Okay Now Tense Even Harder

You know how Pavel says that when we tense "as hard as we can," and are then told to tense even harder...and we do... so that obviously, the "as hard as you can," wasn't really?

Principle in action last night, practicing 20kg presses.
(Which, by the way, have gotten much weaker! Lack of practice.)

Anyway, the point of the blog post is this: I am FULLY aware of the importance of tightening your whole body to perform heavy presses. Feet, heels, knees, legs, glutes, abs, lats, fist/grip... right. I always say that you should be feeling the work in your legs from doing heavy presses, and it's true... but EVEN SO, I realized at points last night that when I clean and establish that full-body tension for a press, it is OFTEN (if not always) still a few steps below that maximum tension. When I pause for a moment, and find more places to squeeze even harder... it works. The press is stronger.

One place specifically - pulling up my kneecaps.
You hear Pavel point this one out frequently. It was major for me last night. Squeezing squeezing, and then, oh, kneecaps - and BAM! THAT's the tension I was looking for.

It takes practice. And awareness. ALL the time.
Good study last night.

BTW, Deadlift (for record keeping) was 175# for 2 sets of 5, then dropped down to 170# for the 3rd set of 5. The 175# got REAL heavy on those last reps. Dropping down was a good move.