10 photos with detailed commentary by one of the last masters of bent press, legendary Siegmund Klein,from his excellent booklet How to Bent Press (1938)!
Observe carefully in photographs No. 2 to 8 the quite perfect straight line of the position of the dumbbell in the course of the action. It moves neither up or down, an example of technique that is very perfect. The beautiful weight used in these photos is the author’s very spectacular silver dumbbell, given him by the famous G. W. Rolandow. It weighs 137 pounds. Its beauty [is] lending tone to exhibition work.
Louis Garbarini demonstrates bent press form. The charted background was not painted in, but was built with six-inch squares and the lift photographed in front of it. It shows that the weight remains at the same level, the body bending down under it until the end. Read the text description and then study these pictures.
No. 1 showed picking up the bell, and No. 2 pushing it back in position, elbow on hip.
No. 3. and No. 4. show start of the bend; left knee starts bending.
In No. 5. the left arm slides down inside left knee, and the right knee is bending, with the arm three-quarters straight.
In No. 6 and 7 the bend increases, the lifter squats deeper, the left shoulder goes down inside the left knee, the left arm reaches across for support on the right thigh, and also the right arm straightens under the weight.
In No. 8 he is starting to go up; in No 9. he stands up and in No 10 he brings his feet together.
The squares show the position and the sideways movement of the weight. In No. 2 the hand is in the seventh square form the right; in No. 4 in the sixth; in No. 6 and No 7 in the fourth, with arm and weight in a perfect line above the left foot. Please note this line very carefully.
- Siegmund Klein, How to Bent Press, 1938.
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Outstanding! The photos are excellent, especially being copied from a booklet from 1938! They are better than those today especially from self- published and shorter run published works. I had to use the lifters right foot position (our left) as a mean of tracking the left to right movement of the bell since o couldn’t really tell how far beyond the frame the grid might run. The left foot does not appear to move and gives, I think, an accurate gauge of movement. Counting from the bottom allowed me to track the lack of up or down movement in the early stages and positions of the lift. Excellent version of the off-hand cross over technique! Not just strong but with very good mobility.
Will, thank you for your comment. It’s great to meet a fellow Bent Press fan!