Hang Power Clean Form Check

For reference, best power clean is 200, front squat 275 and deadlift 425. Some days feel very good with cleans and others not, this was definitely a bad day.

I have no aspirations in Oly lifting but I’d at least like to get halfway competent with the lift. I have Greg Everett’s book, to me it looks like I’m not getting a whole lot of hip extension.

I am no pro at oly lifting but have been doing cleans. I just have one question why are you lifting it up then stopping then trying to clean it. If you keep your momentum going from the lift off the floor into the explosive part you will generate more power for the clean. Like I said though I am not a pro at this shit just an observation.

Firstly let me start by saying “what are you training for” …if you want to squat clean some day, stop what you are doing immediatley, not that what you are doing is bad, but there are better ways to build a squat clean.

However you have no aspirations of being a OL (but have Greg Everetts book…hence the query) so my only gripe is you should lower the bar more down your thighs, you are using, especially on the heavy weight, only your top pull, too much upper body, too slow. Hard to improve speed and form when using near max weights. Go lighter and faster.

I would also do some pulls, from below knees or floor, to focus on the traps, rise on toes, delay with arms,
etc

How can u front squat more than you can pull? most guys can pull more than they can front squat because its explosive and an entire body movement. back when i had an OL day in my split my best power clean was 245 but i could rack 275 but not get it out of the bottom. i might be confusing myself.

I’m not very good a coaching and I can’t even sort my own faults out in the oly lifts, however I did notice a couple of things.

Your bodyweight is on your toes not your heels. It’s so bad that if you pause the video at the right point you can see that your heels are off the floor before you’ve extended, wihch leads me on to point 2.

You are right that you don’t extend very much. Part of this may be due to having a lack of tightness in your back, since it looks like you’re quite “loose”. This doesn’t help transfer much energy from the floor through to the bar. But it might also be down to not trying to pull enough. Just grip your teeth, stay on your heels and try and jump through the roof with some fire in your belly.

Just my opinions though and it’s still good to see someone oly lifting (plus I’ve seen much much worse)

Keep up the good work

I agree w/ you on lack of hip extension. It is hard to see from the video, but you look really quick when you lower it to mid-thigh and you may be bending your knees a bit instead of getting your hips back. This may be what is pushing some of your weight forward and leading to the early extension w/o getting a bunch of force into it.

I would try lowering it a little slower, making sure your hips are getting back and your weight is on your heels.

When I do them, I really feel my hamstrings and butt loaded up. I don’t know if you feel that or not, but it may be something to look for.

Maybe try standing ~8" in front of wall w/ your back to it, then let your hands go down your thighs as you push your butt back to the wall. When you get to the loaded up position, wiggle your toes. It might help to reinforce the movement pattern.

Thats what I got, take it with a grain of salt.

That’s you? I was wondering… I had seen some of your Max Strength vids lol

Not lol at you but in general… I knew it was someone from this site…

As for front squatting more than I clean, it’s probably because my form sucks lol. Yep that’s my youtube channel too- I had great gains on Eric’s program so it’s good to see that some people are seeing the videos.

Thanks for the insight everybody. I don’t have any plans to learn full squat cleans in the future, just want to not suck.

Key points that I see here:

  • Weight on toes
  • Lack of hip extension
  • Need more speed
  • Need more tightness

I think I’ll stop trying to actively get ankle extension since it seems like that’s causing a lot more problems than it helps. I’ll focus on a slower descent and more tension on the hamstrings too. This one I have to actively search for (I can RDL an empty bar to the floor with a neutral spine).

I’ll get back to you guys in a month or so with a new form check :smiley:

Shrug harder!!!..shoulders to ears

You are not allowing the bar to travel low enough down the legs in the eccentric portion of the movement before commencing the power phase, which would be the equivalent of the second pull on a power or squat clean from the floor. This prevents maximal hip drive.

