I do not use oly lifts solely, but if I am not squatting or deadlifting, i have included them as part of my workout, clean and presses being the mainstay (sometimes dumbbell snatches, less often barbell snatches)
From them I have gained significant shoulder strength, and have increased my ability to recruit (re: SENTO) my HTMUs
Perhaps some of the growth I have noted in my shoulders and triceps comes from keeping the rep range around 6 and controlling the weight in the eccentric
They certainly help to keep me excited about my workout as well.
However, I think talking as much about them as I have, and the responses I have gotten, have reminded me to train goal specifically.
Just realized that after including OLY lifts, the total number of sets/workout has decreased a bit. definitely not good for hypertrophy.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
BARBUDA wrote:
I gained most hypertrophy in my delts and lower back when i was training specifically for OL. I did not gain much hypertrophy else where though. i think my arms actually shrunk slightly tbh.
Now really progress on Smith seated High Inclines, DB presses and V-Squat/Power Squat overhead presses and you’ll gain even more ;)[/quote]
Fair comment man!
But previously my delts were a real weakness when following a traditional delts day. I think the growth occured due to my delts being hit hard just about every day during this time.
I would agree though: i dont think ol lifts are great for hypertrophy.
My perception of hang cleans for hypertrophy is only when combined with something else much heavier like deadlifts or rack lockouts. If you don’t have a decent deadlift the weight you would be hang cleaning would be both too light to induce hypertrophy, and also the MUR wouldn’t exist.
For beginners and advanced trainees there are much, much better ways, but for an intermediate trainee who is pairing it with heavy deadlifts, hang cleans could be very good. I never got a pump from hang cleans until I started doing rack lockouts, which drastically increased my MUR of traps.
The other oly lifts (not including front squats) are not best bet for hypertrophy.
powercleans do more for my traps than anything else does, second to heavy rack pulls and deadlifts not bad after that
right now i usually just work up to one heavy set of powercleans before one of my leg days out of 2 (over 10ish days) since i’ve done a lot of form work and now i dont want to push my back, i’d rather stress it with heavy squats and deads, but they’re fun, and i like what i get out of them and want to keep in practice
maybe didnt didnt get the form down to be able to do them heavy enough to get development from them?
another thing…i’ve seen people do them suprisingly slow (amazing…a slow clean or snatch) and with rediculously light weight…not to mention super shitty form…i think these are all factors to why they offer little for development,just like ppl that say squats are bad for knees because they have shitty form
Obviously everyone is a little different, but my traps started growing when I started hang cleans. I had been deadlifting for over a year and hadn’t seen much growth in my traps. You mileage may vary.
I personally see size gains in my traps and upper back when I havent done hang cleans in a while. I dont know if it mattters, but I never drop the weight because I dont have rubber plates, so there is some eccentric portion involved. Thats just me though.
[quote]krazykoukides wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
IMO the power clean from the floor or hang is great for traps. Otherwise everything else I agree with CC and sento.
Why do so many people say this? I did power cleans for months and I had no trap development even begin to happen until i started wrestling… and doing shrugs… and deadlifts.[/quote]
[quote]krazykoukides wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
IMO the power clean from the floor or hang is great for traps. Otherwise everything else I agree with CC and sento.
Why do so many people say this? I did power cleans for months and I had no trap development even begin to happen until i started wrestling… and doing shrugs… and deadlifts.[/quote]
Your problem may have had to do with the other two factors involved with getting bigger:
getting stronger
repetitions at the dinner table
Given the fact that you are super light, I am thinking the problem wasnt with the power cleans.
[quote]Stronghold wrote:
krazykoukides wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
IMO the power clean from the floor or hang is great for traps. Otherwise everything else I agree with CC and sento.
Why do so many people say this? I did power cleans for months and I had no trap development even begin to happen until i started wrestling… and doing shrugs… and deadlifts.
Your problem may have had to do with the other two factors involved with getting bigger:
getting stronger for enough reps
repetitions at the dinner table
Given the fact that you are super light, I am thinking the problem wasnt with the power cleans.[/quote]
Fixed, since people on here love to misunderstand things.
I can’t speak for snatches, but for what it’s worth, I’ve previously done powerlifting for years doing heavy deads/rack deads twice a week but nothing, nothing destroyed my traps and caused them to grow like weeds like powercleans from the floor did.
I did them in college twice a week and when I would come home on break, I would always get compliments on how my much my traps were growing.
I went to a big time D1 school with a good football program. I would copy their workouts. Almost all of the players had huge powerclean numbers and huge traps.
IMO even though you are using lighter weights than deadlifts or rack pulls, the sheer acceleration and explosiveness of the movement makes it much more effective than doing shrugs or deads even with heavier weights.
In a deadlift, the traps act more as a stabilizer whereas in a powerclean they move more.
The degree of post workout soreness in my upper traps from powercleans has never been duplicated by anything else including deadlifts, heavy shrugs or rack pulls.
[quote]greekdawg wrote:
I can’t speak for snatches, but for what it’s worth, I’ve previously done powerlifting for years doing heavy deads/rack deads twice a week but nothing, nothing destroyed my traps and caused them to grow like weeds like powercleans from the floor did.
I did them in college twice a week and when I would come home on break, I would always get compliments on how my much my traps were growing.
I went to a big time D1 school with a good football program. I would copy their workouts. Almost all of the players had huge powerclean numbers and huge traps.
IMO even though you are using lighter weights than deadlifts or rack pulls, the sheer acceleration and explosiveness of the movement makes it much more effective than doing shrugs or deads even with heavier weights.
In a deadlift, the traps act more as a stabilizer whereas in a powerclean they move more.
The degree of post workout soreness in my upper traps from powercleans has never been duplicated by anything else including deadlifts, heavy shrugs or rack pulls.
My 2 cents.[/quote]
I’ve found this to be the case too. Power cleans annihilate my traps like nothing else. I’ve never gotten much out of shrugs, but power cleans work wonders.
[quote]dankid wrote:
Some good opinions posted here. It seems that everyone is different. Im glad to see that the usual trolls didn’t dominate this thread.[/quote]
