How to Use Cleans in a Workout?

[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Muppet wrote:
The clean is a high-cns exercise. As such, it does not like being one of the last exercises you do. I do mine either 1st or 2nd in the workout.

Also, I almost never do more then 3reps per set of any olympic exercise, I’d rather add more sets.

This statement is rubbish! Why?! If one’s goal were to gain more strength in the clean I could see ONLYusing sets of 3; however, nothing was mentioned about his overall goals. Also, he stated he just started doing them so maybe he could benefit from doing more reps. Not to mention it never hurts to attempt the more technically difficult lifts later in the workout this is one way to effectively challenge the body…there is no rule on when to do them. It is these simplistic generalizations that people listen to that keeps them from progressing.

To the gentleman who originally posted the question:

There are many ways to incorporate the clean into your workout. I use the clean 2 - 3 times per week because it is such a great overall body exercise. I like to do max effort one day with progressively heavier weights up to a max triple; or I like to do high reps with low weight for a good cardio workout, for example, 6 X 6 with about 60 - 90 secs of rest between sets.

For the ultimate workout I incorporate them into a complex where I do the following exercises: clean, overhead press, bentover row, front squat; I’ll usually do about 4 - 5 reps of each exercise before moving to the next exercise with no rest until I finish the circuit. I then rest for about 90 - 120 sec and continue with the next set. I usually don’t do an X number of sets but rather just go for 15 - 20 min. This allows me to check my progress by the number of total reps I do for the given amount of time, i.e., density training.

No matter how you incorporate this lift it is guaranteed to work wonders on overall body strength![/quote]

I totally agree. I have done cleans for decades and have mostly done sets of 8.
Killer for cardio and overall bodystrength.
Your shoulders grow like a weed and your width increases.
I wouldnt limit myself to sets of 3 in any of the core excersises as i don’t for cleans either unless I’m doing power specific training.
Yea i know they are hard but that’s the whole point isn’t it?

wow fuck you guys, i got to start front squatting again sheesh

You can do higher sets of cleans if you want but it won’t help your clean go up necessarily but you will get more built

for instance i “feel” it more when I do rack pulls for 8-12reps, than 3-4.

But I’d prefer to get stronger, I’ll get bigger to but just a lil slower.

A few issues with the posts on this subject:

  1. How the hell is he going to know what his 1RM is? He is only using 115#. At this level, I (personally) don’t see how this lift is neurologically taxing. And further, even if he did find his current 1RM, what is the limiting factor? Strength? technique? Courage (not calling him a coward, but dropping under an airborne bar takes some faith)? In fact, at that weight, even if the movement seems difficult to him, I am willing to bet that he could do them, wait for it, every day, before his normal training (to learn the movements) and not have any deliterious effects. Second, until he develops the ability to handle ‘good’ loads, any training session based around PCs will probably be more of an endurance based session.

  2. Why can’t he do PCs after chinups? Maybe chinups aren’t that taxing to him (if they are just bodyweight, a few sets of 8 or ten shouldn’t fatigue him too much). I do agree that they shouldn’t be done after any max effort lifts, but just saying ‘Do them first’ doesn’t really make a lot of sense. What about a warmup (which can include chinup, pushups, lunges, etc).

Sorry for the rambling, what I am trying to say is if he is power cleaning 38% of his DL, due to technique, this lift is not really going to be fatiguing, in and of itself (he could make it fatiguing, with enough volume). Additionally, his strength numbers are not very high, so his chances of neurological burnout, from a many sessions point of view, does not appear to be too high, either.

If you can do 42 reps of anything in 10-15 minutes, can it be that difficult? Your volume and your rest periods are much too high and much too short, respectively. First, make sure your form is correct, just type power clean in the search field and you should get some good examples. Before or after that go talk to CT, he will tell you everything you need to know.

Also, one side note I dont think cleans are the best GPP, that basically what you are using them for with that set and rep scheme, if you want GPP do some sandbag training. Much better and more reasonable at the end of a workout.

[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Hrastnik wrote:
Come on, have you ever tried doing oly lifts as the last. When you are drained, exhausted…, you just wnat to get injured if you do that. Oly lifters do them as the first exercise, basically 99% do them as their first exercise. First technically difficult lifts, then raw strength stuff (coach told me that, and believe me he has every right to say that). So, oly lifts, pulls, squats, and other stuff (back, shoulders…).

I’m quite sure that it would be most beneficial to them as the first exercise, even when not being fully into oly lifting.

Just my opinion based on my experience and on what I’ve read and coach told me.
Yes, and I regularly do them in the middle unless I am going max effort. But I am a big guy with lots of endurance which I got from training this way.[/quote]

If it suits you…
But I just think that if this guy wants explosive strength (or what is it called) and not endurance, he will be better suited with doing them as the first exercise, with less reps. But I’m not quite sure what his goal is.

Cleans are not a total body lift, and it isn’t really wise to do one rep after the other.
ITS ALL LEGS. no arms, no shoulders, no biceps, triceps, lats blah blah… except u do it the wrong way…
1)first pull–> controlled
2) scoop - unconscious
3) explosive second pull (all legs, arms completely straight/relaxed)
4) without delaying/overpulling, you now get under the bar FAST rotating the elbows fast and catching the bar in front of your shoulders.
5) you front squat it and stand up.

Jerks also hit the legs. U don’t do any pushing with the arms/shoulders. if u do, its wrong

[quote]acidhell wrote:
Cleans are not a total body lift, and it isn’t really wise to do one rep after the other.
ITS ALL LEGS. no arms, no shoulders, no biceps, triceps, lats blah blah… except u do it the wrong way…
1)first pull–> controlled
2) scoop - unconscious
3) explosive second pull (all legs, arms completely straight/relaxed)
4) without delaying/overpulling, you now get under the bar FAST rotating the elbows fast and catching the bar in front of your shoulders.
5) you front squat it and stand up.

Jerks also hit the legs. U don’t do any pushing with the arms/shoulders. if u do, its wrong
[/quote]
Holy shit! Are you for real? I guess my forarms don’t really grasp the bar then? I guess my lower back doesn’t support my upper body during the lift?. I guess the bar must just magically levitate to the ‘clean’ position and stay there by it’s own pure determination not to fall?

I understand you think that your legs drive the entire motion but believe me you need the whole body to complete the lift. Tell coach to shut the fuck up and quit filling your noggin’ with such nonsense.

[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
acidhell wrote:
Cleans are not a total body lift, …

See, I think that most of us agree that this statement is BS. [/quote]

No disrespect.