archive_Bjaarki
09-27-2002, 11:04 AM
I had an interesting experience a few weeks ago. I was down in DC visiting my oldest friend, the one guy in my private life who knows I'm into gear. He's not much of a lifter, but he got into it in a casual way when he saw what it was doing for me, and we went over to his gym one morning for a workout.
Just in passing, he mentioned to me how he'd discovered that, when doing pushing lifts with the upper body - like militaries for shoulders, bench for chest - it's very important to drive off the heels of your hands. You gotta control your wrists so they don't flex to a 90-degree angle, then the bar rotates and you're driving off the palms of your hands. I experimented with what he was saying . You don't let your wrists bend much, you try to keep the bar or bell centered over the heels of your hands, and something really strange happens: You can almost feel the weight being supported by a solid column of bone that runs from mid-arm right up through your hands. You really get a hugely satisfying "centered" feel about the bar, very different from the "mushy" feel you get sometimes when your wrists have flexed and the bar is being supported by your soft palms.
It takes some getting used to, and it's difficult to do with a Smith press (my standard for MPs and inclines) since you have to rotate the bar off its safety catch. It's also hard to maintain a straight wrist when you volume train like I do - you keep having to chant "Drive off the heels of your hands! Drive off the heels of your hands!" but it's worth it. I would estimate that you add somewhere between 5 and 10% to your power when you control your wrists very well and drive off the heels of your hands.
The really funny part of this is that I've known for a million years to drive off my heels when doing squats, but it took this pretty wimpy guy, this old friend of mine, to teach me the most important thing I've learned yet about upper body pushing lifts. Pretty funny.
Be well, brothers.
Bjaarki
... Then, do what you have to do.
Just in passing, he mentioned to me how he'd discovered that, when doing pushing lifts with the upper body - like militaries for shoulders, bench for chest - it's very important to drive off the heels of your hands. You gotta control your wrists so they don't flex to a 90-degree angle, then the bar rotates and you're driving off the palms of your hands. I experimented with what he was saying . You don't let your wrists bend much, you try to keep the bar or bell centered over the heels of your hands, and something really strange happens: You can almost feel the weight being supported by a solid column of bone that runs from mid-arm right up through your hands. You really get a hugely satisfying "centered" feel about the bar, very different from the "mushy" feel you get sometimes when your wrists have flexed and the bar is being supported by your soft palms.
It takes some getting used to, and it's difficult to do with a Smith press (my standard for MPs and inclines) since you have to rotate the bar off its safety catch. It's also hard to maintain a straight wrist when you volume train like I do - you keep having to chant "Drive off the heels of your hands! Drive off the heels of your hands!" but it's worth it. I would estimate that you add somewhere between 5 and 10% to your power when you control your wrists very well and drive off the heels of your hands.
The really funny part of this is that I've known for a million years to drive off my heels when doing squats, but it took this pretty wimpy guy, this old friend of mine, to teach me the most important thing I've learned yet about upper body pushing lifts. Pretty funny.
Be well, brothers.
Bjaarki
... Then, do what you have to do.