Beating The Boogeyman (press past your self-imposed limits)!
Give an inanimate object a scary name and people will conjure up a mystique in their minds surrounding it, guaranteed. Once this objects ‘reputation’ spreads to epic proportions, pretty soon everyone will be afraid of it.
Make a barrier or a test out of something and whatever it is instantly increases in difficulty exponentially.
This is exactly what’s happened in the Hardstyle kettlebell community with the SFG half bodyweight kettlebell press! This feat is a required strength standard for passing the SFG Level 2 certification. It has subsequently been heralded as a coveted tough to attain barometer of awesomeness. As such, it has become a self-imposed ceiling and mental barrier for many men who are ACTUALLY capable of rendering this ‘test’ nothing more than a warm-up.
Big guys have traditionally had an even tougher time making this ‘milestone’ a reality. To be fair it actually IS harder for larger men to press a half bodyweight object overhead. So, for reasons of safety and realism, the powers that be have capped the upper end weight limit required for half bodyweight level achievement at 48kg (106lbs) for any man over 203lbs. Which is a pretty sweet deal if you’re an experienced lifter weighing in at 250-300lbs!
Why then has it been my observation over the years that the least amount of ‘half bodyweight presses’ have come from the over 203lb’ers? Surely the less representative a kettlebell is of half your bodyweight, the easier it would be to press it?
Well, I don’t know, but if you call something ‘The Beast’ it scares people.
‘The Beast’ is a great name to market a hardcore strength tool with! It fires up some, it intimidates others, but either way, it wins everyone’s instant respect. It transforms an ordinary object into an icon, a mythical monster and in some cases…an insurmountable obstacle.
What Actually is ‘The Beast’?
The ‘Beast’, my friends, is nothing more than a bully, and like most bullies, he’s an impostor who’s trying to act scarier than his reality actually commands. He’s a big fish in a very small pond. Nothing more!
Traditionally, kettlebells were relatively light objects of fixed weight used most prolifically for high volume power endurance work. So in the ‘small pond’ where traditionally the biggest fish would rarely exceed 32kg, a 48kg object suddenly looks astronomical within this environment.
But, once the hype is stripped away and the ‘Beast’ is taken out of its ‘small pond’ and placed in the larger ocean that is the strength world as a whole, all of a sudden Moby Dick starts looking more like The Little Mermaid. This beast that was ‘raised in captivity’ whilst surrounded by much smaller objects, now struggles to intimidate the same way in ‘the wild’ when its 106lbs is compared to giant dumbbells, atlas stones, logs, and of course…the mighty, and virtually unlimited, barbell!
Big guys CAN and should be able to press half bodyweight. In fact, seeing as the rules of the SFG Level 2 test stipulates that big guys have to press no more than 106lbs, which may represent less than half bodyweight, this over 203lbs category SHOULD have the highest pass rate in this test!
My Number One Student
At this point I’d like to introduce you to my longest serving student, John Goudy (or ‘GOuD Almighty’ as he is referred to in Centaur in a tongue in cheek way). John’s training has been following my principles, in my gym, for more than a decade now. In that time his body weight has risen from around 200lbs to 264lbs of drug free juggernaut!
He’s been a joy to work with from the start and is still a dream to program for to this day. Despite his inhuman physical ability he’s THEE most coachable lifter I’ve ever worked with. His patience is unparalleled and the only thing which exceeds his immense strength is his common sense and decision making. I never have to worry about him deviating from the plan to rush things. His patience and cyborg-like consistency has well and truly paid off as his muscle mass and pure physical power has now reached mythical proportions for a drug free individual!
At 6’3 and 264lbs, Big John has rock solid and lean 20″ arms (cold) and 18″ forearms! His back and shoulders are barn door wide and his waist is tiny by comparison.
According to the rules of the SFG Level 2 press test John would have to press 106lbs (48kg) once, in order to pass. But this ‘test’ wouldn’t even constitute an adequate warm up for John’s regular press practice session. He’s never tried it because I don’t believe in testing limits too often (in fact these days I don’t believe in testing them at all really), but I’d guesstimate he could strictly press about 15 reps with a 106lbs kettlebell if he wanted to. This is backed up below as John is seen pressing an ACTUAL half bodyweight kettlebell of 132lbs (60kg)…for almost 7 consecutive reps!
