hey people, i just started doing power cleans and i ve found it to be the best exercise i ve ever done. it makes the whole body function as a whole and i like that about it, any ways i have clip of me doing very light wight, check out the clip and tell me what im doing wrong…
constructive criticisms please. Thanks
Well I’m not an expert, but I have watched lots of people do the exercise. I see lots of problems, but I can’t put them into words.
One thing though, at the very start you’re not getting your hips low enough, so you end up bend your back.
Couple things…Most importantly, what are your goals? What is your purpose for doing powercleans?
Some notes on form from someone who doesn’t have a lot of o-lifting experience, but on things that are pretty basic.
It’s going to be hard to get in a good position at the bottom with the 5 or 10lb plates on either side. Even the 25s. Try to find something that you can elevate the plates on so they fall near where the 45s would place the bar. That or use bumper plates.
Secondly, the most power in the movement should come through popping your hips through…not using your arms. Think of your arms as just hooks that are holding on to the bar.
And lastly, your end position is not correct. Your elbows should be brought up and ideally the bar would be resting on your front delts with your elbows poining in line with your shoulders. Fix those things and then come back.
-MAtt
Hi Salem,
As AN Olympic Weightlifting coach I could tell you whats wrong until I am blue in the face, but that’s not going to help you any.
What you need to do is get an Olympic Weightlifting coach to watch you and work with you. Not a personal trainer or a trainer who has taken a weekend course on Olympic Weightlifting but an actual coach.
It is good that you are aware of the whole body movement concept and this in itself is the start.
Keep up the work.
Regards
Andy
[quote]Matgic wrote:
Couple things…Most importantly, what are your goals? What is your purpose for doing powercleans?
[/quote]
Big point here. A weightlifting caoch is important if you’re using them for athletics or for weightlifting as an end goal, but if you just like doing them as part of an overall fitness regime or whatnot, you really just need to be decent.
The arms as hooks comment is a good start. I’d also add as key points reading about triple extension (knees, ankles, and hips), really popping your traps up (think of trying to crush your ears with your shoulders), and the racking position Matt mentioned. I didn’t notice any back rounding, just make sure it stays that way as you get stronger at them 
What you’re doing is technically a hang clean btw, probably the best choice actually while you’re working up to full 45lbs plates if you don’t have any bumpers at your gym.
-Dan
I’ve definitly seen a lot worse than yours. For the most part, I agree with the other posters here. It it hard to coach the lifts without actually being there. But if you don’t have access to a coach,there are some things we can do over the internet, you will have to be patient and things will take a lot longer.
You could start by learning correct form on front squats. This will help with the catch on your cleans. Hold the bar high on your shoulders. If you hold your elbows high, pointing straight ahead, and push your shoulders forward, there will be a groove where the bar will fit on top of your deltoids and up against your neck (at first it might choke you a bit).
You should be able to take your hands off the bar and have it stay there on your shoulders. This is the place where you should be catching the bar on your cleans. Holding the bar in this position, and keeping your torso upright and tight, squat down as far as you can. Make sure your heels stay firmly planted in the floor. Heels should be about shoulder width with your toes pointed slightly out.
Make sure your elbows stay high throughout the squat. Work on these often with light weight, possibly as part of your warm up every workout.
As holding the bar in this position becomes more natural, your catches on the cleans should improve. Try to catch the bar in this starting front squat position. You may briuse your shoulders from time to time. This is good incentive for catching the bar in the correct place.
To learn proper form takes a lot of work and time. Be patient, work hard, and report back on your progress.
Bro, good job on tackling cleans. It will serve you well in the long run over lots of the garbage out there.
You may want to get a book and video on Olympic Lifting so you can see technical breakdowns on the lifts. That would be easier for you to read and visually see the coaching points, moreso than read on the internet. Someone may have some good links to cleans broken down and post them here?
That or go to Human Kinetics or maybe even a legit bookstore and look for Explosive Lifting for Sports.
