A popular drill at the studio is the overhead kettlebell press. It is a good vertical pressing movement that strengthens the deltoid (shoulder), tricep, forearm, grip, latissimus dorsi (upper back), and core. If you are not familiar with the drill, you hold the kettlebell in the “rack position” and proceed to press the bell overhead. Then similar to performing a chin-up, you pull the bell back down into the starting position. One of the cues we provide our members is to squeeze and make a fist with the arm that is not pressing. The goal here is to squeeze intensely. If done, you’ll feel the muscles of entire arm engage. This is based upon the principal of irradiation.
Dr. Roger Enoka defines the principal of irradiation as a spread of muscle activation that “augments postural stability and enables the transfer of power across joints by two-joint muscles.”[1] Making a fist sends a message to the surrounding muscles to activate. The key takeaway here is that we want the pressing arm engaged, but also the side that is not pressing. Failure in pressing loads overhead sometimes happen not because of deficiency in strength, but due to the lack of tension created from the non-pressing arm. In the strength and conditioning world, we reference this as a power leak. It’s the efficient transfer of power or tension throughout the body that helps create strength. I have used driving mobility sticks into the ground to help people learn this tactic. Here’s an example:
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Athletes adopted unilateral (a single limb moving without assistance from the other limb) exercises in their training protocol years ago to enhance performance. We’ve implemented this type of training with recreational or the general population at the studio to improve muscular balance and symmetry. It has also been determined that unilateral training can improve spine and core stability. This added benefit of core stability helps to make people more injury resilient. We just need to remember that as we perform that press or row, we need to create tension with the other hand.
This principal is taught at the studio at a members first workout. This lesson comes across when we demonstrate how we perform a standard plank. Popularized by legendary strength coach, Pavel Tsatsouline, we instruct people to make fists, drive their elbows down and squeeze their glutes as they
Pavel Tsatsouline
do the exercise. Doing it this way creates a full-body contraction up through the lats and down through the anterior core, glutes, quads, and even the muscles of the lower legs. This style of planking is so intense that sets can last no longer than 20 or 30 seconds. This explains my response when asked about the person who performed a record plank of 8 hours. “He didn’t do it this way”.
So next time you prepare to press a load overhead, remember to make a death grip with the other hand, and watch that weight fly up. I’ll see you at the studio.
References
1. Enoka R. Neuromechanics of Human Movement. 5th ed. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; 2015.