Get a Stronger Military Press

I had some students contact me recently asking me 'how do i get that heavier military press'? So here is some advice on how i achieved my half body weight kettlebell military press.

After cleaning up my eating habits a little i dropped a couple of kilos which really helped me in the first place. So if you have some junk in the trunk that needs getting rid of, now is the time :)

So lets say you can strictly press a 24kg for 2-3 reps and you want to press the next kettlebell up, the 28kg, but it won't shift without a push press or jerk. Here's my advice.

Have a pressing day 3 times per week eg; Mon, Wed and Fri

Monday (moderate) might look like this

Warm up DROM and some 12-16kg presses, swings etc.

24kg military press pyramids 1/1,2/2.3/3 rest as needed in between reps. press as fast as possible with slow negatives. Do up to 5 pyramids of 1-3 reps, but over the next 4 weeks look to increase the pyramids to 5.

Wednesday (light)

Warm up DROM and some light presses, swings etc.

12kg or 16kg explosive military presses

1-5 pyramid x 5 times. Key words explosive and light. Working on your starting strength from the racked position.

Friday (heavy)

Warm up DROM and some 12kg-16kg presses, swings & TGU'S 

Heavy Turkish get up (maybe the 28kg) slowly. Lower the weight slowly from lockout everytime, working on slow negatives.

Alternate the TGU with 28kg push presses 1-5 reps x 5. Keep the push press minimal effort, just enough to get the kb up. Try to lower the kb a slowly as possible.

After 4 weeks of building volume, have a back off week eg; low volume Monday and Wednesday, but keep the intensity up, then test the military press on friday after a good warm up. Remember to explode that press from the racked position, just like you did with the light pressing day.

After the back off week, succeed or not repeat the abve sequence. If you dodn't succeed you might add heavy barbell presses in to the Friday workouts. On days off do lots of mobility and stay injury free.

Remember be patient, you will have good days and not so good days in your training.

Hope this helps you in your overhead military pressing?

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