Or, look up USAWF and go to their 2 day Club Coach seminar. You would get hands on for two days by some good coaches Id assume. If you are near a decent college athletics program, maybe you can weasel your way into asking a coach.
If you are near a Velocity, Parisi, or other speed school type franchise you might find some USAWF or good CSCS guys or gals with a background of coaching o-lifts.
Of course these options all take time and/or money. If you cannot do any of these, Id go with some of the advice above. First, learn how to get in a good power position. Hips back, shoulder blades pinched, head up, weight over the heels/mid foot. Learn good squat form, then progress onto front squats so you can learn how to properly rack the weight.
If you want to cut some of the learning curve time on the rack and get some explosive work in, just do hanging high pulls. They are easier to teach sometimes when people get all confused over thinking too much about the arm action.
High Pulls:
Just start in a good power position, hips back, weight over heels, arched back, head up. In your hang cleans you were starting from an almost standing position. So start in a good power position, keep the bar close to your body, and use the arms as hooks as said above. The bar could be hanging anywhere from mid thigh to right below the knees.
Initiate the pull with driving your hips forward and shrugging after your hips get the bar moving, and naturally you will probably be popping up on your toes as well. Keep that bar close to your body going right up your core and chest, once it breaks the level your arms are not going to be straight point those elbows to the stars continuing to keep the bar close to the body.
Once it reaches its max height (watch your chin), do not try to hold it there just let it fall back down (BUT continue to keep that athletic position and the bar under some sort of control). Re-set the athletic position, and go for another pull.
You could do some searching on Mike Boyle, or buy a video or book of his. I do not know the technical term for it, but I call it the “Boyle hitch”, you can spot in a mile away. It is some rocking motion that forces you to get your hips back and use them to initiate the clean or high pull.
Anyone I know who has trained at his facility or by people under him is prety dang good at the o-lifts, so its worth checking out how they teach it if you have problems getting in the power position and initiating the pull with your hips.
This is a VERY generic, pre-morning coffee explanation of a hanging high pull…just dont want to see you enthusiastic but not able to get some advice to try to implement next time you are in the gym.
Id definetly try to find a coach though, if not get some books and videos and start educating yourself and being familiar with the visual positions. You can get really hurt doing them wrong, and we could walk into many a gym and see knuckleheads doing crazy variations of o-lifts because they heard they were good from a bodybuilding magazine or something, or they did them in high school with a coach who may or may not have taught them properly…
scary side note thought, Ive seen some of the classic Bill Starr articles in Ironman (and he knows his stuff), wonderful articles, but the editors put pictures of banana hammock bodybuilders with HORRENDOUS form trying to pretend they are doing cleans or snatches (with lots of plates on the side, yea right haha). So do not use bodybuilding magazines as your source for good pics of olympic lifting technique.
God Bless, Good Luck
it looks to me like you’re breaking your elbows before your traps fire. keep your elbows straight and really POP those traps. you should be able to find alot more speed/power/snap before adding on more weight.
[quote]selamtewab wrote:
hey people, i just started doing power cleans and i ve found it to be the best exercise i ve ever done. it makes the whole body function as a whole and i like that about it, any ways i have clip of me doing very light wight, check out the clip and tell me what im doing wrong…
constructive criticisms please. Thanks
Keep powercleaning!!!
You are on the right track!
You should focus on technique ,because it is not good.Be patient.you need a lot of technical drilling to master the technique.
But its all worth it.
You are using your arms too much–thats because you are not using hip thrust enough.
You should also work on second phase—getting under the bar after the pull.
there are 3 phases of power clean-
1.pull–pulling the weight up explosively
2.getting under the bar
3.stabilizing the weight and extending the legs
you should also keep your chest up.
you are not controlling the weight good enough-it seems to throw you all over the place-you need more control.
now,lets break it down to phases-
1.in the pull,use your legs and hips to pull fast
2.geting under the bar–work on knee bend and timing
3.thrird phase-control of the weight emphasized
please,dont let this critique doesnt discourage you.You are doing well for a begginer.
