The answer is no.
106 lbs. is roughly the weight of 2 24kg (approx. 53lbs) kettlebells. Because I've been getting close to 106 lbs. in my overhead press force during my IsoMax 6x6 sessions last week, I thought I'd take a look at my max force after every overhead press rep during today's morning 6x6 session. I hit a max force of 106lbs or higher for at least half the reps today.
So in the afternoon, I tried to press a 24kg kettlebell. I was able to press it about an inch upwards - or less... probably less. I was a bit disappointed but not surprised, because the force we can generate at the bottom of the overhead press is higher than the force we can generate at the middle position; and greater still than the force we can generate near the top (lockout) of the press. I discovered this within the first few months of training on my Isochain - my first overhead press (aka shoulder press) sessions were near the middle position, then one day I tried lowering the bar to a position close to the start of the press and was surprised to discover a significant different in pressing force.
Thus, scoring a 106lb. max force reading at bottom position just means I can press a 53lb. KB with one arm for only a short distance, which is what happened this afternoon... and it probably means my max force at the middle position is quite a bit less than 106 lbs. and thus not strong enough to press the KB to full lockout overhead. So the middle position is most likely a better position than the bottom for assessing my readiness for pressing a 53lb. KB with one arm. I set the IsoMax to Feedback mode and tried pressing as hard as I could, and it read a max force of only 68lbs. Max force reading at middle position is not a perfect assessment either, because a 16kg KB is about 35 lbs. and thus I should have - in theory - needed a 70lb. max force at middle position to press a 16kg KB. But in reality I was doing sets of 4-6 reps of 16kg KB presses while I was working through the ICT program. That's because when one is pressing a KB overhead, the KB is actually in motion at the middle position. The greater the velocity of the KB, the less force is needed to keep the KB moving. Thus I probably don't need to press with 106 lbs. of force at middle position to be able to press a 53 lb. KB - the actual required force will be less than that because the KB's velocity will not be zero at middle position, assuming I have the strength to even get it going as high as middle position. So it will be interesting to see how much max force I need to be able to generate at bottom position in order to send the KB upward at a high enough velocity so that I can press it all the way to lockout.
I'm not so concerned about the near-lockout position because current thinking in exercise science is fast concentric stimulates greater strength gains - when I get strong enough to press the KB explosively up to the middle position of the movement, it will likely have a high enough velocity at the near lockout position to require relatively lower force to keep it going all the way to lockout.
I will still do my main overhead press training at the bottom position because that is where the primary muscles (chest, triceps, anterior delts) are at their longest lengths, and as previouly mentioned, research found greatest hypertrophy and carryover to dynamic performance from isometric training with muscles at longest possible lengths. To assess readiness for pressing the 24kg KB, I'll try one overhead press rep in Feedback mode at the middle position once a week - maybe sooner if I see a sudden jump in bottom position performance.
Less disappointing results for today was performance in the Zercher Lunge with the toes of the rear foot pointing back so that the instep is touching the ground instead of the toes. Performance on the left leg dropped very slightly, while performance on the right leg, which had been lagging by as much as 15 lbs., improved to even with the left leg. I tried to keep the rear knee from touching the ground, but I don't think there's any real reason to do so, because then the exercise would be more like the bottom of a Shrimp Squat - one of the regressions for Shrimp Squat has both arms forward and the knee of the rear leg "kissing" the floor before standing back up. I'll probably experiment and see if there's any difference in force production.
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