Power Clean Max

[keeney33]

What are some workouts that will help my power clean max go up?

[cthomp2727]

powerclean 3x a week if you can. brought mine from about 85 pounds to 160 and still rising.

[CJ93UK]

How to improve your powerclean:

What is a powerclean?

A powerclean is a full clean done without bending your knees more than 90 degrees. Many times in sports movies and high school weight rooms (whenever I refer to a high school weight room it has a negative connotation and I am making a mockery of what is done inside of them. This also applies to whenever I refer to a commercial gym or a fitness center.) you see people do powercleans without bending their knees much. All this does is require them to lift the bar higher to have time to get under it, which means you can’t use as much weight you could if you didn’t pull the bar as high. However, it is hard to catch any weight exactly at parallel and stopping it there without riding it down. With practice you’ll be able to catch the weight a little above parallel and then stop the bar’s downward movement by the time your knee angle is 90 degrees.

Of course, none of that may mean much if you don't know what a full clean is, but if you do you can now differentiate between a full clean and a powerclean. If you don’t, then just watch the videos in the link provided below until you hear the commentators say that somebody did a powerclean. Then you will know what one is.

Go here, download all the videos, and look for the ones that feature Lara. In one of them Lara, weighing around 165 pounds, I think, will powerclean 420 pounds. Watch all the videos though. Study the videos to see some of the best in the world using good form. http://f1.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/bubba1...case.yahoo.com/ The most important thing to do to increase your powerclean is to learn good technique, and the best way to do that is by watching the masters. Actually, the best way is to find an olympic training coach and have him/her teach you, but that can be hard to do. Both of these methods are better than getting verbal lessons over the internet, but the verbal lessons do help (that's why I'm writing the article ).

The parts of the powerclean:

There are actually three parts to the powerclean: the first pull, the second pull, and the catch. The first pull is when you pull the bar off the floor to right above your knees. The second pull is when you explode the bar upward as soon as it gets above your knees. The catch is when you flip your wrists, drop under the bar, and rotate your elbows around to catch the bar.

The first pull can also be referred to as a clean deadlift. While a powerlifting and bodybuilding style deadlift is done with a mixed grip (one hand facing forward and one hand facing backward) and with the shoulders behind the bar, a clean deadlift is done with a double overhand grip and the shoulders directly above or in front of the bar. The bar should start right next to your shins. You should NOT pull the bar up as quickly as possible. You should pull it up with some speed, but at a steady pace. Do not overexert yourself on this. If you pull as fast as possible on the first pull, you won't be able to explode as efficiently on the second pull. Also, the only bodypart that should be moving in the first pull is your legs. You back should stay at the same angle from when you first pick up the bar until the end of the first pull.

The second pull is the most technical part of the powerclean. The second pull begins just as the barbell clears the knees. Basically you do one thing: explode. Explode upward on your tiptoes while straightening your back. Also, and this is important, shrug with your traps, HARD. As you do this, keep your arms straight. This is the first area that most people have problems with. They want to bend their arms and reverse curl the bar upward. You should not do this. Your legs traps, and back should all work to make the bar go upward. Think so your arms as ropes; they are just there to connect the bar to your body, nothing more (until later). The straighter the bar goes upward the better. As soon as you have finished exploding upward immediately bend your knees to catch the bar.

The catch isn't hard, as long as you have flexible wrists. As you bend your knees to get under the bar, rotate your elbows as quickly as possible. The lower they are, the harder it will be to make the catch, so try to keep them up. It may take some getting used to, but the better you are at flipping your elbows up to be parallel to the floor the more likely you are to catch the bar.. If you have flexible wrists, you should be able to catch the bar on your shoulders without difficulty. If you don’t have flexible wrists, then manually stretch them and start doing front squats with a clean grip. More on that later.

