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Bottom Up Kettlebell Press


patrickmeniru

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My gym recently got some kettlebells up to 40kg, I was messing around with them for the first time and managed to bottom up press the heaviest one. It was quite hard to get it steady, but then felt quite easy to actually press, which got me wondering how other people on the board find this exercise and how heavy people have gone. Let me know! (The heaviest strict lift I could find from a quick google search was 60kg, which was very impressive and something to work towards if I can persuade the gym to get some heavier kettlebells!).

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A good indicator of healthy shoulders is being able to bottoms up press at least 90% of what you can press normally. I don't yet have heavy kettlebells so not sure what I can do but definitely not 40kg that's pretty solid.

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Bottoms up pressing a kettlebell has nothing to do with shoulder health, it's a movement that challenges the wrist. I have very healthy shoulders, being 24 and never having any pain in my shoulders for 10 years of weight training and I still can't press BU KB press 90% of my one handed press (40 kg). I managed to do 26 kg. 

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40KG  is  very good bottoms up press- I have only 36KG and can do that easy. I use my KB  primarily for wrist strength -bottoms up hold, KB wrist DL and side KB rolls.

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35 minutes ago, Aleksandar Milosevic said:

Bottoms up pressing a kettlebell has nothing to do with shoulder health, it's a movement that challenges the wrist. I have very healthy shoulders, being 24 and never having any pain in my shoulders for 10 years of weight training and I still can't press BU KB press 90% of my one handed press (40 kg). I managed to do 26 kg. 

Healthy does not mean simply a lack of injury or pain. 

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My best so far is 44kg, and I'm not too far off from BO pressing 52kg.

I don't think BO pressing ability is indicator of shoulder strength.  And if it was 90% would be way too high. I don't know anyone who can BO 90%. Care to elaborate why you think pressing 90% BO indicates healthy shoulders and why pressing anything under it would mean dysfunction? 

I think it's a great cooldown and a warmup movement and has helped my wrist stability to get even better in OHP and BP. Most people could benefit alot from them for sure. 

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Pavel talked about it in his first or second kettlebell book. I'm sure he has some YouTube videos that will explain much better than I can. I love using them as a shoulder warm up a long with band circles.

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Just listened to podcast where Max Shank was talking about it, but he didn't elobrate how he came up with that number. Also he is someone who praises BO pressing ALOT. So I think he is biased. 

I do agree that if you're not capable of BO pressing 50 pounds with 110 pound pressing power you're more likely to injure your wrist/shoulder than with a higher BO press.

He said his max BO press was 94lbs with a 107lbs normal press. So if he has hard time reaching that goal, I'd say it's too high. Given that he has tons of experience with it.  Still the better your BO press is the safer your shoulders/wrist are. 

I've had the same experience with my patients that BO pressing is often pain free even if normal dumbell/kettlebell presses hurt. 

PS: Sorry for nit-picking about the 90%. That number just peaked my interest and I wanted to try find out if there is some actual evidence for it. 

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29 minutes ago, Mywor said:

Just listened to podcast where Max Shank was talking about it, but he didn't elobrate how he came up with that number. Also he is someone who praises BO pressing ALOT. So I think he is biased. 

I do agree that if you're not capable of BO pressing 50 pounds with 110 pound pressing power you're more likely to injure your wrist/shoulder than with a higher BO press.

He said his max BO press was 94lbs with a 107lbs normal press. So if he has hard time reaching that goal, I'd say it's too high. Given that he has tons of experience with it.  Still the better your BO press is the safer your shoulders/wrist are. 

I've had the same experience with my patients that BO pressing is often pain free even if normal dumbell/kettlebell presses hurt. 

PS: Sorry for nit-picking about the 90%. That number just peaked my interest and I wanted to try find out if there is some actual evidence for it. 

I don't think anything in exercise science has an exact percentage, I treat them all like ballpark values since there's so many variables we can't account for. I think the point is that it should only be a little bit lower, whatever you define that as. Pavel said it should be one kettlebell increment a part, tho that seems flawed with the lower weights. Getting a bit in the weeds, I do love this movement and think everybody should work them. Very humbling when "strong" people first try it especially if they aren't already grip athletes.