How is this possible? Why is John able to perform to this level and what can be learned from his approach? Well, what can I tell you…John got strong! Without trying to be condescending and stating the obvious, John got STRONG! He could press the beast long before he knew the beast existed, long before he’d ever touched a kettlebell, because he’d already spent a considerable time getting strong as hell using barbells and dumbbells.
Before John ever lifted a kettlebell he could Barbell Military Press at least 300lbs overhead for a strict single. He could also bench press 352lbs (160kg) for 5 paused reps not to failure and could blast out more than 30 reps with 225lbs! Even with legs longer than lampposts he was capable of squatting 450lbs for double figures below parallel and pulling over 600lbs raw! Never one to make bodyweight an excuse John has also done a dead hang chin up with 100lbs of additional weight added and completed a below parallel Dip with 220lbs strapped to his hulking frame!
A “considerable amount of time getting strong as hell” it’s worth repeating.
The big man has the patience of a Saint and the intellect of a professor. He knows to make haste slowly is the best approach for him, and if he didn’t…I’d soon tell him. You’ll notice that much of the above weights are repetition feats and are even quite vague. Something like “he was capable of squatting 450lbs for double figures and pulling over 600lbs raw”, what does that mean? Why can’t I tell you EXACTLY how much over 600lbs John can Deadlift and EXACTLY what double digit number he can squat to with 450lbs? Why am I saying he can bench “352lbs for 5 paused reps not to failure” What? Why can I not even tell you his ACTUAL 5RM never mind his 1RM?
Well, because I don’t know what they are…Oops! Oh, neither does he, and neither of us care. You see the thing is, I’m not concerned with what his max is…I’m only concerned with RAISING IT. Now, you can take this next line straight to the bank…any workout spent finding a limit (1RM, 5RM, 25RM, whatever) is one that could’ve been spent raising that limit (repeat out loud 10 times until the gravity of that, and subsequent ramifications, actually sinks in). As my longest ever student John understands me and my weird ways better than anyone on the planet within this context. His training patience is unparalleled. Is it therefore a coincidence that his gains are also, I think not.
Yes, John was strong first (pun intended) before he lifted kettlebells and before he pressed half bodyweight for reps. That’s why he could do it so easily because it’s easier to lift anything when you’re strong and it’s easier to get strong quickly using barbells.
I will now outline a ‘GOuD Almighty’ style military press routine for gaining the ability to hit and exceed your kettlebell press goals.
Build with a Barbell…groove with a Kettlebell!
A barbell is arguably THEE best implement at the disposal of humanity for acquiring physical strength within the species. It’s so effective because it’s so programmable. It’s so programmable because it’s so adjustable. It allows for smaller percentage jumps to be manipulated because the weight plates used with it are very incremental. The more you can manipulate the math of a program the faster you can create progress and the greater that progress will be.
In short, if you wanna get inhumanly strong insanely fast…nothing beats a barbell!
With this in mind it’s…pop quiz time!
- Q) What’s the fastest way of getting a half bodyweight kettlebell press?
- A) Developing a bodyweight two arm barbell press!
It’s pretty much that simple. In fact, developing the ability to press bodyweight overhead in the two arm barbell Military Press will give you more strength than that required to press half bodyweight with a single arm. You see, we can all press more than 50% of our bilateral max when we go unilateral. In layman’s terms, when you lift bilaterally the signal from the nervous system to the muscles has to split in two directions. But once you go one handed on a press or a pull, all of the CNS’s focus gets concentrated on that one limb and as such a higher percentage of the bilateral ‘juice’ can be sent down one side. So even if unfamiliar with the different implement (kettlebell), the extra strength created by the ability to press bodyweight overhead on a bar should provide enough of a buffer to get the job done regardless.
Maybe you’re thinking…”I’m lean enough but I weigh 250lbs, it will take me forever to build up the strength to military press 250lbs on a barbell”. Well first off, I disagree. If you program it correctly and your body fat isn’t significantly high, it shouldn’t take that long to develop a bodyweight press.
But having said that…YOU don’t have to wait that long Mr 250lbs Man. The SFG Level 2 standard states that guys over 203lbs have to press no more than 106lbs no matter what they weigh. Plus, as explained above, a two arm max doesn’t have to reach double the weight of a single arm goal in order to actualise it. You could probably get away with two-arm pressing 190% of the single arm goal as long as you had reasonable skill with a kettlebell.
