What’s a strong press?

professor

New member
Im a strength coach as well as a dietitian BUT totally new to kettlebells
To set myself a goal I’d like to have some input from the experienced kettlebell peeps here

What’s a decently strong (not elite) strict press for a 80Kg male ?

Currently I’m pressing my 16Kg bell for about 8-10 clean controlled reps and my 24Kg for around 2-3 clean reps (can do more but I only count clean and controlled to not let my ego get ahead of myself😅)
 
@professor Vorotyntsevs 2002 kettlebell training manual lists "approximate indicators of strength and endurance that should be strived for in the process of general physical training for those specialized in kettlebell lifting."
For an 80kg athlete: 100kg bench, 130kg deadlift, 130kg squat, 12-15 reps overhead press with a 32kg kettlebell. Note that this would be goals for an elite college-age athlete.
 
@cavitill Holy shit man, the before mentioned numbers aren’t even to far off but the 32s overhead for 12-15 reps are currently definitely way out of scope for me, nice goal to have for sure
 
@cavitill Dear lord, those press numbers come out of nowhere and are very incongruent with the rest of them. At 80 kg, I could hit all of the other lifts and then some, but the overhead press? Not even close.
 
@birdbrain27 Huh, I am nowhere close to any of those numbers but I can press 32kg for 1/1 on a good day - I feel like getting to 6/6 Is a more realistic goal for me than ever squatting 285 in my lifetime
 
@cavitill Interesting. Well, I probably had some leftover strength in my legs from high school football. Also, I might just be bad at pressing, relative to other lifts.

No 285 in your lifetime? Do you barbell squat regularly, or exclusively kbs? I mean, there’s probably no reason to need a 285 lb barbell back squat, but if you can press the 32kg, it seems you have the strength potential, sans any anatomical limitations, to squat that much.
 
@cavitill To me it appears unbalanced: a 130 kg deadlift is much "easier" than a 100 kg bench press, or am I missing something? If you can bench 100 but deadlift 130, you skipped a lot of leg days.
 
@cristina49 Fwiw those numbers are considered outdated/irrelevant in the modern kb sport world, I just thought it was an interesting metric for "strong for a kettlebell specialist." Some contemporary coaches even consider bench press to be counterproductive, and there have been world records set by athletes who could never press 32kg for 1 rep
 
@soldierofgod1988 Agreed. For the short time that I weighed 80kg, I could bench about 110kg, squat about 135kg, and DL about 150 kg and I did, in fact, skip leg day. To be honest, I was mostly doing weighted calisthenics and almost no free weights at all.
 
@professor I would say in the kettlebell world, pressing a 32kg or above is definitely considered 'strong'.

But realistically speaking, pressing 20kg+ means you have at least a decent level of strength.
 
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