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I wish I could push harder but I can't

By Jim Wendler

JW: First of all, power cleans aren't that hard to learn. It seems like everyone believes they're as complicated and difficult to do as organic chemistry. If that were the case, people who stock shelves at Home Depot and Lowe's would be the most amazing athletes ever. Picking something up and racking it across the shoulders is a natural movement, so don't let these experts ruin a fun exercise.

Now if you're going to be a competitive Olympic lifter it might be different, but you don't need to hire a quarterback coach in order to throw a football around with your friends, do you?

These aren't going to hurt your squat or deadlift in the least bit; for some this might actually increase their deadlift due to the extra upper back work. I usually have people do these as the first exercise of the day, right before they squat or deadlift.
Most of the time people get a good boost to their second exercise due to the explosive nature of the power clean. For sets and reps, I highly recommend people use my 5/3/1 set up; it's easy to follow and you might actually get stronger.
Here are some easy ways to teach yourself how to power clean:

1. First, be sure you can walk and chew Red Man at the same time.

2. Please be able to show me you have some kind of muscle development and coordination and can do pushups, sit-ups, dips, and lunges (without falling).

3. Pick the bar up with good form (i.e. deadlift).

4. Once the bar passes the knees, jump like you mean it.

5. Rack the barbell across shoulders and stand up.

6. Put the bar back down again.

7. Don't be a ****ing pussy with this exercise or wimp it up.

Hope this helps
 
-LJ- said:
Near Hanging Rock out in the Wilderness.
Click to expand...

Hitch a ride with Frojo, he's coming from Shepp, shouldnt be too hard to organize, make the effort and I'll make the effort to help, just one session to demonstrate training.
 
raphsta said:
-LJ- .. What else are you leaving out from Starting Strength? Squats and Milk?

Click to expand...

I do most I promise!

Squat
Bench Press
Military Press
Dead Lift
Bent over Rows (instead of powercleans)

I also drink a lot of Soy Milk. I hope this doesn't give me man boobs?
I have to admit, I also do bicep curls
 
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Starting Strength advises that if you've no-one to coach you in the power clean face-to-face, you probably ought to do rows instead.

Can't say myself whether that's a brilliant idea, just saying that LJ did not pull that out of his bum, it came from the book's authour.

My instinct is that you should choose one coach or trainer and follow them, trying to follow several different ones will give you a headache. So listen to the book, or to Markos (PTC), or to Nick (NPR), or to Fadi, or whoever sounds good to you - but stick with one of them. They all have good reasons to think as they do... even though they think differently
 


That helps a lot.

That seems pretty easy to understand. Do you also use your arms to pull up the bar after it has passed the knees?
 
Thank you Katie, it doesn't look like you pull your arms up, just bend them around to hold the bar in the position to start a press.

According to this data

Power Clean Standards

An untrained person should be able to do 80lb powerclean. I might start at say 60lb and see if I can make 3 x 5.
 
watch lots of videos. that's how i learnt

I also went down to the shire once, learnt some little tips along the way too, but you can learn the bulk of it yourself imho.

squats are more troubling for me than powercleans at the moment
 
I did 90lb powercleans today.

I have to admit, first it was squats that nearly made me pass out, then deadlifts and now today after doing some powercleans it made me want to pass out. Felt good though.
 
thats why generally yu dont do more than 5 reps at a time in cleans as they are damn tiring. add a jerk in there as well at the top and welcome to vision loss and black spots
 
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Dont get caught up in the weight you start with, just the weight you finish with.

If 40kg is all you can clean, then thats all you can clean. Dont worry about others.

Its the progress that matters. If in 2 months your still doing cleans with 40kg, its a problem.
 
Cleans take a fair while to get good at anyway. a whole heap of the lift is in the technique. i need to find an olympic lifting place where proper coaching can be available as i would love to improve my technique more or have someone show me what to improve on.
 
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