The Bent Press

c. 1880 – 1930 · One-arm overhead lift

The bent press is a one-arm overhead lift: the lifter brings a heavy barbell, dumbbell or kettlebell to one shoulder, then bends sideways and down away from it — keeping the forearm vertical — until the arm is locked straight, and finally stands up with the weight overhead. It was the headline lift of the music-hall strongmen. It was never an Olympic event.

At a glance

• What it is: a one-arm lift from shoulder to overhead in which the body is lowered under the weight rather than the weight being pressed up.
• World record: Arthur Saxon, 168 kg (about 370–371 lb) — the generally accepted record, never officially bettered. Saxon is also credited with an informal 175 kg (about 386 lb) in training.
• Olympic status: none. The one-hand lifts on the Olympic programme (1896, 1920, 1924) were snatches and clean and jerks, not the bent press.
• Today: practised as a training lift, especially with kettlebells, and in some all-round and old-time lifting circles.

Description

The lifter takes the bell to one shoulder by any means — a one- or two-hand clean, or by rocking one end of a barbell onto the shoulder. With the leg on the loaded side straight beneath the weight and the elbow resting against the side, the lifter bends away from the bell, keeping the forearm upright. The arm does not so much press the bell up as hold its position while the body moves down and away beneath it. When the arm is fully extended, the lifter twists slightly under the weight into a half or full squat and then stands erect with the arm locked overhead.

The bent press relies on leverage and balance rather than pressing strength, and a skilled bent presser can raise considerably more with one arm than in any strict one-arm press. It demands a great deal of shoulder and thoracic mobility; without it the lift risks injury to the shoulder and back.

Origins

The lift belongs to the variety-theatre strongmen of the late nineteenth century. Professor Attila (Louis Durlacher) is usually credited with popularising it and with teaching it to Eugen Sandow, through whom it reached British and American audiences. Whether Attila invented the lift or refined an existing one is not settled.

Rules in competition

The bent press was a professional show lift and, later, an event in British amateur and all-round lifting, where the bell could be brought to the shoulder by any method and the lift was complete when the lifter stood erect with the arm locked and the weight under control. It was never part of the Olympic programme or of the international federation's championship lifts; it faded as the Olympic two-hands lifts came to dominate competition from the late 1920s.

Notable figures

Reported best lifts, which come mostly from the lifters' own books and the strength press rather than from refereed contests:

• Arthur Saxon — 168 kg (about 370 lb), the accepted record; an informal 175 kg in training. Saxon recorded his best lifts in The Development of Physical Power (1905) and The Text Book of Weight-Lifting (1910). Where and when the 168 kg lift was made is not firmly established.
• Thomas Inch — 304½ lb (about 138 kg).
• Louis Cyr — about 273 lb (124 kg) overhead with one arm, reported from London in 1892 and said to have beaten Sandow's figure by 2 lb.

No one has credibly approached Saxon's figure since. Later bent pressers with famous bells — Cyr's own 202 lb dumbbell was bent-pressed by a Quebec police chief, Joseph Moquin — remained well below it.

Disputed and unresolved

Some older sources give Saxon figures in the 380s or higher, up to a reported 409½ lb. The low 380s reflect his informal 175 kg training lift; anything above that is not supported. The 168 kg figure is the benchmark.

The boundary between the bent press and the stricter side press was never sharply drawn, and some reported presses of the period may belong to either.