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I hate bottoms up pressing, but Vadim Ischeykin loves it. He's the strongest I have seen.

 

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Ed Tessel at BWT 165lb is the best I have seen. His transfer to left hand and pressing is so Effing Baad A

 

Edited by Kluv#0
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This "pop clean" is another fun bottoms up move to try. Incidentally this is also the heaviest BU press I've ever done, though I think I'd be good for another 10lbs right if I got to place the bell in the optimal spot in my hand first. I can BU more in my right than my left but I don't think it has anything to do with shoulder health. I recently pressed 90lbs right and left on an olympic barbell which also requires wrist stability and crushing strength. But not to the degree of a BU press. I think the difference is solely the ability to crush down hard on the bell and as a consequence create the whole body tension required to balance the bell.  I also don't think that practicing this is the best way to get better at it. I rarely train BU but I think its great to play with every once in a while.  I haven't done a pop clean in over a year and this was literally my first try with the 32. I never did get it with my left :( 

The other two videos show some other fun grip-centric kettlebell exercises I was trying for the first time. 

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11 hours ago, Andrew Dube said:

 

This "pop clean" is another fun bottoms up move to try. Incidentally this is also the heaviest BU press I've ever done, though I think I'd be good for another 10lbs right if I got to place the bell in the optimal spot in my hand first. I can BU more in my right than my left but I don't think it has anything to do with shoulder health. I recently pressed 90lbs right and left on an olympic barbell which also requires wrist stability and crushing strength. But not to the degree of a BU press. I think the difference is solely the ability to crush down hard on the bell and as a consequence create the whole body tension required to balance the bell.  I also don't think that practicing this is the best way to get better at it. I rarely train BU but I think its great to play with every once in a while.  I haven't done a pop clean in over a year and this was literally my first try with the 32. I never did get it with my left :( 

The other two videos show some other fun grip-centric kettlebell exercises I was trying for the first time. 

That was impressive and visually entertaining Dubes!

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14 hours ago, Joseph Sullivan said:

That was impressive and visually entertaining Dubes!

Thanks Joe! 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/20/2018 at 1:32 PM, Squeezus said:

I hate bottoms up pressing, but Vadim Ischeykin loves it. He's the strongest I have seen.

 

WOW!! 

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On 9/20/2018 at 2:23 PM, Andrew Dube said:

 

This "pop clean" is another fun bottoms up move to try. Incidentally this is also the heaviest BU press I've ever done, though I think I'd be good for another 10lbs right if I got to place the bell in the optimal spot in my hand first. I can BU more in my right than my left but I don't think it has anything to do with shoulder health. I recently pressed 90lbs right and left on an olympic barbell which also requires wrist stability and crushing strength. But not to the degree of a BU press. I think the difference is solely the ability to crush down hard on the bell and as a consequence create the whole body tension required to balance the bell.  I also don't think that practicing this is the best way to get better at it. I rarely train BU but I think its great to play with every once in a while.  I haven't done a pop clean in over a year and this was literally my first try with the 32. I never did get it with my left :( 

The other two videos show some other fun grip-centric kettlebell exercises I was trying for the first time. 

This is really cool!! 

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2 hours ago, patrickmeniru said:

This is really cool!! 

Thanks Patrick! Give it a try sometime while you're waiting for your gym to get bigger bells ;) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hit 52kg/115lbs BO press today, and felt very strong! I wish I had a 60kg/132lbs one, because I'm sure it would be possible with some practice. Next one is 70kg with a very long handle. 

Edited by Mywor
I'll
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34 minutes ago, Mywor said:

Hit 52kg/115lbs BO press today, and felt very strong! I wish I had a 60kg/132lbs one, because I'm sure it would be possible with some practice. Next one is 70kg with a very long handle. 

Jesse, what planet are you from? To start that weight(with zero swing) and press with ease is one of the best feats I have ever seen!

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On 10/14/2018 at 1:18 PM, Mywor said:

Hit 52kg/115lbs BO press today, and felt very strong! I wish I had a 60kg/132lbs one, because I'm sure it would be possible with some practice. Next one is 70kg with a very long handle. 

Nice work!! Looked very smooth and very little time to get it under control after the clean!

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