How to improve each part of the powerclean:

Practicing form is the number one way to improve your powerclean. At first, just use an empty barbell and do everything many times until all of the movements become second nature. This could take a few days if you are just starting with powercleans or weeks if you have done them for a long time with bad form. After the movements become easy, start adding weight in ten pound increments and do a lot of singles, doubles, and triples with the weight. Once your form is great with that weight, add more ten more pounds and repeat. Keep doing this until you get to a weight that you can’t powerclean. If everything works perfectly, this will be your max with good form. Chances are that your form will suffer a bit when you get to within 90% of your max. When your form starts to suffer, take a little weight off the bar and do a bunch of singles and doubles with great form. Then move back up and try again. This whole process may take a few days if you are lucky, a few weeks if you are honest to yourself about what your problems are and very meticulous with your form, or a few months if you have used bad form for a long time and are having trouble with learning the new motor patterns. Regardless, keep practicing until your form is perfect. This is more vital than anything else (for using maximum weight and safety).

To improve the first pull, you basically just need to improve your clean deadlift. The higher your clean deadlift, the more weight you can do in the first pull without it feeling heavy. This will give you more confidence in your ability to powerclean the weight and it will make it easier to explode. Make sure that throughout the first pull your back remains at the same angle. Your shoulders should be over or in front of the bar at the start, and you should have grip on the bar that is just outside your shins. Make the first pull steady, but don’t worry about getting it up with lightning speed; save that for the second pull. I’ll write another article on how to increase your deadlift.

To improve the second pull, you need to learn how to explode upwards while shrugging hard and raising up on your toes. Some good exercises to help with this are power shrugs, explosive olympic style good mornings, and clean pulls.

Powershrugs are regular shrugs done with a barbell, but you explode upward on your toes while you do them. They work your calves and your traps and teach you to use both of them at once. They also teach you to keep your arms straight while you shrug and raise up on your toes. This is important; your arms should not bend until after this step is taken.

Explosive olympic style good mornings are regular good mornings but you explode upward on your toes while you do them. You actually don't have to bend over all the way. Just bend down so that your back is bent slightly more than it is with powercleans, and stick your butt out while you do them. Doing them this way mimics what the powerclean will look like.

Clean pulls are where you do the whole powerclean except the catch. It is like an upright row, but you do them like a powerclean (and you don't have to worry about shoulder impingement like you do with upright rows). You can use more weight than your max powerclean and just concentrate on pulling as high as possible (or you can use less weight and do the same thing). These will help a lot because when you don’t have to worry about dropping under the bar to catch it the rest of the lift becomes simpler.

To improve the catch you need to do two things:

You need to practice flipping your elbows around as quickly as possible. If you look at the videos in the link, you'll see that all of the lifters have their elbows pointing straight outward when they catch the bar. Most people without much training will have their elbows be perpendicular to the ground, when they should be parallel. Just practice on rotating your elbows quickly when you do them; it will make the catch easier when you are going as heavy as possible. It will also take almost all the stress off your arms and you will dramatically reduce the chance of getting an injury.

The other thing you need to do is make your wrists more flexible. To do this you need to start doing front squats with a clean grip. Do not cross your arms over the bar; it won't help anything. Use a clean grip and do them. At first you won't be able to use much weight because your wrists won't be flexible enough. Give it a few weeks. When I first did them, I couldn't use more than 70 pounds. After 6 weeks I could use 200. Also, you should manually stretch your wrists throughout the day. If you are just sitting around doing nothing you can stretching your wrists by pushing your hands against each other (I'm sure you can figure out what I mean).

All comments, suggestions, and critiques are welcome. This is my first article!

-Ben Levinson a.k.a. Heisman

Hmm?

[BioSmith91]

What are some workouts that will help my power clean max go up?

To add strength to any movement, I recommend high volume with a low weight not done to failure in addition to your regular work. For technical movements such as the power clean or snatch this is especially important.

Back when I did football power cleans were never heavily emphasized, nor properly taught. I always did as much as I could on power clean and tried to do more, which always ended in failed attempts. Needless to say I never progressed passed 185 and it was insanely frustrating. Then I started practicing just with the bar and 135 and within two months I was cleaning 250. Had I continued with this method for a longer period of time, I'm sure I could've continued to progress further.

[SuffolkPunch]

Do heavy singles. Find the heaviest weight where you can perform a single every 45-60 seconds - for about 10-15 singles.