Page 61 - Muscle & Fitness (December 2019)

E F A T S O F S T R E N G T H T R A I N
By Kevin Gray

IT’S A KEGGER

Instead of tapping into one, here’s how to press a keg
overhead for shoulder strength and raw power.

anielle Vaji played softball at the University of Illinois, so
she’s always been an athlete. But it takes a different kind of
athleticism to hoist a 170-pound keg over your head. Such

was one of the challenges at the Strongest Woman in the
D World competition in August, which Vaji handily won in
the middleweight division. So she’s exactly the person you go to
for pointers on the keg press.
“I struggled at first because it seems similar to a log clean and
press, but the keg requires a different technique,” says Vaji,
who is a police officer in Dallas. She notes that having a strong
overhead press helps, but that the secret behind the keg press
is to be explosive through the hips. “It’s a dynamic movement
that requires a lot of explosive power versus just raw strength.”

PRO TIP 45-pound plates on your lap
“The key to getting it from and working on the explosive
your lap to overhead is how hip motion as you raise them
hard you can pull it into your overhead. “If you can’t get the
body,” Vaji says. “This takes hip explosion right, you can’t
a lot of strength as you move press it overhead,” she says.
it. Then you’ve really got to Otherwise, Vaji recommends
throw your hips out and up. If regular overhead presses as
you can keep the momentum well as big movements like
going and press the keg up in the back squat and deadlift
one motion, that’s easier than to build overall strength.
letting it sit on your chest.” From there, try power cleans,
as the explosive movement
NO KEG AT YOUR GYM? translates well to kegs. “The

Instead of raiding your local keg is an awkward implement
beer garden, try using a log at no matter what,” she says,
the gym. This doesn’t simulate “but presses and cleans are
the move exactly, but it does a good start to developing
require a similar motion. No the strength and movement
log? Vaji suggests holding required for the lift.”

H O W T O

PRESS A KEG

TILT THE KEG sideways, GRAB IT WITH a mixed to roll it up onto your chest,
1 squat, and pick it up. 3 grip, with one hand on the then explode through your
edge closest to your body and hips and quickly press it up
BRING THE KEG INTO the other hand grabbing the overhead in one swift motion.
2 your lap; your chest will edge farthest away. Alternatively, you can clean
already be fairly close to the the keg up to your chest, hold

floor, even with your arms PULL THE KEG close to it there for a beat, then drive
extended. 4 your body as you begin through your legs to press it.

Photograph by Brandon Ramos D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 / M U S C L E & F I T N E S S 5 9