So now our 220-250lbs guy’s mission, should he choose to accept it, is to build his two arm barbell press up to a single with about 190-195lbs. Now that’s a mission that’s hardly impossible.
However, just to make doubly sure of success we will add a caveat to the routine. As great as the barbell is, nothing overrules the law of specificity when it comes to pretty much everything. So, it would be prudent to keep the single kettlebell pressing groove open for business throughout the barbell building cycle. The good news is this part becomes a non-exhausting afterthought of the main routine, but an important wrinkle none the less.
Below is an example of a John Goudy style ‘Long-haul’ routine for a guy whose current kettlebell press max is 40kg (88lbs), his barbell military press max is 75kg (165lbs) and his goal is a 48kg (106lbs) kettlebell Beast Press.
(Week 1)
Day 1: BB MP 100lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×4/4
Day 2: BB MP 105lbs 3×9, KB MP 28kg 1×4/4
Day 3: BB MP 110lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×5/5
Day 4: BB MP 115lbs 3×7, KB MP 28kg 1×5/5
(Week 2)
Day 1: BB MP 100lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×6/6
Day 2: BB MP 105lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×6/6
Day 3: BB MP 110lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×5/5
Day 4: BB MP 115lbs 3×7, KB MP 28kg 1×5/5
(Week 3)
Day 1: BB MP 100lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×6/6
Day 2: BB MP 105lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×6/6
Day 3: BB MP 110lbs 3×9, KB MP 28kg 1×7/7
Day 4: BB MP 115lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×7/7
(Week 4)
Day 1: BB MP 100lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×6/6
Day 2: BB MP 105lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×6/6
Day 3: BB MP 110lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×7/7
Day 4: BB MP 115lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×7/7
(Week 5)
Day 1: BB MP 100lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×8/8
Day 2: BB MP 105lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×8/8
Day 3: BB MP 110lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×7/7
Day 4: BB MP 115lbs 3×9, KB MP 28kg 1×7/7
(Week 6)
Day 1: BB MP 100lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×8/8
Day 2: BB MP 105lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×8/8
Day 3: BB MP 110lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×10/10
Day 4: BB MP 115lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×10/10
This represents one full mini cycle. After this mini cycle is complete you will add 5lbs to every set and recycle the routine as written above with regards sets and reps. Keep the kettlebell press weight and volumes the same as the first mini cycle in every future mini cycle except the fifth, in the fifth you will increase the weight to 32kg and recycle the same volumes. At this rate of progression the end of the 5th mini-cycle, or week 30, would look like this:
(Week 30)
Day 1: BB MP 120lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×8/8
Day 2: BB MP 125lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×8/8
Day 3: BB MP 130lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×10/10
Day 4: BB MP 135lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×10/10
Finally, you will run a peaking week to help actualise the strength you’ve accumulated with the higher volume work. It would look like this:
(Week 31)
Day 1: BB MP 145lbs 3×8, KB MP 32kg 1×10/10
Day 2: BB MP 155lbs 3×6, KB MP 32kg 1×10/10
Day 3: BB MP 165lbs 3×5, KB MP 32kg 1×10/10
Day 4: BB MP 180lbs 3×3, KB MP 40kg 1x max reps
(Perform on an every other day basis. After the final session rest for 3 days then warm up and press ‘The Beast’ easily)
Yes, 31 weeks. Does 31 weeks seem like a long time to add 30-35lbs to an already well developed barbell military press? If it does then you’re nuts in the head and the help you need goes way beyond the scope of this article. Viewed with the end goal of lifelong perpetual strength gains in mind, 31 weeks is nothing.
Now, allow me to take a moment and make your instant gratification loving brain explode for a second here… For himself, Big John would slow this routine down by at least a factor of 2, maybe even 4! That’s right, he’d train no more than twice, possibly even once a week, and happily take 14-28 months to add 30lbs to his ever so ponderous military press max. At his stage of extreme drug free advancement, needing 2 years to add 30lbs to his military press is positively breakneck speed! Bearing in mind that the next time he adds this amount of weight to his military press we’ll see a drug free man strictly pressing 150kg overhead with ease! So why then would he want to speed things up when he knows that doing so would only, ironically, slow his progress down?
If however, you need something a little bit more aggressive because you have a deadline in which to hit your beast press, no problem. Try this adapted version of the same routine to achieve a similar peak much quicker.
