Aloha T-Nation. Just had a quick but serious question for those of you proficient at olympic lifting: cleans and snatches in particular.
I (I’m sure alot of others too) have found that getting to that position with the bar straight overhead is EXTREMELY difficult! I tried foam rolling and stretching but somehow it’s REALLY hard to get to that position. I read about single arm overhead dumbell squats and those are even harder.
Any tips on getting to that proficiency where I can squat ass to the grass while holding the bar overhead?
Dislocates with a broomstick or band. I prefer them with a band because they mimic the action of pulling the bar apart better. Do them a lot. Every day. Behind the neck band pulldowns help me too.
Also, make sure you stretch out your pecs and lats.
My shoulder flexibility is similarly poor, but through a lot of dislocates and other stretching I’m in the position where I can actually overhead squat and overhead lunge with an empty bar now. 2 months ago I could barely manage a quarter overhead squat before the bar was too far forward to go any lower.
I recently read a tip from Tommy Kono for dislocates is to mark the center of the stick for dislocates and do your dislocates in front of a mirror. You can also use tape to mark your progress.
Band dislocates are great also but the feel is different and IMO both should be done.
Another thing other than shoulder tightness is to look into your thoracic mobility which will limit the ability to elevate your arm overhead also. Recently there have been some great articles regarding that topic.
[quote]808fightconcepts wrote:
Aloha T-Nation. Just had a quick but serious question for those of you proficient at olympic lifting: cleans and snatches in particular.
I (I’m sure alot of others too) have found that getting to that position with the bar straight overhead is EXTREMELY difficult! I tried foam rolling and stretching but somehow it’s REALLY hard to get to that position. I read about single arm overhead dumbell squats and those are even harder.
Any tips on getting to that proficiency where I can squat ass to the grass while holding the bar overhead?
–Much mahalos![/quote]
Without seeing your problems first hand, I’ll say that lifters that struggle to keep perfect allignment (wrist, shoulder, hip, and ankle) in the bottom position of the Snatch tend to have problems with tight hip flexors. Shoulder flexibility may also be a problem, and shoulder rotations with a broomstick are very good for addressing this, but most of the time, the problems starts with poor hip flexibiltiy.
Too much bench pressing if you can’t get to the over head position.
If you can’t squat ass to grass = tight hamstrings and hips. Too much running and not enough stretching but thats A LOT OF PEOPLES problems.
To fix that:
Windmills with your arms.
-START SLOW and build up speed.
-both arms GOING BACKWARDS
-I can not stress enough to start SLOW THEN TO BUILD UP SPEED GRADUALLLY!
Leg swings:
-stand tall
-keep hips square
-keep legs straight
-swing one foot up and swing it back also.
-do this more and WHEN YOU FEEL LOOSER start to swing up/kick up HARDER AND FASTER,
-don’t ignore the kicking on the way back also
-KICK HARDER ON THE WAY BACK ALSO
-repeat for 20-25 times for BOTH FEET
Leg swings across the body. More of the same. This time lean against the dipping bars or something like that. Use the Smith machine (actually useful for once!). Set the bar to about waist height
-Start slow with one leg. Swing left acros your body then to kick right to your side. Repeat. As you get MORE WARMED UP kick harder and faster. Again go for 20-25x on each leg.
When you get better you can easily kick past your head kicking forwards. You can kick to about your head height and past going across your body also.
These are the best stretchs. I get all new lifters at the club to do these. With time and commitment they all hit the correct positions.