Power Clean Help

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

I’m a newb to the O lifts. I’ve done some work on the power clean in high school sports, but i’m basically new to it. I understand the basic concept of how the lift works (pull with straight arms, jumping off ground to use maximum power, pull yourself under it, catch with your elbows pointed forward) but i need help with the specific, technical details: Foot position, back angles throughout the lift, grip, etc.

Also, how deep should i be when i catch the bar? I’ve seen some people catch it in a 1/4 or 1/2 squat depth while other catch it in a full squat like I’ve seen with the snatch.

The other thing that confuses me is this: I’ve read that you should use a hook grip. Does that mean your wrist flexibility should allow you to catch it with such? I just recently have developed the flexibility for front squats (i stretched reliiously for the past month) but definatly can’t keep my elbows up if my fingers are wrapped around the bar.

Sorry i know thats a lot of questions. Any advice I get would be much appreciated.

2

[quote]handsomedevil wrote:
I’m a newb to the O lifts. I’ve done some work on the power clean in high school sports, but i’m basically new to it. I understand the basic concept of how the lift works (pull with straight arms, jumping off ground to use maximum power, pull yourself under it, catch with your elbows pointed forward) but i need help with the specific, technical details: Foot position, back angles throughout the lift, grip, etc.

Also, how deep should i be when i catch the bar? I’ve seen some people catch it in a 1/4 or 1/2 squat depth while other catch it in a full squat like I’ve seen with the snatch.

The other thing that confuses me is this: I’ve read that you should use a hook grip. Does that mean your wrist flexibility should allow you to catch it with such? I just recently have developed the flexibility for front squats (i stretched reliiously for the past month) but definatly can’t keep my elbows up if my fingers are wrapped around the bar.

Sorry i know thats a lot of questions. Any advice I get would be much appreciated.
[/quote]

Just some things I’ve learned from this site and working on power cleans.

Feet between hip an shoulder with; toes outward just a hair. I like to have the balls of my feet just slightly under the bar.

Grip. Flexibility is an issue for me too. I think this is more of a personal choice. I know some folks say you can lift heavier weights with a hook grip, but I find I’m not able to get my elbows up as easily with the hook grip - dont know why. I use an overhand grip with arms just outside legs.

Back. Flat or slightly arched at set up, chest up and shoulder blades back. Back upright during shrug portion and maintain position similar to that of squat when dropping under bar and standing up with bar.

Pull bar up explosively (don’t jerk it though). Then about when the weight reaches mid thigh shrug as you simultaneously drop under the weight.

How deep for dropping under bar. I dont know that there’s a standard answer here. My thought has always been you go deep as you need to to get under the bar before standing up with it. Hell, if you can get it all the way up to your shoulders, dont dip at all because you’re a beast. What’s everybody else think?

Getting weight to shoulders. I’ve seen/heard a lot of folks that come at the clean thinking to get the bar to shoulders is effectively like a reverse curl. Again, I’m not an expert but I find that thinking of this as a reverse curl leads to bad form and potential injury. In a clean you’re exploding off the ground, exploding with a shrug and exploding under the bar before you come to an upright position. the explosiveness from the ground in combination with the jump shrug will help get the weight up -thinking of it as a curl won’t. I think this is where some of that grip/flexibility comes into play.

Hope this helps, and I look forward to more tips from others.

Good luck.

3

Thanks so much. That clears up quite a few questions. What about foot placement during the jump and landing? I had read somewhere that you should “stomp” the floor as you land and the stomp would coincide catching of the bar. Is this good advice?

Thanks again for your help.

4

From how you’re describing it, I can;t quite tell how you’re doing the lift. Just to make sure we’re talking about the same thing, I see people use power clean in two different ways. Some just use it to mean from the floor, ie not a hang clean, while others use it to mean a clean that is like a full oly clean, but you catch it high with minimal squatting down to catch it.

Either way, I tend to say don’t bother with a hook grip if you’re just learning the lift, especially if you don’t use a hook grip anyway, and you most definitely don’t want to catch it in a hook grip if you’re doing it like a full oly clean and jerk, because you’ll probably break your wrist sooner or later with enough weight. For you feet, I’d again say don’t worry about it too much, just pick a fairly neutral footing about shoulder width apart, and play around with it until you find a placement that will be comfortable but still let you keep the bar close to your body throughout the lift.

As for jumping, it really goes back to depending on what you mean by power clean. If you just mean that you’re catching it high, then you’re probably not going to jumping much, or at all. Personally I wouldn’t fixate specifically on jumping too much either way when learning the lift, and just let it come naturally from the intensity you put into the lift, or you’ll likely to end up rushing the beginning of the lift with poor form just for the sake of getting a good jump.

