Bar Contact on Cleans

Is there a consensus on contacting the bar with the quads on cleans? I have been doing so recently, but my lower quads are hurting pretty bad right now. Last session wasn’t manageable. Of course I can ‘man up’ and fight the pain but I was curious to see what others are doing and to get an idea of what people feel are other pros/cons of contacting.

Cheers

you should not bang the bar to your quads, light contact may come with correct bar path, but its should be a light brush not a quad destroying slam

If the bar is scraping the bottom of your quads, you are initiating the rebend (or scoop) too early. Try extending the legs more and pulling the bar a higher before rebending to explode so that the bar doesn’t come in contact with you until the top of your quads or your hips.

Agreed!
It’s not uncommon to get marks on your shins though.

The bar should not be scrapping up your shin.

  1. I don’t want your f0cking STD’s :stuck_out_tongue:
  2. The bar is too close to your shins, unless your 5’3 nothing and withs horter limb lengths the bar shouldn’t be that close to you!

The bar shoudl be higher up on your quads for Cleans and hips/ above or around your pelvic bone for Snatch due to the wider grip in the Snatch. A few sessions ago I had some savage bruising on my pelvis due to me slamming in to about 12 misses with 110-112…

Hitting the quads is fine AS LONG AS THE BAR PATH STAYS RELATIVELY CLOSE TO YOU. If it swings OUT OF LINE THAT IS NOT GOOD.

I typically do this on the Snatch…

Koing

Many thanks for the excellent thoughts and suggestions. I have already implemented more leg extension as Dr Manhattan suggested and it has already improved my bar contact, brilliant! I just need to try and get better extension before the drop under as I tend to hit the bar and drop without much upwards effort.

Thanks again

Focus on PULLING yourself under the bar, not dropping.

Koing

when i moved the bar start position closer to my toes, i stopped scraping my shins. it also seemed to help my lifts. although i can’t be sure given the frequency i actually can weightlift (at most 1 quarter per year), the start position really seems to matter.

yes it matters and it will depend on how long your limb lengths are.

But everyone is in agreement that if the bar goes forwards from the start position as it’s too close to your shins, thats not the most economical movement…

Koing