(Week 1)
Day 1: BB MP 100lbs 3×10, KB MP 24kg 1×6/6
Day 2: BB MP 105lbs 3×10, KB MP 24kg 1×7/7
Day 3: BB MP 110lbs 3×8, KB MP 24kg 1×8/8
Day 4: BB MP 115lbs 3×8, KB MP 24kg 1×10/10
(Week 2)
Day 1: BB MP 105lbs 3×10, KB MP 24kg 1×7/7
Day 2: BB MP 110lbs 3×9, KB MP 24kg 1×8/8
Day 3: BB MP 115lbs 3×8, KB MP 24kg 1×10/10
Day 4: BB MP 120lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×4/4
(Week 3)
Day 1: BB MP 110lbs 3×9, KB MP 28kg 1×4/4
Day 2: BB MP 115lbs 3×9, KB MP 28kg 1×5/5
Day 3: BB MP 120lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×5/5
Day 4: BB MP 125lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×6/6
(Week 4)
Day 1: BB MP 110lbs 3×10, KB MP 28kg 1×6/6
Day 2: BB MP 115lbs 3×9, KB MP 28kg 1×7/7
Day 3: BB MP 120lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×7/7
Day 4: BB MP 125lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×8/8
(Week 5)
Day 1: BB MP 115lbs 3×9, KB MP 28kg 1×8/8
Day 2: BB MP 120lbs 3×9, KB MP 28kg 1×9/9
Day 2: BB MP 125lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×9/9
Day 3: BB MP 130lbs 3×8, KB MP 28kg 1×10/10
(Week 6)
Day 1: BB MP 115lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×4/4
Day 2: BB MP 120lbs 3×9, KB MP 32kg 1×4/4
Day 3: BB MP 125lbs 3×8, KB MP 32kg 1×5/5
Day 4: BB MP 130lbs 3×8, KB MP 32kg 1×5/5
(Week 7)
Day 1: BB MP 120lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×4/4
Day 2: BB MP 125lbs 3×9, KB MP 32kg 1×4/4
Day 3: BB MP 130lbs 3×8, KB MP 32kg 1×5/5
Day 4: BB MP 135lbs 3×7, KB MP 32kg 1×5/5
(Week 8)
Day 1: BB MP 120lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×6/6
Day 2: BB MP 125lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×6/6
Day 3: BB MP 130lbs 3×8, KB MP 32kg 1×5/5
Day 4: BB MP 135lbs 3×7, KB MP 32kg 1×5/5
(Week 9)
Day 1: BB MP 120lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×6/6
Day 2: BB MP 125lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×6/6
Day 3: BB MP 130lbs 3×9, KB MP 32kg 1×7/7
Day 4: BB MP 135lbs 3×8, KB MP 32kg 1×7/7
(Week 10)
Day 1: BB MP 120lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×6/6
Day 2: BB MP 125lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×6/6
Day 3: BB MP 130lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×7/7
Day 4: BB MP 135lbs 3×8, KB MP 32kg 1×7/7
(Week 11)
Day 1: BB MP 120lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×8/8
Day 2: BB MP 125lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×8/8
Day 3: BB MP 130lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×7/7
Day 4: BB MP 135lbs 3×9, KB MP 32kg 1×7/7
(Week 12)
Day 1: BB MP 120lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×8/8
Day 2: BB MP 125lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×8/8
Day 3: BB MP 130lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×10/10
Day 4: BB MP 135lbs 3×10, KB MP 32kg 1×10/10
(Week 13)
Day 1: BB MP 145lbs 3×8, KB MP 32kg 1×10/10
Day 2: BB MP 155lbs 3×6, KB MP 32kg 1×10/10
Day 3: BB MP 165lbs 3×5, KB MP 32kg 1×10/10
Day 4: BB MP 180lbs 3×3, KB MP 40kg 1x max reps
(Perform on an every other day basis. After the final session rest for 3 days then warm up and press ‘The Beast’ easily)
In case you haven’t noticed, this routine will also succeed in slapping huge mass gains on your shoulders and triceps over time! Well, after all, it is based on the work I’ve done with John. Basketball sized delts and 20″ arms don’t grow themselves.
The ‘Beast’ is the bully of the Hardstyle kettlebell world, and seeing as bullies only respond to strength…it’s about time YOU got strong as hell!