The Bent Press is an exercise everyone should be incorporating in their training, it’s awesome for so many things.
- Thoracic mobility
- Flexibility
- Core strength
- Shoulder mobility
- Shoulder strength
- Improved posture
- Injury prevention
- Kyphosis prevention (rounding of the back)
- improved breathing
- Stability and much more
It’s also great to get heavier weight overhead and focus on the down-phase of the overhead position, i.e. increase your pressing strength.
Everyone
When I say everyone I mean every, it’s great for people who sit behind the computer all day, it’s great for Crossfitters to improve overhead mobility, shoulder strength and much more, it’s great for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners, not much to be said other than dropping the word ROTATION. Above all, good thoracic mobility will help prevent injury, i.e. a stiff thoracic spine will require you to employ other areas less suitable for certain moves, and creating the potential for injury.
It Is NOT a Press
Unlike the name suggests, it’s not a press and something I’m personally not happy about, but I’ve covered that in plenty of articles. Quick recap, the Bent Press, in summary, is performed as follows:
- Rack
- Rotate
- Pull
- Bend
- Come under
- Lock out
- Come up
- Shoulder rotation
- Neutral stance
- Rack and repeat
One can come under the weight in different ways, one leg locked other bent or bending both knees and turn it more into a squat under.
SAFETY AND PROGRESSION FIRST
I know this exercise looks cool and you’ll probably want to grab a heavyweight right now and try it out, DON’T! … unless you’re already conditioned in this area, do not attempt this move straight away, it requires progression, work on your flexibility first, hamstrings especially, work on shoulder strength first, work on rotation with just bodyweight, work on the movement without weight, then slowly increase the weight over time.
PS. fun fact, the photos for the cover image were taken during an 11-hour hike up the mountain in Nerja, middle of summer, we carried these babies through the water, over the waterfalls, on the top of the mountain. Got some great stories for this hike.