can someone advise a good powerclean routine?

[ulfhednar]

Started doing powercleans some months ago, and basicly my powerclean max (255lbs) majorly sucks for my body weight(250lbs). Any of you guys that play football or wrestle can advise a decent routine for powerclean progress? Really regret no one taught me how to do them properly when I was younger heh. As far as explosive lifts go, my best 225 bench is 27 reps, suppose thats good for my body weight, so the only thing I need to improve is powerclean.

[jgood]

Bench really has no influence on powercleans. Deadlift/rows and high pulls are the best assisting exercises for powercleans .... so do them in combination.

As for actual rep schemes ... I like doing 5x3 with the starting strength warmup .... 2x5 @ 45, 1x5, 1x3, 1x2 followed by the 5x3 of working sets. Then I take about 2 minutes between sets .... but rest times really depend on your sport. In baseball we have a good amount of rest after a couple of reps but in say football you will usually have less rest.

I would say for example on an upper/lower split have your uppers have rowing things obviously and then on one of the lowerbody days (for me I do it on my lighter day) have powercleans.

[titdoctor]

Started doing powercleans some months ago, and basicly my powerclean max (255lbs) majorly sucks for my body weight(250lbs). Any of you guys that play football or wrestle can advise a decent routine for powerclean progress? Really regret no one taught me how to do them properly when I was younger heh. As far as explosive lifts go, my best 225 bench is 27 reps, suppose thats good for my body weight, so the only thing I need to improve is powerclean.

I don't know if your looking for a special program to put 100 pounds on ur pw clean, but I do not think its out there (if you find one tell me :P). Atm, I am able to do 295 at the body weight of 225. When I was stuck at 255, I kept doing HEAVY singles and doubles, sometimes 10-15 of these in a session. But, I notice when it comes down to throwing up more weights its more will and technique, than pure brute strength.

Like now I'm again stuck at 295. I really fear going up anymore, because I do not have access to nice rubber weights and a platform. best execises that helped me improve my power clean


Pull ups (all grips) You should be able to do about 30 or more.
Deadlift
Explosive deadlift
Shrugs (although I never dedicated much time to them myself)
Core work of all kinds.


Squatting or deadlifting before power cleaning is not a good idea. Nice bench too man, wish I could do that many! But the above poster is right bench must have little or no carryover to power clean, because I can rep out about 15 225 reps.

[ulfhednar]

Bench really has no influence on powercleans. Deadlift/rows and high pulls are the best assisting exercises for powercleans .... so do them in combination.

As for actual rep schemes ... I like doing 5x3 with the starting strength warmup .... 2x5 @ 45, 1x5, 1x3, 1x2 followed by the 5x3 of working sets. Then I take about 2 minutes between sets .... but rest times really depend on your sport. In baseball we have a good amount of rest after a couple of reps but in say football you will usually have less rest.

I would say for example on an upper/lower split have your uppers have rowing things obviously and then on one of the lowerbody days (for me I do it on my lighter day) have powercleans.

I do freestyle wrestling so I suppose that would mean even less rest than in football heh, feck knows, probably like a minute would be ok.
What about %s? It would be easier to progress on powercleans knowing what % of max you have to lift on certain days, or you just lift according to how you feel trying to progress gradualy?

[titdoctor]

I do freestyle wrestling so I suppose that would mean even less rest than in football heh, feck knows, probably like a minute would be ok.
What about %s? It would be easier to progress on powercleans knowing what % of max you have to lift on certain days, or you just lift according to how you feel trying to progress gradualy?

Rest in between sets as long as you need. If your still tired from the last 2-3 reps, your not going to be 100% on the next heavy rep.

[ulfhednar]

I don't know if your looking for a special program to put 100 pounds on ur pw clean, but I do not think its out there (if you find one tell me :P). Atm, I am able to do 295 at the body weight of 225. When I was stuck at 255, I kept doing HEAVY singles and doubles, sometimes 10-15 of these in a session. But, I notice when it comes down to throwing up more weights its more will and technique, than pure brute strength.

