I really want to incorporate some sort of Olympic lift into my routine and tried the clean and jerk. Fucking hell I made an utter tit of myself as I threw up the weight got the coordination all wrong and ended up flat on my back. LOL. I had decided not to lift too heavy so there wasnt much weight on top of me but still the fits of laughter at the gym will haunt me for a while ( cruel bastards ).
Anyway how on earth did you guys who have mastered this lift do it? Is it just perseverance? ( Can you imagine the queues at the gym next time I attempt it? The pressure to do it right next time will probably be overwhelming ). Or is there a kind of breakdown strategy where you practice parts of the lift independently and then bring these elements together when you grow in confidence?
I somehow suspect that lack of wrist flexibility played quite apart in it as I felt as though I was supporting the bar on my arms and not the upper part of my chest and collar.
Nail the front squat. Drill the lifts with a broomstick. Move onto an empty bar. Work on them some more. Add weight. As soon as your form drops take off some weight. Perfect practice makes perfect. Some people might disagree with me, but I’d say don’t power clean. From my experience it just confuses things and you’ll end up learning to pull and catch too high.
[quote]sharetrader wrote:
Start with a broomstick. Shawn Lattimer did O-lifts with a broomstick for a month when he switched over from powerlifting.[/quote]
**Shane Hammon
The power variants are quite easy to learn.
-PUSH the floor away (maintaing back position, push thru the legs)
-Push the hips in hard
-Extended UP to the sky
-keep your arms straight
The full versions are a hell of a lot more difficult and somthing I’m working hard on.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
sharetrader wrote:
Start with a broomstick. Shawn Lattimer did O-lifts with a broomstick for a month when he switched over from powerlifting.
**Shane Hammon
The power variants are quite easy to learn.
-PUSH the floor away (maintaing back position, push thru the legs)
-Push the hips in hard
-Extended UP to the sky
-keep your arms straight
The full versions are a hell of a lot more difficult and somthing I’m working hard on.
[/quote]
You should NEVER feel the bar being supported by your arms at all. It is racked across your shoulders.
Front squats Oly style will help you out a lot.
Do’t use any weight at all. Use the bar. Learn the technique with the bar for 3-5sessions first before adding anyweight. But then you will ALWAYS do the bar work before you lift. As you get better at dropping in to a full squat clean increase the weight a bit.
They aren’t that difficult if you start with them first.
Learning to do the power lifts is a big problem imo. I never get new lifters to get anywhere near the power lifts. They have this ‘fear’ of pulling under the bar. Or pull high and ride it down. M ost of them do this enough with the full lifts, doing the power lifts makes this even worse!