I really like clean variations, man. Especially hang cleans. But that’s another story, just wanted to put that out there.
More than cleans, I do a lot of BJJ and boxing, and it seems like my wrists and/or hands are banged up more often than not. Any suggestions?
My ideas were to either take some time away from cleans to work on strength and mobility in my hands or to find some substitute and stop doing cleans (if I have to choose boxing/BJJ or cleans, I’m gonna choose boxing/BJJ).
What do you guys think? Any way around it? I figure you guys will be biased towards cleans so if anybody will know how to make it work, it’ll be you. Thanks.
Are you catching your cleans with your elbows high? This takes a good deal of flexibility in the wrist, tricep, etc., but it also removes a great deal of the stress that would otherwise be put on the wrists by allowing the bar to be caught on the “shoulder shelf.”
-If you are not catching the bar on the shoulders with elbows high, but are capable of achieving this position, then drop some weight and force yourself to do so until it becomes habitual.
-If you are already receiving your cleans in the proper position and your wrists still hurt, well they should adapt to the stress from the cleans eventually (snatches stress the wrists much more than cleans, imo). As for the stress placed on them by BJJ/boxing, well, I can’t vouch for that as I have no experience.
Normally cleans are fine, but a lot of times I have left over stiffness and soreness from boxing. Maybe the easiest “fix” would be to clean when I can and leave them off on days that I can’t, but I think in the long run doing a little more flexibility and technique work is my best bet.
Sure, most people would do well to add more mobility/flexibility work into their daily lives, but the great thing about the Olifts is that once you have obtained the requisite mobility/flexibility, simply performing the lifts is enough to maintain it or even increase it further. You just need to get to a point where you have enough mobility to perform the lifts safely and with good technique, and then you’ll find that as time passes and you keep doing the lifts your body will gradually work itself into better and better receiving positions.
That said, if it’s, as you say, the fighting stuff that’s at the brunt of your wrist woes, you know more about that than I do, obviously lol. Though, as long as you are catching the bar with elbows high and the majority of the load on your shoulders, your wrists should be fine, I would think, even if they are sore from boxing. Cleaning shouldn’t add to the pain, not once the wrists have adapted. Hell if anything the stretch might actually do you some good lol. Snatching, however, would be a different story.
[quote]ape288 wrote:
Cleaning shouldn’t add to the pain, not once the wrists have adapted. Hell if anything the stretch might actually do you some good lol. [/quote]
That’s kind of what I’m thinking too. I can’t think of any way that being stronger and more flexible can’t help, you know?
I’ve got a fight this weekend, after that I can ease up on training intensity and work on some technique/flexibility stuff for a little while. In the long run it can only make me better.