Like now I'm again stuck at 295. I really fear going up anymore, because I do not have access to nice rubber weights and a platform. best execises that helped me improve my power clean


Pull ups (all grips) You should be able to do about 30 or more.
Deadlift
Explosive deadlift
Shrugs (although I never dedicated much time to them myself)
Core work of all kinds.


Squatting or deadlifting before power cleaning is not a good idea. Nice bench too man, wish I could do that many! But the above poster is right bench must have little or no carryover to power clean, because I can rep out about 15 225 reps.

30 pull ups? Dude hehe, Im far from that, when i was 210lbs I could do 23, after I gained weight with 20 rep squats in a pretty short time, 6 months or so, I can only do like 12 - 13.

Im thinking maybe on day 1 i could just do high reps, plus lighter weight can help me get my form even better, and on day two I can do sets of 2 or singles for maximum power... what do you think? I used to do high pulls before and jump shrugs, but after I read a thread where John Broz was answering questions about olympic lifting (in the powerlifting section), he told me theres no point in doing assistance lifts at all, if you want to get good at powercleans you must powerclean hm...His athlete Pat Mendes powercleans like 450 or 500lbs or something heh, so I guess he must be doing something very right.

[titdoctor]

30 pull ups? Dude hehe, Im far from that, when i was 210lbs I could do 23, after I gained weight with 20 rep squats in a pretty short time, 6 months or so, I can only do like 12 - 13.

Im thinking maybe on day 1 i could just do high reps, plus lighter weight can help me get my form even better, and on day two I can do sets of 2 or singles for maximum power... what do you think? I used to do high pulls before and jump shrugs, but after I read a thread where John Broz was answering questions about olympic lifting (in the powerlifting section), he told me theres no point in doing assistance lifts at all, if you want to get good at powercleans you must powerclean hm...His athlete Pat Mendes powercleans like 450 or 500lbs or something heh, so I guess he must be doing something very right.

Oh ya for sure, power clean is the only way you will get better at it. But, I see plenty of olympic lifters who use assistance lifts, a strong UPPER back is very important for olympic lifting. I also guarantee if you can powerclean 450-500 pounds you can atleast deadlift that or even more likely, alot more!

That sounds pretty good, just don't do too much or you won't progress enough on power clean. When your tired, that means you can no longer perform at peak power. It sounds like your on a pretty tough schedule as it is, it was always hard for me to make gains in the weight room, while doing a sport.

Best way stick to 2-3 days a week power cleaning, 1-2 days heavy, 1-2 days light. gl man and if you find out how to get that 450 pound clean (while staying clean) let me know. :P

[HitTheSprawl]

I suggest breaking the power clean into its different sections. learn each section with techniques then work each section. then add then together.

Romanian Deadlifts will probably work the first pull and scoop.

Clean pull - will work the second pull of the power clean


Clean High Pull - same as clean pull but u lifting it all the way up to before u catch


For the second pull phase, I usually tell my athletes to do a triple extension which is extension of the hips n knees n plantarflexion of the ankles. its a basic jump.

Front Squat - works squatting with barbell infront. mimics the squat after the catch. The reason why I like doing this is because of the arm position. many people dont know the arm position of the front squat which is the exact same position as the power clean. you want the barbell resting on your anterior delts with upper arm (humerus) almost parallel to the floor. if your elbows are too low, you will sprain your wrist or drop the weight.



I suggest learning the technique to the smallest detail (all the phases, pull, etc). then do the whole thing with like 35-45% of your max just so you get the technique down with resistance. you should be doing between 1-6 (varies by intensity) 1-3 sets with at least 3-6 minute rest between sets. plyometrics also helps because it promotes the SSC which is important but too long to explain.

