So today I started a program by Dan John in which there’s the dumbbell clean and press.
I’ve never done any cleaning, so the movement was quite new to me. Here’s the video
I did feel it in my shoulders during the press as well as quite a bit of soreness in the traps during the shrugging in the clean portion. However, the movement felt somewhat sketchy initially.
How’s my form?
Wouldn’t worry too much about it to be honest. Most people I’ve seen clean and dumbbell press just do it. Whichever cleat you can get it up. It’s not like a Barbell where there’s a specific technique to it. Sure you could learn how to correctly clean a Barbell, which would obviously help with the dB version, but still. The only thing you may run into is once the weight gets super heavy, it’ll be harder for you because you aren’t catching the dumbbells on your shoulders. That’s the only thing I really see.
EDIT: Also, don’t be afraid to jump with it. Again, just get the weights up. If you can clean and strict press 100 pounds for ten, you’ll be big no matter how you clean them.
I’m going to respectfully disagree with Beano, and say you should do them seated. It’ll be way more traps/upper back that way.
I don’t understand this movement but that looks more like a cheated Hammer Curl and press than anything resembling a clean… but maybe that’s the idea.
Big Joe recommends them for shoulder health.
Clean and Press: Two dumbbells, one in each hand. Stand tall. Using a bit of a hip hinge, clean the bells to the shoulder. From the shoulders, overhead press both to lockout. Return the bells to the starting position and reclean the weight. Press and continue. Each clean and press is one repetition, so a set of ten is ten cleans and presses total
This is the description of this exercise in the program’s article:
As I said, I’m not sure I interpreted the description correctly, so am I doing anything wrong?
Nope.
As a main movement? He’d never be able to use anything heavy enough. I agree with you about trap/back evolvement, but as a higher rep accessory. Not necessarilly a 3-8 RM movement
Yeah I’m with you on that; it’s not an exercise I’d ever be trying to really load up on.
I wouldn’t want to use the exercise as a main movement, personally. Imagine trying to do a 5RM on dumbbell clean and press? That’d just be weird.
Well that’s what the program calls for.
Depending on the day, 3-5 sets of 5
That program wouldn’t be for me.
Keep your elbows tighter in until the weights are at the shoulder, instead of moving them into “pressing position” as they’re still rising.
A dumbbell clean basically is a “power hammer curl”. It’s just the way the weight has to move because you can’t really keep your hands pronated like with a barbell. So at the top of the clean, you basically have the thumbs on your front delt. Then for the press, work it almost like an Arnold press - up and out.
Also, you could bring them a bit lower towards your knees (not back behind them) and get more glute drive at the start of the movement instead of just swinging them up.
FWIW, a bunch of years ago I was working on them from the floor, not the hang. Same basic idea though:
I’ve went down to 2 before. Makes you really fucking hate life. Realistically though, I never REALLY go to rep maxes below 8. I’ll always leave one in the tank below 8. Everything above 8, however, is balls out.
You sick puppy. I wonder what a missed max effort on the dumbbell clean and press looks like? Far too much potential for balls/toe/knees crushing for my taste.
There’s something to be said about the fact that Dan John does not recommend going to failure on that movement, in the program.
He says to always leave a rep or two in the tank and keep the rest periods short. That’s probably quite different than doing a 5RM.
And yes, I too wonder how a missed rep of db clean and press would look like but if anything, I believe it’d be more likely to fail the lockout than to clean the bell altogether. At least that’s the part that felt harder to me yesterday, but I’m still a total beginner to that movement.
Anyway, John is way smarter than me of course and has probably a rationale for having put the movement into the program, so I won’t sub it, although initially the thought of just doing standing presses had crossed my mind.
Ultimately, as has already been said here, I believe that regardless of if I do the “traditional” press or the clean and press, if I get stronger in the movement, I’ll grow (and the clean looks cool to me, so it’s a win-win).
Looks better?
Much.