Double Kettlebell Push Press
Also works: Calves · Quadriceps · Triceps
From a double kettlebell rack, a short knee dip drives both bells past the hardest part of the press and the shoulders finish the rep to lockout. It lets you handle more than a strict double press while keeping the receiving position simple — you never re-bend the knees to get under the weight.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Clean both bells to the rack: hips drive, elbows tuck to the ribs, bells settle onto the forearms with the palms facing each other.
- Elbows in tight against the ribcage, wrists straight, bells resting on the arms rather than held up by them.
- Feet hip-width or slightly wider, weight spread across the whole foot.
- Squeeze the glutes and brace the abs — the rack position invites an arched lower back and this is where you stop it.
- Take a breath in the rack before every rep, not just the first.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Breathe in and brace in the rack, exhale sharply as you drive, and reset the breath before the next rep rather than breathing through the set. Dip and drive fast, lockout deliberate, return to the rack controlled and absorbed with the knees.
Before you load it
- Keep the space in front of you clear. A failed rep gets pushed forward and away while you step back — never try to salvage one overhead.
- Stop when the rack collapses or the elbows start flaring away from the ribs. Bells landing on a dropped elbow is the realistic injury here.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Expect to handle roughly 20-30% more than your strict double press. Two 12 kg bells is a fair start for most men, 2x8 kg for most women, once the double clean is comfortable. Double 24 kg for sets of 5 is a solid intermediate marker. Because kettlebell increments are large, add reps and sets at a pair before moving up a size.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Keep the dip to a hand's width — 10-15 cm. Deeper is slower, and speed of reversal, not depth, is what drives the bells. Have someone watch or film one set from the side.
Squeeze the glutes hard and keep the ribs pulled down. If the bells still will not go up without an arch, the pair is too heavy for a push press and you are compensating with your spine.
Think of the dip and the drive as one bounce. Count it as a single beat, not two. A pause dumps the elastic energy you dipped to create.
Push your head slightly forward through the window once the bells clear it, so the lockout ends over the ears. Bells held in front of the body are a shoulder holding a load your skeleton could be carrying.
Commit to the leg drive on every rep, including the first. Half-hearted dips give you the fatigue of a push press with the load of a strict press — the worst of both.
Why bother
The sticking point of an overhead press sits in the first few centimetres, around eye level, where the shoulder has the worst leverage. A 10-15 cm dip and drive carries the bells straight through it, so the delts and triceps work in the top half of the range with a load the strict press could never reach.
Two bells instead of one changes the trunk demand entirely. The rack sits on both forearms and squeezes the ribcage, so you cannot lean away to one side to help, and you have to brace hard just to breathe. That symmetrical loading is the reason to pick this over an alternating press.
Where it fits
A main overhead movement on a pressing day, 4-5 sets of 5-8, or a heavier follow-on after strict pressing. Once or twice a week. It is a sound stepping stone to the jerk: get the vertical dip clean here first, because the jerk adds a second dip on top of it.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Start here instead
When this gets easy
Asked and answered
Is the push press cheating on the strict press?
No, it is a different lift with a different purpose. The leg drive is the point: it lets you overload the top half of the press and train the lockout with weight your shoulders could not start on their own. Just do not log it as a strict press or use it to convince yourself your press is stronger than it is.
How deep should the dip be?
About 10-15 cm — roughly the height of your hand. Enough to load the legs and create a bounce, shallow enough to reverse fast. If you can see your knees travelling well forward or your heels lifting, you have gone too deep and lost the speed that makes the dip useful.
Kettlebells or dumbbells for this?
Kettlebells are better for the rack. The bell sits on the forearm and hangs behind the wrist, so the load is closer to your centre of mass and your hands are free of grip work between reps. Dumbbells sit in front of the wrist and have to be held actively, which fatigues the grip and pulls you forward on heavier sets.
Why can I barely breathe in the rack position?
Because two bells resting on your ribcage genuinely restricts the chest. That is normal and it is part of the training effect. Breathe into the belly rather than the chest, take the breath between reps rather than during them, and keep sets short until the position stops feeling like a wrestling match.