[xxtwistedxx]

we really dont use power cleans much. during offseason for about 2-3 months but typically i stick with this routine. mind you im ONLY listing the oly lifts not everything else

Mon
Hang cleans

Wed
DB or BB single arm snatch

Fri
Hang Snatch

rep schemes are as follows

weeks 1-3
6x6 1-80% 2-82.5% 3-85%

wk 4-6
5x5 1-85% 2-87.5% 3-90%

wk 7-9
3x3 1-85,90,95 2-87.5,92.5,97.5 3-90,95,100

10-12
5x80 4x85 3x90 2x100 1x105
5x82.5 4x87.5 3x92.5 2x102.5 1x107.5
5x85 4x90 3x95 2x105 1x110

so far the numbers on my team (including myself) have been going up very well. we should peak just before indoor states and then be ready to go nuts during outdoor track season.

[jgood]

I do freestyle wrestling so I suppose that would mean even less rest than in football heh, feck knows, probably like a minute would be ok.
What about %s? It would be easier to progress on powercleans knowing what % of max you have to lift on certain days, or you just lift according to how you feel trying to progress gradualy?

I start around 80% or so and try to keep progressing. As a general rule when I stall for two weeks or so in a row then I'll take off maybe 10-15lb and get after it again.

[FB4ME]

30 pull ups? Dude hehe, Im far from that, when i was 210lbs I could do 23, after I gained weight with 20 rep squats in a pretty short time, 6 months or so, I can only do like 12 - 13.

Im thinking maybe on day 1 i could just do high reps, plus lighter weight can help me get my form even better, and on day two I can do sets of 2 or singles for maximum power... what do you think? I used to do high pulls before and jump shrugs, but after I read a thread where John Broz was answering questions about olympic lifting (in the powerlifting section), he told me theres no point in doing assistance lifts at all, if you want to get good at powercleans you must powerclean hm...His athlete Pat Mendes powercleans like 450 or 500lbs or something heh, so I guess he must be doing something very right.

I think your goal of trying to get your form down right first is a good idea. However, doing power cleans for reps is going to have an adverse effect on your form. if you want to concentrate on form then you need to do a medium weight in sets of 2-3 reps. If you use weight that is too light you will have to decelerate the movement, thus... bad form. if you do more than a few reps consecutively then you will begin cheating on form because you are concentrating too much on the reps as opposed to the form.

Whenever I do powercleans I never rush my sets, i just go when i feel i am ready (2-5 minutes)... I also dont rush my reps, and treat each rep as a new lift. I take my hands off the bar and stand up, move my feet and completely reset for the next rep. In my opinion powercleans should be all about control. If you want the same effect with less control and more brute force (like the majority of people who do them) then you should just go do keg tosses in your backyard (no seriously, its an awesome workout lol). Just my .02

[KiloNewton]

I have been thinkin about power cleans a lot lately.

In my experience with my own training and in traning my athletes power cleans won't make you stronger or more explosive. Strength goes up much faster with squats and deadlifts and explosiveness goes up faster with jumping. The only thing that I have really noticed improves with training power cleans is power cleans.

Now most of my athletes train 2-3 times per week in the gym. If they were cleaning more often would we see better imprvements? Under the legenary coach Ivan Abajiev the bulgarian team was training around six hours a day and always at maximum intensity producing some very strong athletes. However these athletes were training squats the same way, so I would still argue a large part of their strength came from squats.

There was a period when I was training cleans 5-6 times a week and made rapid improvements but again I don't think the improvements in my clean really translated to much else and I was training squats the same way which I do think translated to other performances. The experience has ultimately given me a long-lasting respect for back sqauts and front squats but a lingering uncertainty about power cleans.

In training my athletes I find their cleans improve after other lifts improve indicating that the cleans improve because they are stronger rather than that the cleans are improving their strength.

If anyone has really found that cleans helped their sports performance I'd be interested to hear how and how were you training at the time.

[xxtwistedxx]

I have been thinkin about power cleans a lot lately.

In my experience with my own training and in traning my athletes power cleans won't make you stronger or more explosive. Strength goes up much faster with squats and deadlifts and explosiveness goes up faster with jumping. The only thing that I have really noticed improves with training power cleans is power cleans.

