On cleans with full squat, don’t expect too much on reps at first. You’re basically lifting the weight twice each rep, so the number of reps suffers until you become efficient at them.
Much beyond 3 reps is considered counterproductive in some circles due to the loss of explosiveness as the set wears on.
They are fun, though and make you feel powerful.
12 June 2008
Weight 184.4 lbs
Hang Cleans
45lbs x 10
65lbs x 5
115lbs x 3 video
135lbs x 2 video (should be worth some laughs)
Back Squats 135lbs 5x5
Chinups
7/7/7
6/5/4
4/4/4
EZ-Bar Curls 75lbs x3 damnit - tweaked my rt shoulder
I’m just learning these so I thought I’d ask for feedback early. Hang cleans 115lbs
This should be good for some laughs:
Hang clean 135 lbs
Pretty good, Soldog. It takes quite a few of them to get the “hang” of them.
The hardest part for me has always been judging correct shoulder height during the racking portion, when the bar is coming to rest on the front deltoids. Too low and it slams into your shoulders. To high and it stays too far in front and you end up muscling it into position or dropping it.
The arms shouldn’t be involved at all during racking, eventually. You are literally catching the bar on your shoulders with the elbows pointed out in front of you and the hands are just there for your brain to figure out where in space the bar is.
You’re doing squat cleans, I think. Very challenging exercise.
Way to stick to it Soldog. I hope you get some great memories on Saturday. Remember to ride your race. Don’t get sucked into chasing someone of the start.
It’s aways better for the ego to blast of the finish with saved energy than to drag your ass across the line after dusk. But seriously dude, have yourself a great time. See if you can get a couple of pictures for us, including wipe outs. Give’er shit Bro!!
[quote]skidmark wrote:
Pretty good, Soldog. It takes quite a few of them to get the “hang” of them.
The hardest part for me has always been judging correct shoulder height during the racking portion, when the bar is coming to rest on the front deltoids. Too low and it slams into your shoulders. To high and it stays too far in front and you end up muscling it into position or dropping it.
The arms shouldn’t be involved at all during racking, eventually. You are literally catching the bar on your shoulders with the elbows pointed out in front of you and the hands are just there for your brain to figure out where in space the bar is.
You’re doing squat cleans, I think. Very challenging exercise.[/quote]
Thanks Skidmark! I’m following this model: http://exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/HangClean.html
at exrx.net and it looked like she is doing a full squat. So that is what I was attempting.
[quote]streamline wrote:
Way to stick to it Soldog. I hope you get some great memories on Saturday. Remember to ride your race. Don’t get sucked into chasing someone of the start.
It’s aways better for the ego to blast of the finish with saved energy than to drag your ass across the line after dusk. But seriously dude, have yourself a great time. See if you can get a couple of pictures for us, including wipe outs. Give’er shit Bro!![/quote]
The memories will happen for sure! And I’ll have a great time regardless. Photos - probably won’t have any action shots but I’ll take some on the way back down the mountain.
No worries about riding my own race because my only race is against myself because less than a year ago I couldn’t do even a few hundred feet elevation over a mile without stopping.
[quote]soldog wrote:
No worries about riding my own race because my only race is against myself because less than a year ago I couldn’t do even a few hundred feet elevation over a mile without stopping.[/quote]
That my friend will soon be a distant memory.
Hey soldog great job Buddy! You’re reminding me of me doin’ that stuff in my living room trying not go through the floor with that weight. 
Good vids. You’ll improve quickly once you get more coordinated at lifting and dipping under the bar. Form looks real good for just starting them. Hard to handle a lot of weight starting from a hang. Like shidmark said, try and get the elbows up higher in the front if your wrist/arms are flexible enough to support the bar on your delts.
[quote]daddyzombie wrote:
Hey soldog great job Buddy! You’re reminding me of me doin’ that stuff in my living room trying not go through the floor with that weight. ;-)[/quote]
Thanks DZ!
Luckily for me - there is a concrete floor under the carpet where I train.
[quote]hel320 wrote:
Good vids. You’ll improve quickly once you get more coordinated at lifting and dipping under the bar. Form looks real good for just starting them. Hard to handle a lot of weight starting from a hang. Like shidmark said, try and get the elbows up higher in the front if your wrist/arms are flexible enough to support the bar on your delts.[/quote]
Thanks Hel!