Try performing your hang cleans from just above knees - lower the bar ( by bending at hips - bowing) along your thighs until it reaches 1-2 inches above top of patella then drive hips

[quote]Cymru wrote:
You are not allowing the bar to travel low enough down the legs in the eccentric portion of the movement before commencing the power phase, which would be the equivalent of the second pull on a power or squat clean from the floor. This prevents maximal hip drive.

Try performing your hang cleans from just above knees - lower the bar ( by bending at hips - bowing) along your thighs until it reaches 1-2 inches above top of patella then drive hips [/quote]

I thought this at first, however, slowed the video right down nd actually he is going to about mid thigh which is just about fine. I think it’s likely he’ll end up with a long and slow 2nd pull if he does them from just above the knee.

JMO though

More hip, More shoulders, and no hyper-extension after you do the first two and you’ll be fine.

No expert here, but I think if you dipped a bit lower on your thighs you’d be able to generate more speed and the shrug would consequently get better. It just seemed to me that you were pulling a lot with your arms/traps on a pretty slow moving bar which is very tough.

Its kinda like trying to a 1-inch punch or an ankle hop. But this IS a hang power clean and you aren’t competing so it really depends what you are trying to accomplish. If you just want to lift more weight, start jumping under the bar into a partial squat. Then when you are doing 10-15% more like this, you’ll be able to do the full power clean with noticeably more. Lots of options here. But really the form looked pretty good to me.

[quote]bigdaddy082 wrote:
I am no pro at oly lifting but have been doing cleans. I just have one question why are you lifting it up then stopping then trying to clean it. If you keep your momentum going from the lift off the floor into the explosive part you will generate more power for the clean. Like I said though I am not a pro at this shit just an observation.[/quote]

It’s a hang clean, not a power clean.

You are catching the bar way too high. When I teach them, I teach the person to catch them in a squat position. If you do not drop into a squat to catch the bar, you are just doing a reverse curl to get the bar up. This explains why you fail at that point. If you watch highly trained people do these, their feet move. Yours are not. It’s awfully hard for me to explain this, but I’ll try.

By move I mean they come off the ground and spread slightly apart (laterally) just prior to the catch. I found this videos, not the best, but it illustrates what I’m talking about Watch his feet in particular. If you can do it like this your weight will increase greatly.

[quote]Iron-Hoosier wrote:
You are catching the bar way too high. When I teach them, I teach the person to catch them in a squat position. If you do not drop into a squat to catch the bar, you are just doing a reverse curl to get the bar up. This explains why you fail at that point. If you watch highly trained people do these, their feet move. Yours are not. It’s awfully hard for me to explain this, but I’ll try.

By move I mean they come off the ground and spread slightly apart (laterally) just prior to the catch. I found these videos, not the best, but it illustrates what I’m talking about. The first guy doesn’t catch it as deep as the second guy but either way is ok. Watch their feet in particular. If you can do it like this your weight will increase greatly.

http://www.physicalfitnet.com/exercise_video/barbell_hang_clean.aspx [/quote]

He’s doing power cleans from the hang, not squat cleans, so there isn’t a need to catch it in squat position. No offense but that 2nd video is a terrible example of technique.

I realize the second one isn’t very good. There weren’t a lot of good ones available.

I have a question, and I didn’t want to start a new thread because there are so many about this lift already.

I discovered yesterday that I can clean more if I let some of the weight of the bar rest on the middle of my thighs before the first pull. That is, my starting position is with my arms a little bent and my legs taking some of the weight of the bar, but after I extend (right before the shrug) they’re straight. I only got two more reps using this method, but it’s progress. This feels like cheating, of course. Is it?

Arms straight at the start. You will lift a lot more if you keep your arms straight, how can you put power in to the bar if your arms are bent? They are TAKING AWAY POWER from your legs.

More reps doesn’t mean more power. See what your 1RM is this way. Just work your technique more and you will be able to lift more with correct form.

Koing