5

[quote]Discin wrote:
From how you’re describing it, I can;t quite tell how you’re doing the lift. Just to make sure we’re talking about the same thing, I see people use power clean in two different ways. Some just use it to mean from the floor, ie not a hang clean, while others use it to mean a clean that is like a full oly clean, but you catch it high with minimal squatting down to catch it.

Either way, I tend to say don’t bother with a hook grip if you’re just learning the lift, especially if you don’t use a hook grip anyway, and you most definitely don’t want to catch it in a hook grip if you’re doing it like a full oly clean and jerk, because you’ll probably break your wrist sooner or later with enough weight. For you feet, I’d again say don’t worry about it too much, just pick a fairly neutral footing about shoulder width apart, and play around with it until you find a placement that will be comfortable but still let you keep the bar close to your body throughout the lift.

As for jumping, it really goes back to depending on what you mean by power clean. If you just mean that you’re catching it high, then you’re probably not going to jumping much, or at all. Personally I wouldn’t fixate specifically on jumping too much either way when learning the lift, and just let it come naturally from the intensity you put into the lift, or you’ll likely to end up rushing the beginning of the lift with poor form just for the sake of getting a good jump.[/quote]

Good points on the hook grip and the jumping.

I see folks take the ‘jump’ in ‘jump shrug’ to the extreme - but it’s usually at much lighter weights; when it gets heavier for them they jump but the bar goes nowhere. Once you start putting some heavy weight on there you’re not jumping much at all but rather, as Discin alludes to, the explosiveness will bring the ‘jump’ naturally likely bringing your heels up right before you drop under the bar.

As always, good points Discin.

6

I’m going to disagree on the hook grip not being important. The hook grip is a critical component of the lift. It is the hook grip that allows the lifter to keep the arms loose whilst maintaining a solid grip on the bar. Without a hook grip there is too much tension in the arms resulting in a) pulling the bar up with the arms, and b) slow elbows (the arms should not be loaded if the elbows are to rotate around the bar optimally). So use the hook grip during the pull - you do not have to grip the bar in the rack position, and most lifters don’t and just let it sit in the open hand.

Forget about the shrug - there is no shrug. What looks like a shrug occurs merely as a consequence of the lifter pulling their body down against a rising bar. Once the hips are driven through any attempt to impart further force on the bar are a waste of time and effort. Get the hips through hard and pull under.

Don’t jump. Don’t stomp. Stand up tall. Stand up hard. This is your number one cue.

Dip to whatever height is necessary to receive the bar. Don’t drop under, PULL under. If you don’t need to dip at all put more weight on the bar. The heavier the weight the lower you’ll need to pull under to rack it.

In summary: hook grip, stand up, pull down.

7

thanks everyone for your tips. this def helps alot

8

I think this is a really good vid. I believe there are 6 parts.

9

[quote]ninearms wrote:
I’m going to disagree on the hook grip not being important. The hook grip is a critical component of the lift. It is the hook grip that allows the lifter to keep the arms loose whilst maintaining a solid grip on the bar. Without a hook grip there is too much tension in the arms resulting in a) pulling the bar up with the arms, and b) slow elbows (the arms should not be loaded if the elbows are to rotate around the bar optimally). So use the hook grip during the pull - you do not have to grip the bar in the rack position, and most lifters don’t and just let it sit in the open hand.

Forget about the shrug - there is no shrug. What looks like a shrug occurs merely as a consequence of the lifter pulling their body down against a rising bar. Once the hips are driven through any attempt to impart further force on the bar are a waste of time and effort. Get the hips through hard and pull under.

Don’t jump. Don’t stomp. Stand up tall. Stand up hard. This is your number one cue.

Dip to whatever height is necessary to receive the bar. Don’t drop under, PULL under. If you don’t need to dip at all put more weight on the bar. The heavier the weight the lower you’ll need to pull under to rack it.

In summary: hook grip, stand up, pull down.[/quote]

Any advice as to how to improve on hook grip?

Good point about the ‘drop’ vs ‘pulling’ under bar. I never thought of it that way but you’re right you are ‘pulling’ to the bar.

10

[quote]elliot15 wrote:
Any advice as to how to improve on hook grip?
[/quote]

Hook grip everything. Your lifts, your shopping, your steering wheel. Eventually you’ll get to the point where it’s second nature and you don’t even have to think about it.

