Hand Pain on Cleans

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

Hi all,

I’m new to the O lifts and I’ve been experiencing some pain in my left hand on the catch. It’s right in the middle of my hand, obviously I’m doing something wrong. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas what it could be?

Sorry, it’s a little vague I know, I appreciate any help you can offer.

2

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Hi all,

I’m new to the O lifts and I’ve been experiencing some pain in my left hand on the catch. It’s right in the middle of my hand, obviously I’m doing something wrong. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas what it could be?

Sorry, it’s a little vague I know, I appreciate any help you can offer. [/quote]

hows your rack position? Are you catching the bar on your delts?

3

Working with the little info given I would say it is most likely lack of wrist flexibility (I know I had to work through some pain when I first started front squatting) or as Facepalm_Death suggested, it could be your rack position. With the rack position you need to get your elbows around fast and high so the bar rests on the front delts. A lot of beginners tend to catch the bar with low elbows which means the weight bears down on the hands and forearms. Not an ideal position.

4

Thanks for the replies, it is probably the rack position. I’ve noticed my elbows are low even when using lower weights. I’ll post a video when I get a chance.

Thanks
-Chris

5

[video]2597[/video]

Here’s a video where my hand is fine (although the lift itself needs work). I have a lift at home on video where my palm hurts, I’ll try and post that tonight.

Any suggestions on the lift I posted though? The first thing I noticed is it’s more of a power clean and then a front squat (2 movements) vs. 1 fluid movement. Any form suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

6

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[video]2597[/video]

Here’s a video where my hand is fine (although the lift itself needs work). I have a lift at home on video where my palm hurts, I’ll try and post that tonight.

Any suggestions on the lift I posted though? The first thing I noticed is it’s more of a power clean and then a front squat (2 movements) vs. 1 fluid movement. Any form suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks[/quot

You’re not driving with your hips good enough when you’re bringing the bar to your collar bone. Maybe you straigned something in your hand because you’re not used to the speed of O lifts. Whats your deadlift like? weight wise.

7

[quote]Jaycuts wrote:
You’re not driving with your hips good enough when you’re bringing the bar to your collar bone. Maybe you straigned something in your hand because you’re not used to the speed of O lifts. Whats your deadlift like? weight wise.[/quote]

I’m deadlifting around 400 conventional.

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I can see hip drive being an issue. It’s one of the issues CT brought to my attention when I asked him about High Pulls (w/ a video).

How do you work on hip drive though?

9

1st post on the 5th page of my Indigo log has a 402 deadlift

http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_indigo_2/usmccds423s_indigo3g_log?id=5523991&pageNo=4

There’s also a couple clean examples with 132 below it.

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[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

How do you work on hip drive though? [/quote]

Hump the bar when it’s on your waist haha. When i was doing crossfit classes 4 times a week i had bruises from literally hitting the bar with the front of my hips, between my dick and my belly button. O lifts are flicks and speed. It’s flicking your wrists, hips, and glutes. But maybe you strained the adductor pollicis

11

[quote]Jaycuts wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

How do you work on hip drive though? [/quote]

Hump the bar when it’s on your waist haha. When i was doing crossfit classes 4 times a week i had bruises from literally hitting the bar with the front of my hips, between my dick and my belly button. O lifts are flicks and speed. It’s flicking your wrists, hips, and glutes. But maybe you strained the adductor pollicis [/quote]

Interesting, I’ll give it a try. I’m not sure I strained anything, but not sure.

Thanks.

12

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[video]2597[/video]

Here’s a video where my hand is fine (although the lift itself needs work). I have a lift at home on video where my palm hurts, I’ll try and post that tonight.

Any suggestions on the lift I posted though? The first thing I noticed is it’s more of a power clean and then a front squat (2 movements) vs. 1 fluid movement. Any form suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks[/quote]

In the hang position, you begin the movement with your arms bent, shrug your shoulders more and you have to work on triple extension.

But I would really suggest you find a qualified Olympic lifting coach to teach you proper technique. There’s a saying I believe that goes something like, if it takes you a 1000 times to learn something, it’ll take you 5000 times to unlearn it.

There’s a 3x USA Olympic lifting coach who trains by my house. I plan on seeing him next week to make sure I’m doing things correctly.

13

I used to have pain in my hands on the receiving portion of the clean. Just think “fast elbows” when coming around. Also what helped me was using a lighter weight to work on technique. It’s funny how adding 10lbs can screw everything up.

14

[quote]fnf wrote:
I used to have pain in my hands on the receiving portion of the clean. Just think “fast elbows” when coming around. Also what helped me was using a lighter weight to work on technique. It’s funny how adding 10lbs can screw everything up.[/quote]

I’ll work on the fast elbow cue, thanks!

15

[quote]fnf wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
[video]2597[/video]

Here’s a video where my hand is fine (although the lift itself needs work). I have a lift at home on video where my palm hurts, I’ll try and post that tonight.

Any suggestions on the lift I posted though? The first thing I noticed is it’s more of a power clean and then a front squat (2 movements) vs. 1 fluid movement. Any form suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks[/quote]

In the hang position, you begin the movement with your arms bent, shrug your shoulders more and you have to work on triple extension.

But I would really suggest you find a qualified Olympic lifting coach to teach you proper technique. There’s a saying I believe that goes something like, if it takes you a 1000 times to learn something, it’ll take you 5000 times to unlearn it.

There’s a 3x USA Olympic lifting coach who trains by my house. I plan on seeing him next week to make sure I’m doing things correctly.[/quote]

I’ll work on your technique suggestions, thanks! I just lift for fun so I probably won’t seek a coach, but it’s a good option.

16

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

I’ll work on your technique suggestions, thanks! I just lift for fun so I probably won’t seek a coach, but it’s a good option. [/quote]

I understand lifting for fun, but why not work with a coach?? Even if you don’t compete in the sport, there’s nothing better than getting hands-on technique work with a coach!! And, I know there are plenty in your neck of the woods. Even 1 or 2 sessions as little as per month would do wonders for your technique and strength in the lifts.

17

[quote]olylifter106 wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

I’ll work on your technique suggestions, thanks! I just lift for fun so I probably won’t seek a coach, but it’s a good option. [/quote]

I understand lifting for fun, but why not work with a coach?? Even if you don’t compete in the sport, there’s nothing better than getting hands-on technique work with a coach!! And, I know there are plenty in your neck of the woods. Even 1 or 2 sessions as little as per month would do wonders for your technique and strength in the lifts.[/quote]

Honestly I’d love too, but it’s just too much money for, “fun.” The closest coach I could find to me was in Baltimore ($100 per session) so it’s a lot fo driving as well.

18

I can understand that!! I got lucky when I found a coach. At first I was going to start the lifts “for fun”, however, when I got to learning them and attended my first local meet (didn’t lift, just helped out loading), I got very interested in competing. The coach I was going to only charged $20/month!! I’ve talked to a number of others that don’t charge anything, just a low membership fee for their gym.

19

[quote]olylifter106 wrote:
I can understand that!! I got lucky when I found a coach. At first I was going to start the lifts “for fun”, however, when I got to learning them and attended my first local meet (didn’t lift, just helped out loading), I got very interested in competing. The coach I was going to only charged $20/month!! I’ve talked to a number of others that don’t charge anything, just a low membership fee for their gym.[/quote]

That’s awesome man!