The plan is to work on form using the hang clean and then transition to the floor clean once I adapt to the movement. And yes that front squat position is a bitch on my wrists.
[quote]hel320 wrote:
Good vids. You’ll improve quickly once you get more coordinated at lifting and dipping under the bar. Form looks real good for just starting them. Hard to handle a lot of weight starting from a hang. Like shidmark said, try and get the elbows up higher in the front if your wrist/arms are flexible enough to support the bar on your delts.[/quote]
skidmark. That’s skidmark. One more letter and suddenly I’m a nasty seat stain.
ew.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
hel320 wrote:
Good vids. You’ll improve quickly once you get more coordinated at lifting and dipping under the bar. Form looks real good for just starting them. Hard to handle a lot of weight starting from a hang. Like shidmark said, try and get the elbows up higher in the front if your wrist/arms are flexible enough to support the bar on your delts.
skidmark. That’s skidmark. One more letter and suddenly I’m a nasty seat stain.
ew.[/quote]
That’s hilarious, I’ll be chuckling all day long.
Soldog,
Thanks for posting the videos. It is always nice to see others trying to learn new lifts and get stronger. I struggle with my squat but I know that the only way I am going to get stronger is to keep doing them. Your videos are making me realize that I need to get the camera into the gym and videotape one of my squat sessions for everyone to see and critique.
thanks,
mday
Nice work, Soldog. There is a lot of technique to these, and you’ve already gotten good feedback. I would just add keep your arms straight on the jump (with attendant shrug) in order for the best possible transfer of energy making the bar fly up so that you can then rotate your elbows under it …
I the wink of an eye. Something I read recently in another thread crystallizes the approach here: think movement, not muscles.
Now if I could just do all this myself properly all the time … In this program cycle I am allowing myself to do heavier singles where my form is breaking down, but in the next cycle with these I am really going to focus on the movement around the 50-60 kgs range where I am executing more properly. It’s fun when the bar really pops up into the air.
And go get’em tomorrow!
[quote]1Geech wrote:
Nice work, Soldog. There is a lot of technique to these, and you’ve already gotten good feedback. I would just add keep your arms straight on the jump (with attendant shrug) in order for the best possible transfer of energy making the bar fly up so that you can then rotate your elbows under it …
I the wink of an eye. Something I read recently in another thread crystallizes the approach here: think movement, not muscles.
Now if I could just do all this myself properly all the time … In this program cycle I am allowing myself to do heavier singles where my form is breaking down, but in the next cycle with these I am really going to focus on the movement around the 50-60 kgs range where I am executing more properly. It’s fun when the bar really pops up into the air.
And go get’em tomorrow![/quote]
Thanks Geech! and everyone else for the comments. I’ve also received a number of suggestions via PM from the vid I posted in my profile with the caption “Critique Needed”. The consensus is that both the my clean and front squat form needs a lot of work (putting it politely).
Arms straight.
Push the hips back and then thrust forward keeping the arms straight until the bar rises.
Get those elbows up for the rack.
Do the squat to get under the bar not after the rack.
Work on the knee position during the squat.
I’ll be working on it…
Today was pre-race day and I fully intended to make it a rest day with just a little ride up a fairly flat forest road to loosen the joints and muscles a bit. Eat a bunch including a lot more carbs than usual.
Good plan - too bad it didn’t happen.
Last night I found out a cousin was taking me up on a standing offer to take one of our trees that was a little too close to the driveway. He wanted to take it in long sections to get some beams cut.
This tree was 2 feet in diameter and 50 some feet tall. So I spent the day cutting and pushing/pulling/rolling around large sections of this tree and then cleaning up the leftovers. Talk about a full body session! I need to eat a whole lot tonight to make up this calorie deficit.
Tomorrow I’ll leave the house around 8am and get to Winter Park around 9:30-10 am. Figure out where I need to be, check-in and get my number and be on the starting line around 10:45.
Race for around an hour (hopefully less), cruise back down the mountain, hang out at the base for a while, drive home, clean up tree branches and take them to the slash collection. Clean up myself and head out to a party. Busy day…
Good luck. Eat big. Take no prisoners.