The Texas Kettlebell Academy is a frequent contributor to our blog and one of the top kettlebell academies in the United States. Head Coach of TX Kettlebell Academy, Aaron Vyvial, was the first person in the USA to earn the rank of Master Coach under KETACADEMY and Texas Kettlebell Academy also boasts the largest collection of competition style kettlebells in the United States. In this post, Aaron breaks down The Seated Press with kettlebells.

The Seated Press is a great General Physical Preparation (GPP) and fitness lift but if programmed correctly, it is a great Specific Physical Preparation (SPP) for Jerk training. What do these terms mean? GPP refers to physical activities that are general to any training and provide balanced conditioning in endurance, strength and flexibility, etc. So, this is another way of saying The Seated Press is a great general fitness movement which can improve the aforementioned aspects of your fitness training. SPP refers to exercises for a specific sport or goal, in this case Kettlebell Sport training, specifically for the Jerk and aspects of Long Cycle.

Seated Press with Kettlebells demonstrated by TX Kettlebell Academy:

The Benefits: Improve overhead stability

Elbow strength

Clean lockout

Build muscle

Improve cardio In this video, MSIC Jessica Gorman, is doing a 7' set with 45 reps, only resting in the rack position. She paces herself so that she does not reach muscle or cardio failure.

How To:

1. Find rack position on edge of bench (shown)

2. Have solid connection of feet to floor

3. Initiate the press by doing a seated crunch (demonstrated in video and link), pressing the elbows down and curving your back into a deeper hollow body position

4. Press through the feet and use the rebound of the seated crunch to launch the bells from the rack position. Imagine a coiled spring releasing

5. Lean back using a thoracic bump to keep the press fast and explosive. Pressing the chest into strong back position

6. Keep elbows in a straight line. Imagine they are on railroad tracks

7. Lockout overhead, arms slightly in front of ears so the bells are balanced and do not pull you out of position

8. Breath. This is still an explosive lift

9. Look up a bit, lean back and let the bells drop. Like flipping a light switch

How to Incorporate Into Training

As mentioned above, you can try this whether you are training for general strength and conditioning or for Kettlebell Sport. Here are a few ways you could use this movement in your training:

Try these with timed sets. So, something like five sets of two minutes, four sets of three minutes or two sets of five minutes. In the sets do as many controlled reps not working to muscle or cardio failure as you can. Rest as needed between sets.

You could do a chipper and focus on total reps. Set a high rep goal like 40 or something that is high relative to you and do as many as you can before breaking as needed then resuming again to work towards completion of total rep count.

For building strength, look at four sets of six reps with heavier weight or ten sets of ten reps with a weight that is harder on the ninth and tenth rep is also a good protocol.

--Aaron Vyvial

Coach Vyvial is available for long distance online coaching and can be reached through the Facebook page for Texas Kettlebell Academy, he also offers video review submissions. The TXKB Kettlebell Sport team is one of the most successful in the US and our ladies were vital in the movement to popularize two-arm lifting for women in competition.

What Is Next?

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About Aaron Vyvial:

Coach Vyvial has the distinction of being the first student, outside of Russia, of the legendary Sergey Nikolaevich Mishin, former Russian National Team Coach, who was the first Honored Master of Sport of Russia in Kettlebells. He was also the first person in the USA to earn the rank of Master Coach under KETACADEMY. Aaron runs the Texas Kettlebell Academy which boasts the largest collection of competition style kettlebells in the United States and home of many MSIC and MS ranked athletes. He continues his education by working closely with his coaches Sergey Rachinskiy and Sergey Merkulin. Checkout www.txkettlebell.com to learn more about his training, coaching, online coaching and facility.

The Texas Kettlebell Academy trains with the Kettlebell Kings Kettlebell Sport Series. They are the official bell of some of the biggest kettlebell events in the world:

The Texas Open Kettlebell Championship

California Open Kettlebell Sport World Championship

Norcal Open Kettlebell Sport Championship

To learn more about these kettlebells and read reviews, you can have a look HERE.

Let us know how we can help.

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