I feel like I have no power in my upper back, and I certainly have precious little musculature there. I have been looking around and the consensus seems to be that Oly lifts are the way to go for this. All I am asking is if it is possible for me to learn the power snatch on my own, or would I inevitably injure myself. Learning to clean would also be nice. If it is possible, would all you oly lifting folks out there give me a basic tutorial on how to accomplish it? Videos and articles on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/PowerExercises.html read the step by step instructions very carefully before starting and start off light
http://www.drsquat.com/index.cfm?action=viewarticle&articleID=8 http://www.coachesinfo.com/category/strength_and_conditioning/237/#2
upper back? how about bent over rows and pullups? Also, if you insist on doing oly lifts I reccomend doing one handed dumbell variations to begin.
I already do Bent Over Rows and Pull ups, but both of these target the lats. I am looking to put some meat on the area of my upper back between my shoulder blades and below my neck, the area dominated by the trapezius. From what I've read, trapezius work benefits the bench as well as strengthens the entire shoulder girdle, but I've been shrugging forever and am still a little girl up there. I wanted to give oly lifting a shot and see what it can do for me. I don't want to learn the clean and jerk or start getting "into" oly lifting. I just want to include some of the easier movements into my powerlifting routine to help add some strength to my upper back. High pulls might also be what I am looking for. It just seems to be the general consensus that power snatches are good for, well, power. I wonder if I could get Alon's opinion on attempting to teach yourself the power snatch. He seems to be a fan and practitioner of oly lifting. Alon, help?
You can teach yourself the power clean and the power snatch. It takes a fair bit of work. I've taught myself both with the help of some people at the gym and some online research to figure out what I should be doing. Learning them takes patience and a commitment to leaving your ego at home. I'm 240 and have been lifting for years. I pull 500 in the deadlift, squat between 455 and 495 and bench around 365 right now. My oly lifts are: Power Clean: 205 x 3 Power Snatch: 115 x 3 Jerk: 205 x 3 Yeah, basically they are piss weak. Furthermore, its taken me forever to get my form to the point where I could do those weights properly. I started with... THE BAR... Also, they WILL build the shit out of your traps and upperback. One thing I found helped me a lot was to do jumps for height in between sets. That is, bang out a set and then do like full depth squat jumps and stretch up for maximum height. Be as fast and explosive as possible when doing this. I found that has helped get more lower body into the pull.
i taught myself too and i now have a 185 powerclean versus a 335 deadlift. just work at the technique and youll be fine.
Yeah, I've had it since the original was put online. I just don't post here much anymore. Thanks for the compliment though. And Urban brings up a good point. One handed dumbbell snatches are a great starting point for olympic lifting.
good call, i taught myself the power clean and i love doing it with the overhead press. I would like to do the snatch but i think its a little more complicated for me than the clean. Nerdking i like that idea about the jumps in between sets, has that helped alot of your explosiveness??
I'm with you. I didn't do a very good job of clarifying what portion of my upper back I was talking about in my first post--my bad. But like I said in my second post, I do rowing and pull-ups. I'm pretty happy with the progression of my strength as far as lats are concerned. there's just nothing going on above them. I think the consensus, though, is that I won't necessarily hurt myself if I take it easy with the olympic lifts and add on the weight nice and slow to start out. I really appreciate all the advice.
Cleans from the hang are the shit. All other Olympic lifts...not so much the shit. BTW, cleans from the hang are cleans (powering the bar up to your shoulders) starting with the bar at about knee level, instead of from the ground.
