When doing push presses, how much leg drive should you use? I mean, should i smack on real heavy weight and use as much leg drive as i can? Or should i do moderate weight and only do more of a moderate leg drive?
When using moderate leg drive, isent it kind of hard to track progress? The question would be, am i getting stronger or am i only increasing the ammount of leg drive i put into it?
Different approaches for different goals perhaps? Strenght and power i suppose are my goals, i want to get better at push pressing heavy weight..
Will more leg drive make it less shoulders?
Use as much leg drive as you can. You won't be able to use that heavy a weight, trust me. Lower slow and under control, don't let the bar "fall" to you. And... no that's all I have.
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And major action will certainly make you feel a bit uncomfortable, which is absolutely fine. You've gotta get excited about feeling uncomfortable, you've gotta love feeling slightly uncomfortable, because you know that you're stepping outside the boundaries that you used to create.
Zach Even-Esh
I've made some huge mistakes, but they were necessary, because without them I wouldn't have learned anything.
-Dave Tate
In a push press the purpose of the leg drive is to create stored elastic energy. Rapid bending of the hips, knees, and ankles eccentrically loads the muscles and a quick change of direction drives the bar past the normal overhead press sticking point with the force of that released elastic energy.
A push press is taught with a dip of about two to four inches, driving from the heels and exploding onto the toes. It is a quick dip to drive with the legs, also pushing with the arms and shoulders at the same time as fast as you can.
Think of it as a cheat version of an overhead press. The goal is to try and drive the bar above your normal overhead press sticking point, which is usually just above the top of your head (each person's sticking point will vary slightly). Driving the bar up with a knee dip above that overhead press sticking point is a safer method of overhead pressing. You generally will not see people lean back and hyperextend the spine as much as they do with a standard overhead press.
The push jerk, on the other hand, uses more leg drive. In the push jerk the legs produce enough force to propel the barbell to the complete overhead position. In the push press the legs produce enough force to propel the barbell to a position slightly higher than the top of the head. Then you press the barbell to the complete overhead position.
It depends on what you want to train. If you want to keep the shoulders more involved (more hypertrophy with power), then push press with controlled negatives. If you want to train power, then push jerk and don't worry about the negative.
Push press, amount of leg drive
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