Torso Position During Clean and Jerk

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

I’ve started OL two months ago (done some powerlifting for a few years) and have a problem. During the jerk phase of C&J I allways tilt my head up and look up into the bar , instead of keeping it in a neutral position. That, coupled with a slight hump in my upper back creates a very inverted lower back, rather than a neutral one.

As a result, I started feeling that my spine disks were sort of “crushed” and “squeezed” under pressure. The pain is goin away now because a took a few days off and done some stretching to get the “juice” flowing back into the disks. I was wondering how could I avoid tilting my head up. I

t just seems to me that if I keep my head neutral I wont have enough power to drive the bar up and secondly, I feel that when I dont see the actual bar I might loose stability and coordination, because of not knowing where the bar over my head actually is.It is a bit weird, because I have no problem snatching, where I catch the bar behind my head.Thanks for any input guys…

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Tilt your head back, tuck chin in and don’t look up.

Make a note to tilt your hips backwards and not roll them forwards as to not make the curve of your lower back even more pronouced. This should help you out.

BUT if you look at most OLifters they’ll have a really savage curve on their lower back, as they are tilting them forwards…

Not sure how your head being neutral would affect your power from your dip and drive?

Not being able to see the bar. It’s a technique thing, work on it at the lower weights and move the weight up. You will get more comfy with it in time. If you see the bar over head your position would be incorrect.

Post up a video.

Koing

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Thanks Koing. I’ll try to make a video in a few days and upload it…