Kettlebell Military & Push Press in the Safety Zone

Kettlebell Military Press & Push Press in the Safety Zone
By Mastery Coach Leanne Wylet
Caution: Overhead movements work not only the shoulder joints but require thoracic spine flexibility. Before doing overhead exercises your first priority is to ask yourself these questions:
1. Am I sitting or standing too much without extending my arms overhead?
2. Am I able to rotate my trunk from left to right with my hip’s stationary?
3. Am I able to raise my arms over head in a lock out position without pain?
4. Am I able to imprint my back to the floor for slight crunch flex of thoracic spine?
How did you do with this self-test? How many of the 4 questions did you answer “yes” to? Did you experience pain of discomfort? If you answered yes to any of these questions you need more thoracic spine flexibility before adding overhead exercises that could lead to back & shoulder injuries. There are exercises to correct this with videos you can ask me for.Show more

 The RKC Military Press, Push Pres & Jerk are push/pull exercises.
 The hip hinge to a swing is the foundation of these kettlebell exercises.
 Place the kettlebell on the floor slightly in front of you, weight on the heels of your feet.
 Feet straight ahead or pointed out at a slight angle.
 Sit back like you are going to set on a chair with your knees slightly bent.
 Grasp the kettlebell hike back between your legs which are shoulder width apart.
 Drive shoulders down away from the ears, pull you kneecaps up to engage quads & your lats, rib cage down (rib to hip connection), drive your hips forward, straighten your back.
 Drive your hips forward, breathing out, swing the kettlebell up to the top to lock out.
 Breath in at the top of the move brace yourself, engage your abs, lats, core, setting back when the kettlebell goes down into the rack position.
 Keep your rib cage down, squeeze your glutes inward, engage lats, abs, core to fire all the muscles of the body under controlled tension.
 When you start downward breath in with intra ab pressure to protect your back, engaging your core of your body with the appropriate muscles in reverse of the movement to the starting point.
 Once the kettlebell passes just below your ribs, gently pull kettlebell back & slide your fist around and under the bell like putting on a glove. The kettlebell handle should rest softly on the back of your wrist with the kettlebell inside the palm of your hand & bent elbow close to your side. This is known as the “rack position” (see rack position video).

Side note: Military Press, Push Press are kettlebell exercises using BOTH push/pull force production and force absorption.
You can go to a more advance training of universal strength with 5 to 20 reps for a short period of time or ten minutes once you have the basics grooved in. You can also use high intensity interval training doing a combination of the clean variations as mentioned above.
It is important to always leave your ego at the door for there will be another day to train. Be in tune with your body stopping when you feel you could do one more rep because when you get fatigued the form can break down leading to an injury or when a transition is made into other movement such as a clean to a press. **I have exercises you can do to build your shoulders & thoracic spine. If you would like them please let me know. Your body will thank you!
Daily keep moving to maintain flexibility at all ages by reclaiming yourself. It begins with You!
Mastery Coach Kettlebell Lady of Iron with Kettlebell Plus 360 takes your health, fitness & relationships full circle. You can contact me for a strategy appointment on how you can get started. To your continued success!

Leanne Wylet, BA, ACE- NCCA, Specialties: Orthopedic Exercise, Functional Movement Screening (FMS), Hard Style/High Intensify Kettlebell Fitness, Be Fit Group Instructor, Lurn, Inc., Certified Mastery Coach, Copywriter & Marketing Consultant