Clean and Press questions

Got the hang of it thanks :)

Am I right in saying that if the weights too heavy you'll find yourself dipping lower in order to get your wrists under the bar? and thus this will affect the smoothness of the motion or possibly stop the bars movement and then start it again as you finish the rep with your legs?

I'm not particulary good at exploding from the bottom! perhaps jump squats could be something to consider.
 
Second video form is better than the first imo, he brings the bar quite far out when he flicks over.

If the weight gets too heavy you will struggle to get the clean phase up and flick over properly, you'll probably start arching your back and things will turn into more a reverse curl type movement.

If you're struggling with exploding, when you are next going to start the movement imagine you are going to throw the bar as high as you can into the sky. Try it now, if you put your hands in an overhand grip position, get down into position and then fling your hands up together as if you were launching two balls into the sky you'll see what i mean. The bending of the knees should come naturally as well! Obviously this isn't the exact technique but it will help your mindset.

They take quite a lot of work to get the form right, keep going with light weights until you are really confident in the movement.

The Oly Wrestling coach who taught me to clean properly used to say that power cleans were the most beautiful but most aggressive exercise in weight lifting :D
 
Don't you need really flexible wrists to do cleans? I find it impossible to get my elbows pointing that high up...
 
Hmmm...vids make it look easy...but Ive never tried this. Might well have a go with some lighting weight to see. Should this go into a Shoulder or back or leg workout??
 
I did this on Saturday for the first time. My forearms became really pumped quite quickly.

I started with 10kg to see what the fuss was about but found that quite easy, did 20 or so reps, stepped up to 16kg and did 12 then another 12 on 20kg. Will probably start on 16 next time and slowly work up. I found it a great exercise and if you do reps in quick succession it certainly makes you sweat!
 
Lead_Head said:
I did this on Saturday for the first time. My forearms became really pumped quite quickly.

I started with 10kg to see what the fuss was about but found that quite easy, did 20 or so reps, stepped up to 16kg and did 12 then another 12 on 20kg. Will probably start on 16 next time and slowly work up. I found it a great exercise and if you do reps in quick succession it certainly makes you sweat!
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Having now become reasonably confident with my form on these but still as a novice I offer some hints I could have done with.

When I was doing hang cleans & press, I found my forearms to pump too, but this may have been because I was slightly reverse curling than cleaning.

I deffinatley agree it makes you sweat. Its such a big movement involving so many muscles I wouldnt expect anything less than a sweat!

Maybe up the weight a slightly and do less reps of 6 or 8. This way you'll be focusing more on perfecting your form than thinking about how many reps you have left to do as its a short set. Thats what I find when I use longer sets that I focus on finishing the set rather than keeping strict form.

I've been experimenting with 50KG power cleans, 50KG power clean to press and the same again with 60KG. Quite tough and I can deffinatley feel it in my traps.
 
I think I was curling the bar up to my chest more so than lifting the bar up to my pecs then changing the grip (as in to put the elbows under the barbell) to press it, hence the reverse curl type burn in the forearms.

I definitely need to go heavier though, however I wasn't sure how strong I'd be at the exercise so went light and built up. I will keep light like that until I've nailed the form, I've not got anyone to reference against as most people in my gym just do either shrugs or bicep curls thrusting there back towards the mirror in the squat rack or do dumbell bicep curls and a few lat pull downs.
 
The biggest problem I've always seen with cleans is people not getting the flick (as FF puts it) correct and so they almost reverse curl the bar up (and often arch the back). You need to get into the habit of flicking back. I would say that with the weights you are using there is a chance that you might be reverse curling quite heavily. Take a step back and check your form, trust me once you nail it you will find 20kg pretty easy anyway :) By all means take a video and post it up, we can help you more then. (Even if you go and grab a broom handle out the cupboard just to illustrate form).

FF I would love to see reverse curls with 100kg, that should be your next video challenge :cool: :D
 
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