the bar to the torso and then throw and then lay back to finish the lift And that's the classic press or the Olympic press that we've seen although the Olympic lifters do in the 50s 60s and 70s for more great videos Probably of me wearing this exact same gray under armor shirt because I own 15 of them And I'm becoming like Steve Jobs wearing the same shirt every day on every video But also to learn how to press you can click the press playlist Right up there