Now most of my athletes train 2-3 times per week in the gym. If they were cleaning more often would we see better imprvements? Under the legenary coach Ivan Abajiev the bulgarian team was training around six hours a day and always at maximum intensity producing some very strong athletes. However these athletes were training squats the same way, so I would still argue a large part of their strength came from squats.

There was a period when I was training cleans 5-6 times a week and made rapid improvements but again I don't think the improvements in my clean really translated to much else and I was training squats the same way which I do think translated to other performances. The experience has ultimately given me a long-lasting respect for back sqauts and front squats but a lingering uncertainty about power cleans.

In training my athletes I find their cleans improve after other lifts improve indicating that the cleans improve because they are stronger rather than that the cleans are improving their strength.

If anyone has really found that cleans helped their sports performance I'd be interested to hear how and how were you training at the time.

see my above post

cleans do more than just build strength from my standpoint. they develop triple extension and learning to push against the floor and do this quickly. squats build absolute strength. jumps work speed. cleans involve both and they have been an effective staple in our program. i can easily correlate our best throwers to those with the greatest oly lifts. some of the smallest throwers in competiton but are far better with technique and understanding how their body works.

granted we still squat, jump, step up, we dont just do oly lifts and call it a day. but we also only perform hang cleans during pre and inseason. cleans from the floor ive always felt are better for offseason or for the olympic lifters. hang represents the start of a normal athletic position and the kid can extend the body fully without having to 'clear' the knees which usually results in locked out knees and then performing a hard RDL of sorts.

bonderchuk had an article that im still searching for that talked a lot about sinlge leg work over squats. mostly step ups. i have been using those quite often and im liking the results. although im not quite prepared to completely replace back and front squats with just step up routines but it is looking to be that way.

[jgood]

I have been thinkin about power cleans a lot lately.

In my experience with my own training and in traning my athletes power cleans won't make you stronger or more explosive. Strength goes up much faster with squats and deadlifts and explosiveness goes up faster with jumping. The only thing that I have really noticed improves with training power cleans is power cleans.

Now most of my athletes train 2-3 times per week in the gym. If they were cleaning more often would we see better imprvements? Under the legenary coach Ivan Abajiev the bulgarian team was training around six hours a day and always at maximum intensity producing some very strong athletes. However these athletes were training squats the same way, so I would still argue a large part of their strength came from squats.

There was a period when I was training cleans 5-6 times a week and made rapid improvements but again I don't think the improvements in my clean really translated to much else and I was training squats the same way which I do think translated to other performances. The experience has ultimately given me a long-lasting respect for back sqauts and front squats but a lingering uncertainty about power cleans.

In training my athletes I find their cleans improve after other lifts improve indicating that the cleans improve because they are stronger rather than that the cleans are improving their strength.

If anyone has really found that cleans helped their sports performance I'd be interested to hear how and how were you training at the time.

It is very important to understand that you DO NOT get stronger by doing a powerclean. I think that is a very common misconception. A powerclean (or clean just minus the deadlift part per rep) is a combination of several movements like what has been said in here .... but it is NOT a maximal load lift in the same sense as a deadlift or squat, the load is however dependent on the lift and your ability to perform it explosively. Since the clean is not a strength movement .... yes simply doing powercleans will not improve your strength because you need to strengthen all the movements seperately in alot of cases .... this is not true with squats and deadlifts since you can train them and see improvements week after week because they are maximal load exercises.

Like we have seen through WestSide, Defranco and many other trainers .... olympic lifts are not necessary .... but they are another tool that DOES teach explosion. Jump training is a great way to increase explosion but it is simply more a lowerbody exercise even though it does involve the arms and upperbody .... whereas a powerclean involves the whole body with the same weight.

Olympic lifting if used too frequently can lead to injury which is less common with a bodyweight exercise. Obviously jump training is much simplier to teach than a powerclean movement, but again using all these tools is ideal because they both have a place in a good routine. In alot of sports during season its not such a good idea to use powercleans for example though because the wrists and hands will take alot of abuse which is something else you have to take into account.

Anyways we have got off subject some because the op simply asked about a powerclean setup.