I am doing power-cleans 2-3 times a week for over 2 years and i still do a lot of light-weight work on my technique to be better and able to power clean more.
Stay strong!
[quote]bluecollarjock wrote:
Bro, good job on tackling cleans. It will serve you well in the long run over lots of the garbage out there.
You may want to get a book and video on Olympic Lifting so you can see technical breakdowns on the lifts. That would be easier for you to read and visually see the coaching points, moreso than read on the internet. Someone may have some good links to cleans broken down and post them here?
That or go to Human Kinetics or maybe even a legit bookstore and look for Explosive Lifting for Sports.
Or, look up USAWF and go to their 2 day Club Coach seminar. You would get hands on for two days by some good coaches Id assume. If you are near a decent college athletics program, maybe you can weasel your way into asking a coach.
If you are near a Velocity, Parisi, or other speed school type franchise you might find some USAWF or good CSCS guys or gals with a background of coaching o-lifts.
Of course these options all take time and/or money. If you cannot do any of these, Id go with some of the advice above. First, learn how to get in a good power position. Hips back, shoulder blades pinched, head up, weight over the heels/mid foot. Learn good squat form, then progress onto front squats so you can learn how to properly rack the weight.
If you want to cut some of the learning curve time on the rack and get some explosive work in, just do hanging high pulls. They are easier to teach sometimes when people get all confused over thinking too much about the arm action.
High Pulls:
Just start in a good power position, hips back, weight over heels, arched back, head up. In your hang cleans you were starting from an almost standing position. So start in a good power position, keep the bar close to your body, and use the arms as hooks as said above. The bar could be hanging anywhere from mid thigh to right below the knees.
Initiate the pull with driving your hips forward and shrugging after your hips get the bar moving, and naturally you will probably be popping up on your toes as well. Keep that bar close to your body going right up your core and chest, once it breaks the level your arms are not going to be straight point those elbows to the stars continuing to keep the bar close to the body.
Once it reaches its max height (watch your chin), do not try to hold it there just let it fall back down (BUT continue to keep that athletic position and the bar under some sort of control). Re-set the athletic position, and go for another pull.
You could do some searching on Mike Boyle, or buy a video or book of his. I do not know the technical term for it, but I call it the “Boyle hitch”, you can spot in a mile away. It is some rocking motion that forces you to get your hips back and use them to initiate the clean or high pull.
Anyone I know who has trained at his facility or by people under him is prety dang good at the o-lifts, so its worth checking out how they teach it if you have problems getting in the power position and initiating the pull with your hips.
This is a VERY generic, pre-morning coffee explanation of a hanging high pull…just dont want to see you enthusiastic but not able to get some advice to try to implement next time you are in the gym.
Id definetly try to find a coach though, if not get some books and videos and start educating yourself and being familiar with the visual positions. You can get really hurt doing them wrong, and we could walk into many a gym and see knuckleheads doing crazy variations of o-lifts because they heard they were good from a bodybuilding magazine or something, or they did them in high school with a coach who may or may not have taught them properly…
scary side note thought, Ive seen some of the classic Bill Starr articles in Ironman (and he knows his stuff), wonderful articles, but the editors put pictures of banana hammock bodybuilders with HORRENDOUS form trying to pretend they are doing cleans or snatches (with lots of plates on the side, yea right haha). So do not use bodybuilding magazines as your source for good pics of olympic lifting technique.
God Bless, Good Luck[/quote]
Great tips on high pulls!
This is all great advice for the poster and me included. Thank you all for taking the time with your help!
Check this article out I use it when ever I go back to Power cleaning after a lay off, because it shows how to learn the lift.
Good luck
Will42
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=06-059-training
i just wanna thank you guys for taking to the time to respond to my thread. i will definately apply the advice you gave me in the wight room… thanks again
Cool, good luck my friend. Hanging high pulls are a good way to get solid work in and great results, teaching you triple extension before you gotta worry about the rack and arm mechanics…it will teach you to keep the bar close to body as well