I tried this today but couldn’t figure out how to wrap the straps to allow enough room?
Anyone have experience with this.
Thanks guys. Thank you for your previous advice.
Unless you want to risk some serious wrist/shoulder/elbow injuries, I’d stay away from using straps on cleans. Chalk it up.
i don’t do olympic lifts, but i think i may have a solution for you. don’t use straps. like i said, i don’t do olympic lifts, but can visualize how awkward it would be to use straps. how bout get the sand out of your vagina and increase your grip strength and wipe you ass with your straps.
you never heard of any olde tyme strong men going on message boards complaining that didn’t know how to use straps for their 500 pound turkish get-ups. pretend your strong and don’t need straps.
It’s simple: don’t!
Do not. Anytime you are racking the bar, do not use straps. You can use straps for things like clean pulls and stuff of that nature, though (and should, unless you have a grip problem).
i have to agree with everyone. you could use them but you’d have to catch the bar with ur elbows under the bar and place most of the weight on ur wrist and very little on ur shoulders(i actually became quite good at these in high school before i had a coach that knew what he was doing) so unless u want to get an injury i’d say away from straps for clns
hook grip.
OK . The bar is quite slick in the gym . I have some liquid chalk now , so I’ll try it.
I have seen a video of Ivan Ivanov ( doing something like 190kg with straps).
Obviously he knows how to time it properly. I’ll stay clear of straps.
I am struggling big time with the hook grip. I have done a deadlift with 180kg a few years ago with a hook grip. I can barely do 160kg and I am losing it at the top. There is no way I could pull it.
Even with 90/100kg I end up arm pulling and killing the pull. With straps I don’t arm pull.
I can do high pulls with 140kg with straps.
Get some fat grips fatgripz.com
Finish every odd day with 3 sets of fat grip chin ups. If you can do 2 sets of 15 and a set of 12 you wont have any issues with grip.
-chris
Echoing the rest of the posts that you should just get a stronger grip…BUT, if you still feel inclined to use straps (and they do have their place) get these:
or these
They set up in a way that loosen quite easily when the lift calls for it, and I have used the second pair for cleans with no problems
Use natures straps aka the hook grip.
Failing that just buy a pair of those oly lifting straps from ironmind
Don’t that could get ugly quick but if you do please video in the event it does get ugly so others can learn from your experience.
I have tried it with normal straps with 70kg and it felt bad. I think 100kg would be enough for a bad wrist strain. I do find it very frustrating though because I can lift big for me weights 140kg and more recently 160k close to my sternum but cannot complete the clean.
If I could get the catch , there is no way I could jerk it anyway.
I am not an olympic lifter but I really starting to enjoy high pulls.
I took some of the advice here and dropped the weight, so I mostly only do weights I can pull to chest /sternum or thereabout. I was clean pulling heavy weights to belly button previously and I was burning out quickly.
It seems that you have to be able clean deadlift the weight fairly effortlessly to be able to throw it.
I do really appreciate all the input here even if I haven’t taken everything on board yet.
I am still sort caught between the catapult and lifting up on your toes style. I do a bit of both.
if u can get the weight up to ur chest the problem isn’t the grip its a problem with technique or lack of determination in pulling under the bar.
For Olympic weightlifting get straps like the yellow ones in the picture… see Proud_Virgin’s post for a link
Unlike regular straps these are shorter, so you can hook grip the bar, and if you miss the lift they undo themselves easily. The regular straps are too long, they take forever to set up to grip the bar, they make the bar too thick to hook grip it properly, and they take a bit longer to come off the bar.
Still… I have used both when doing pulls, cleans and snatches.
IF you have problems hurting your wrist with straps when cleaning. Then the problem is NOT the straps, the problem is that you don’t know how to miss a clean.
p.s… a deadlift is NOT a clean. A deadlift s a good lift to do, and yes it will get you strong, BUT DO NOT use it as a measure for how much you should clean, or clean pull.
For right now all you need to worry about is getting those thumbs used to the oly lifts by…(drum roll)… doing the Olylifts with a hook grip. Strap up for the pulls if you want (I strap for pulls above 110% my max full lift).
[quote]decimation wrote:
I have tried it with normal straps with 70kg and it felt bad. I think 100kg would be enough for a bad wrist strain. I do find it very frustrating though because I can lift big for me weights 140kg and more recently 160k close to my sternum but cannot complete the clean.
If I could get the catch , there is no way I could jerk it anyway.
I am not an olympic lifter but I really starting to enjoy high pulls.
I took some of the advice here and dropped the weight, so I mostly only do weights I can pull to chest /sternum or thereabout. I was clean pulling heavy weights to belly button previously and I was burning out quickly.
It seems that you have to be able clean deadlift the weight fairly effortlessly to be able to throw it.
I do really appreciate all the input here even if I haven’t taken everything on board yet.
I am still sort caught between the catapult and lifting up on your toes style. I do a bit of both.[/quote]
A Clean pull/ Deadlift is not comparble to an actual Clean or DeadLift.
Post a video.
If your pulling with your arms you CAN NOT RACK THE BAR AS THEY ARE LOADED. The bar should be coming up because of the 2nd pull and your arms are only used to shrug when straight and then the bar has all the momentum it’ll get. Then you rack the bar by driving your elbows forwards.
How much weight can you Clean?
From the sounds of thing it isn’t the hook grip thats limiting you, but technique.
Koing
Thanks guys! Which are the best angles for the camera? I may have to take a camera to the commercial gym . It’s a DW Fitness. The bar spins nicely at the gym but the knurling is very slick.
I have a bar at home but it doesn’t spin very well , the knurling is nice on my bar as I put it between two motors and used sandpaper. It’s a lot easier to grip than the bars in the gym.
I can’t drop the plates, as they rubber ones and would break.
When I make the pull, it feels as if the bar is weightless. I think I initiate the pull with the shrug and then let my arms float up. I could be wrong. I lift from the floor for the first rep and then catch it on my thighs and perform the next reps from hang. My hamstrings do feel loaded and I got fairly sore the first 4 or 5 weeks.
I can’t really clean the most I have awkwardly done is 90kg at my chest.
I’ll try and show a clip without using straps too. I struggle to get any height without straps…
I just about pulled 190kg to my belt level but that was from a squat rack set in the power position. I can get height to belt with 180kg fairly consistently now.
I’ll see if I can do it today- I trained yesterday up to 160kg . I could probably do reps up 120-140kgs. I don’t feel sore now, but it is hard to tell how the training session will go.
You initiate the pull with your legs in the first pull, 2nd pull your hips drive UP and FORWARDS to ‘meet’ the bar, whilst this is happening your driving up on to your toes, arms are kept straight, your shrugging now, then thats it, you pull yourself the f0ck under it and whip your elbows forwards all this whilst keeping the bar close so you don’t just BASH IT OUT FORWARDS.
Do them from the floor. Get a video from 45* so we can see whats up. Why are you doing them from the hang? Do them from the floor unless you have something very specific in mind.
Hamstrings shouldn’t feel that sore, but we are at different stages of development. When I started my hams never felt sore but I was a complete beginner and hadn’t really trained.
Get a video so we can assess and see whats up. Getting up 90kg to your chest awkwardsly does not mean you can Clean 160!
Lifting with and without straps shouldn’t affect the bar height unless the bar is completely dawg sh!t.
You will need the bar to be much higher then the belt to get anywhere near 180kg mate. At least belly button and your technique will need to be f0cking IMMENSE to get it mate at belly button at limit weights mate.
Koing
A side shot