I hit a brick wall.
No, not an actual wall. But a wall we’ve all hit before. When your mind is willing (begging?) your body to complete a lift, but your body just won’t listen.
That’s precisely what it felt like when I failed the tame The Beast at my SFG certification in August 2016. The press was my Achilles heel, and one of the biggest lessons I learned from that challenge is that it’s not enough to be able to press the 48k when conditions are perfect. Pressing The Beast is a baseline test of strength.
“In order to press a lot, you must press a lot.”
Rather than reinvent the wheel, I decided to stand on the shoulders of giants. Specifically, Tim Almond’s shoulders as I completed his program upon returning to training. The program took me from pressing double 28k bells to double 40k bells. It improved my cleans, but also my ability to wedge underneath a press.
After four months,
After failing to tame the Beast at my SFG certification in August 2016, I knew my pressing had to
It builds on the Soju and Tuba program in both volume and intensity. Like that program, this one is a step cycle program, which slowly builds the number of reps and sets throughout the program. The program isn’t exciting, but I wouldn’t call it boring either – unless you think progress is boring.
Alex Tankskey is the founder of The Movement Lab. A former marketer and Facebook surfer, Alex changed careers when he experienced how strength can transform your life. He's now a Strength Coach under the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), StrongFirst (SFG1), Functional Movement Systems (FMS), and a certified Precision Nutrition Coach (Pn1).