There is a neurological phenomenon that puts fear into the hearts of firearms instructors: the interlimb reaction. It makes the hands communicate with each other: grip a doorknob with your left hand and your right fingers will flex as well—causing an accidental discharge if you were careless enough to keep your finger on the trigger.

The same phenomenon can make your press stronger. Rack your clean, keeping your body tight and slightly gripping the bell. Pause momentarily to make the lift legal and initiate the press by making a hard fist with your free hand.

Two subtleties. First, do not crush grip the handle the moment you rack your clean. Gray Cook stresses that it is the act of reengaging the grip—as opposed to gripping all the time—that gives your press a “turbo boost.” Soviet weightlifters successfully used this technique in the Olympic press, and so do some powerlifters in the bench press: they open their hands with the bar on the chest, then explosively crush it.

Second, make sure that you grip with your free hand an instant before gripping the bell or doing anything else. Timing is of the essence. Use the free hand crush as a trigger to ripple a wave of tension through your body into the pressing hand.

On the negative, do not forget to open your free hand so you can squeeze it shut again to fire off another rep, if you are doing reps.

Power to your press!

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