Question about improving flexibility for Power Cleans.

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booher

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So i love power cleans. I suck at them. I've managed to pull 185, but I think I could do a hell of a lot more if I actually had better form.

I watch a lot of the videos from the olympics and that, seeing Dimas, Rezazedeh and many other greats pull off great numbers. I don't think I'm anywhere near those amounts, obviously, but I think that after watching they, I realize my problem might be in flexibility.

I think what I need to be able to accomplish is to land the clean in the bottom of a full squat position, but I can't seem to get my body to get around the bar like that. Should I focus on dropping the weight down a bit to catch it? I can pull off 185 without that sort of technique, but I still get low enough to catch the bar on my shoulders. Anything higher than that though and I can't get low enough.

So, lower the weight? Or are there other exercises I should do to work on this?
 
I've never done Oly lifts but if you think flexibility is the issue then I would say stretch more and for longer. Try to increase how far you are stretching each time. Maybe warm up better?
 
PhxJudoJujitsu said:
Find a local WL club and work with them.
Click to expand...

There's actually an olympic lifting club here in town, or at least a guy who runs one. I'm only home from school for about another month though. Don't know if I'll have the funds to do that sort of thing.

I was hoping to hear something like "keep practicing front squats" or something like that, haha.
 
Ive been wondering about this also.. whenever I try to squat the clean I feel really off balance.. notice how bednarski cleans into the squat
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0pqWIRoANus


maybe my stance that I'm jumping into is wrong, I wish I had the money to train with a lifter :/
 
What you see the olympic lifters doing are not power cleans. Sure full cleans let you lift more weight, but its not a power clean, and won't neccessarily increase your power cleaning ability. The power clean relies more on a strong, powerful, higher pull, while the full squat clean relies on getting under the bar quickly and front squatting it up.
 
So what you're telling us is that we are doing it right, but that what they are doing is different than the traditional power clean?
 
Well, I don't know if you are doing it right since I've never seen you do it. But yes, they are doing regular cleans, sometimes called squat cleans. A power clean means you catch it in a quarter squat position, not a full squat. You could probably greatly improve your power clean by learning proper technique for the first and second pull. You don't jerk it off the ground. The explosion doesn't come till it passes the knees and you are in the right position.
 
JPC said:
Well, I don't know if you are doing it right since I've never seen you do it. But yes, they are doing regular cleans, sometimes called squat cleans. A power clean means you catch it in a quarter squat position, not a full squat. You could probably greatly improve your power clean by learning proper technique for the first and second pull. You don't jerk it off the ground. The explosion doesn't come till it passes the knees and you are in the right position.
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Right. I do understand the concept of not exploding right from the ground for power cleans. I realize the body and hip extensions is where the explosive motion is supposed to come into play.
 
instead of starting a new thread I'll just ask here; has anyone had any success learning the clean without having a coach/trainer to teach you the technique?

Up until now I've learned all my lifts off youtube and lots of reading. but the clean is a little more tricky
 
Well, I mean I am the OP of this thread and wanted to learn a bit better form. But after reading through the responses that what I was looking to do wasn't actually a power clean, I think that my form might not be so questionable after all.

I learned from a friend, but he lives hundreds of miles away so mainly he talked me through it. He also pointed out some good videos on youtube and things like that for me to do. Another friend gave me a run down of how he breaks up his cleans into a bunch of different segments to learn the form and basically started putting them together. Basically a romanian deadlift sort of deal, power pull, hang cleans, front squats, and things like that. After he put them all together, he got the hang of them more. Once I saw it broken down into parts like that it made a bit more sense to me, too.
 
Also I suggest taking a video of yourself cleaning and posting it on an Olympic forum, the guys over at Fortified Iron knw what they are talking about it hit them up.

1 other thing, try powercleaning the weight, then front squating it.
 
sennas said:
instead of starting a new thread I'll just ask here; has anyone had any success learning the clean without having a coach/trainer to teach you the technique?

Up until now I've learned all my lifts off youtube and lots of reading. but the clean is a little more tricky
Click to expand...

mschatz has cleaned 225 IIRC.
 
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