I personally also like to tape my thumbs to add a little extra friction and also to take the sting off really heavy lifts. The key to avoiding a painful hook grip, aside from using it enough to destroy the feeling in your thumbs, is to make sure your first two fingers are not just on top of the thumb but are also pulling on the side of it

11

[quote]ninearms wrote:

[quote]elliot15 wrote:
Any advice as to how to improve on hook grip?
[/quote]

Hook grip everything. Your lifts, your shopping, your steering wheel. Eventually you’ll get to the point where it’s second nature and you don’t even have to think about it.

I personally also like to tape my thumbs to add a little extra friction and also to take the sting off really heavy lifts. The key to avoiding a painful hook grip, aside from using it enough to destroy the feeling in your thumbs, is to make sure your first two fingers are not just on top of the thumb but are also pulling on the side of it[/quote]

Take the sting off heavy lifts? You want some baby oil to go along with that? :stuck_out_tongue: j/k lol j/k

It takes a bit of getting use to, but it’s also a lot easier if you started off relatively weak and then work your way up so then the punishment on your thumb is A LOT LESS then if you were strong and then switched over :). I started off relatively weak so I didn’t have any issues with hook gripping.

Koing

12

someone had previously mentioned the possibility of breaking my wrists by using the hook grip. Is this something i should be weary of? my flexibility is improving bit by bit but it still sucks…

Also it feels weird using the hook grip then catching it with palms open…is this what i’m supposed to do???

13

[quote]handsomedevil wrote:
someone had previously mentioned the possibility of breaking my wrists by using the hook grip. Is this something i should be weary of? my flexibility is improving bit by bit but it still sucks…

Also it feels weird using the hook grip then catching it with palms open…is this what i’m supposed to do???[/quote]

I don’t relase on my Snatch’s but I think I do release the hook on Cleans and Power Cleans. Some people don’t.

You won’t break your wrists if you used hook or not. You would have broken your wrists if you were going to anyway with whatever grip you had imo. The hook only means your attached to the bar stronger, it won’t increase the chances of breaking your wrists.

Catching the bar on your wrists and not across your shoulders is a good way to break them if you catch heavier weights badly. I would stretch them out!

Koing

14

Let me preface this with the short version: If you’re really serious get a coach. If not, don’t sweat the details.

I didn’t really want to follow up because I figured as a newbie, too much information is probably just confusing, but I do want to give the rationale for my post and the other advice people posted afterwards, and hopefully clear up some points.

This is the Oly forum, but when the first thing the OP states is that he’s a newb and wants to start trying some power cleans, I assume it’s fairly unlikely he’s about to dive into training the Oly lifts with any seriousness. In all likelihood, he want to add something to his workouts for power training, knows that Oly lifters do cleans, and put two and two together and came here. In my opinion it’s really, really hard to train a complete novice in Oly lifts over the internet; I just don’t think your average lifter is going to make much headway in that regard without a coach or experienced lifter to go to for real live feedback. That’s just my opinion and I could be wrong, but I just don’t see it happening.

…But not that the OP shouldn’t try to do it the best he can, but I figured for the OP’s purposes, doing a “bodybuilder” style clean is probably good enough to get his feet wet until he gets serious about Oly lifting. I don’t want to knock the other guys advice, because there’s nothing wrong with it, but I think there’s a fair chance it’s not suited to the OP, and can be counterproductive to getting someone acclimated to Oly lifting. I just don’t think any of the points about grip are important enough that they’re going to limit a lifter until he can find a better source of training than an internet forum.

As for the hook grip, I seriously do think that advising someone to use a hook grip in this context is unnecessary, and that it’s highly unlikely that your average novice has the flexibility to catch a clean in a hook grip without either putting themselves at a pretty good risk of severe discomfort/injury, or limiting their range of motion so that they simply catch it in a position to military press, thereby defeating the point of trying to teach them a full Oly style clean.

So again, to the OP, if you’re really interested in Oly lifts, my bad. Keep chipping away at it and come back for advice, and you’ll really do yourself a favor by trying to find someone experienced to train with, or at the very least getting some video up for critique.

15

As for the depth at which one should catch a clean i’d say ultmately you should catch it as high as possible. That’s in the best of worlds; yet since you’re able to powerclean relatively heavy way, you should be able to full clean heavier, hence why you’re supposed to catch it low.

That’s also the reason why you should squat with full depth, when you’re rock bottom you’ll need to get back up again. Too many people cut the squat high!

Hook grip? I dont even think of it anymore. Pull fast, pull high, and lock it fast; the rest is just about strength really. Anybody can get stronger, it’s just hard work.