The devil press joins a burpee and a two-arm dumbbell snatch. Learn it in five steps – with light dumbbells, hip drive and clear milestones.
The devil press is a burpee with your hands on two dumbbells, followed by a two-arm dumbbell snatch overhead. The honest answer: it is a conditioning hammer, but technically more demanding than it looks – two movements you can do separately make one that takes your breath away.
I found no studies on the devil press itself. The building blocks are documented. The burpee: in a study with 15 sport students, burpee acceleration correlated with r = 0.82 with bench press power and with r = 0.79 with squat power [1]. And in the 3-minute test with 48 burpees for men, peak heart rate was related to oxygen uptake (r = −0.51) [2]. The snatch: a set of 16 kg kettlebell snatches raised heart rate to about 98 percent of maximum in a study with 10 men [3] (TRANSFER, different load but a similar hip movement).
Realistically you learn the devil press in two to four weeks with several sessions (experience, not study data). Weight comes last.
Chest and thighs touch the floor, you jump to your feet. This is the base.
Milestone: 10 clean burpees.
Place the dumbbells shoulder-width apart and put your hands on the handles. As you come up you press on the dumbbells without them wobbling.
Milestone: 3×5, the dumbbells stay still.
Snatch one dumbbell overhead from standing: hips push, arm guides, lockout at the top. You know the principle from the swing and snatch: the hips do the work. With the kettlebell variant, snatch and two-handed swing produced similar mechanical output in a measurement with 22 men [4] (TRANSFER).
Milestone: 3×5 clean per side.
Join the parts: burpee, stand up, snatch the dumbbells from the floor overhead with hip drive, extend at the top, lower the dumbbells to the floor under control. The hips hinge first, the arms follow.
A mantra helps: floor, hips, sky. The dumbbells go from the floor with the hips upward, the sky is the lockout. Say it aloud during the first reps; it holds the order in your head when the lungs are already burning. Do not drop the dumbbells after the lockout, guide them in front of your feet. Back long, eyes forward (practice, not study data).
Milestone: 3×3 with light dumbbells.
Increase reps first, then weight. Plan rests.
Milestone: 3×8 with clean form.
The devil press combines two demanding movements. In a survey of 308 German CrossFit athletes, barbell snatch and clean were the main exercises associated with injuries (36.3 percent), and most injuries (55.3 percent) happened in the middle of the workout [5]. In a survey of 456 athletes, snatches, box jumps, deadlifts and pull-up variations were named as the most frequent exercises; as countermeasures the authors name skill progression, load management and appropriate scaling [6]. These are surveys, not a devil press experiment – but they show that fatigue in the middle of the workout is the critical moment.
Scale early to lighter dumbbells, keep the floor around you clear and stop if your back pulls. Do not practice right next to other athletes, so the dumbbells hit no one on a failed attempt. This guide explains and motivates but does not replace supervised training – have a coach check your technique.
Breathe out at the top and in when setting the dumbbells down. And plan your reps in blocks beforehand, for example 3–3–2: anyone who works through a workout with a plan makes fewer mistakes than someone who pushes until things wobble (practice experience, not study data).
A combination of a burpee with your hands on two dumbbells and a following two-arm dumbbell snatch overhead. At the end you stand upright with arms extended.
Start light. A fixed number cannot be derived from studies. Technique must sit before you increase weight.
It joins burpee and snatch, i.e. full-body work in one go. Burpees alone demand strength and endurance: in one study burpee performance was related to bench press and squat [1], and heart rate after 3 minutes of burpees to oxygen uptake [2].
Not in itself, but risk rises with fatigue and poor technique. In surveys, injuries often happen in the middle of the workout [5]. Scale early and keep the back long.
Prepare hips, shoulders and wrists: hip hinge with a light dumbbell, a few shoulder circles and slow burpees without weight. Then two or three devil presses with very light dumbbells. I found no study on warming up for this exercise specifically – it is practice, not study data.
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