Seven Ways to Train for a Stronger Press – Part Six: Crawling for Time

Posted on October 14, 2014 By Artemis Scantalides

I’m a little behind wrapping up this press series and that’s because Eric and I have been working overtime to rollout Iron Body Studios’ interactive online training platform through WeightTraining.com. We finally launched the platform a few weekends ago on October 4, 2014 and we are REALLY excited about it! The platform is perfect for people who want the flexibility of training on their own time but also want the guidance of a coach to write their program and provide feedback. The online training platform is appropriate for all levels, even if you have never learned the kettlebell swing or the Turkish get-up before, we will teach you via the online training platform.

You can learn more about and sign up for our interactive online training platform HERE.

There is also still time to register for my strength workshop I Am Not Afraid to Lift on November 8 at Iron Body Studios! Details and registration link at the end of this post… Hope to see you there!

NOW onto the sixth installment of this seven part press series!!

This is the sixth installment of a seven part series about how to train for a stronger press. In this installment I will talk about how incorporating crawling for time into your training program, can help you to improve your upper body press strength.

If you missed the first five installments you can read them here:

As I mentioned in my post “How I Completed The Iron Maiden Challenge As a Lightweight” I wrote myself a specific training program to build strength for a half body weight military press in order to press 24kg (53lbs) successfully. Part of this program included leopard crawling for time two times per week.

Why Crawling?

Crawling helps to build upper body strength, in particular shoulder and triceps strength, that will translate to both the press and the pull-up. In addition, crawling is considered an Original Strength (OS) reset so it helps to enforce the necessary cross pattern (opposite arm and leg) that we need and use when crawling, walking, and running. Therefore it preps your Central Nervous System for exercise in order to limit the risk of injury. Eric and I refer to crawling and other OS Resets as “Neural-Prep”. You can learn more about crawling from the instructional videos on the the Original Strength website HERE.

How Did I Program Crawling?

I programmed in leopard crawling for time two times per week. On the days that I crawled, I would start my sessions with crawling. The first week I started with 5 minutes of continuous crawling and I built up to 10 minutes of continuous crawling by adding on one minute each week. I would primarily leopard crawl and use baby crawling as active recovery if I needed a break from leopard crawling during the timed crawl.

Below is a video that I filmed for the New York City, I Am Not Afraid To Lift Workshop participants, as part of a series of follow-up guidance that I sent out after the workshop. This video will give you some guidance on how I structured my crawling sessions…

In the next and final installment of this seven part series about how to train for a stronger press, I will talk about Get-ups, Cleans, and Racked Carries. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions about Crawling for time!

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If you would like to learn more detail as to how I structure programming specific to pressing or to train for a half bodyweight press then I hope you’ll join me for my workshop I Am Not Afraid To Lift on November 8, 2014 at Iron Body Studios in Needham, MA.

If you have a current strength goal that you are working towards, or need help deciding on one, this workshop will help you to decide on a strength goal and learn programming to work towards that strength goal.

I look forward to lifting with you on November 8!

~Artemis