How far apart should my hands be if I’m using a 7’ bar instead of a standard olympic weightlifting bar? I see that on an olylifting bar most have their hands at the ends, but my shoulders don’t allow me to do this. What can I do to find the right length in between my hands?
Drop our left arm down straight, point your right arm out at 90 degrees. From left shouder to right fingertip is your starting point. Adjust a little as needed.
The bar should end up about 4 or 5 inches or so over your head in the overhead position.
-Dan
You should catch it 6 inches above your head.
If you are not comfortable with that, slowly work your hands out as your shoulders get more flexible.
Another rule of thumb is to set your snatch grip and see where the bar hits with a slight bend in your knees. It should end up right at the crease in your hips.
Another way that my weightlifting coach uses is; raise you arms to your side so they’re parrallel to the ground (like your forming a T), then rotate your arms in and bend at your elbws so your fingers are pointing towards the ground. The distance between your hands in that postion is a good starting point.
After reading the posts and then trying to use the correct grip (arms are out 90 degrees, evenly spaced from center of bar), I’m just going to start by using my power clean grip and gradually widening it out over time.
standard olympic bars have markings 91cms apart, depending on your size adjust from there and see what feels comfortable, ohterwise the method posted above is a good starting point, elbow to elbow when arms are horizontal, or shoulder to opposite fist is another one, but these are not always exact just used what feels wright when overhead squating
[quote]WildcatBaseball wrote:
…I see that on an olylifting bar most have their hands at the ends, but my shoulders don’t allow me to do this…
After reading the posts and then trying to use the correct grip (arms are out 90 degrees, evenly spaced from center of bar), I’m just going to start by using my power clean grip and gradually widening it out over time.[/quote]
Why won’t your shoulders allow you to grip the bar at the ends while holding it overhead? This should require LESS shoulder flexibility than holding the bar overhead with a jerk grip.
How’s your overhead squat? How’s your shoulder dislocate stretch?
[quote]Ross Hunt wrote:
WildcatBaseball wrote:
…I see that on an olylifting bar most have their hands at the ends, but my shoulders don’t allow me to do this…
After reading the posts and then trying to use the correct grip (arms are out 90 degrees, evenly spaced from center of bar), I’m just going to start by using my power clean grip and gradually widening it out over time.
Why won’t your shoulders allow you to grip the bar at the ends while holding it overhead? This should require LESS shoulder flexibility than holding the bar overhead with a jerk grip.
How’s your overhead squat? How’s your shoulder dislocate stretch? [/quote]
Maybe I was just thinking too much about the form and not just doing the lift. The ceiling I was using is also very low, so I was also concerned about not hitting the ceiling. To answer your other questions, I’ve never overhead squatted before, and I’ve never heard of the shoulder dislocate stretch, but I am doing a stretch for my shoulders that stretches them very far. Maybe we are talking about the same thing and we just don’t know it.