Tuesday at indestri The "Clean" August 22/17
It was getting messy, so I thought we should Clean
Even before CrossFit, Most of us have done Squats, Deadlifts and the Bench Press at some point if you came from any fitness regime at all. These are not new exercises to the regular gym goer. If you played high school or college sports, you were probably taught a bastardized version of The Clean. Until CrossFit, most of us, however, haven’t had the opportunity to do any Olympic Weightlifting or their variations of these lifts.Olympic Weightlifting is an International Sport where lifters compete in two lifts: The Snatch and The Clean & Jerk. Until the past decade, this sport was pretty much unknown to most North Americans, but with the rise of CrossFit, there’s been a huge surge of athletes doing the lifts and coaches coaching them.As a coach and gym owner, these two exercises and their variations are some of the most valuable tools in our toolbox. There are no other exercises that do a better job of training total body strength and power. I’m not going to rant on why you should do them, as there are already tons of articles online about that. Instead, we’ll talk about how to actually do them piece by piece and give you the fundamental knowledge we preach at Indestri.
Why You Should be Doing Them
- Train explosive power in the hips
- Increase strength
- Improve hip and shoulder mobility
- Increase the athlete’s proprioception / body awareness
- Hammers on the core
We are going to break down one lift in this blog today,
The Clean
The Clean is taking the bar from the ground up onto the shoulders in one fluid movement. We’ll go over The Clean in today's class and later this week we’ll look at The Snatch.
The Rack
We’ll work from the top down on this. The rack is the position where you will receive the bar. A good front rack will have the following characteristics.
- Hands are 1-2 inches wider than your shoulders
- Let the bar sit on the the meaty portion of your shoulders, the weight should be there and not in your hands
- Open and relax the hands, let the bar roll out towards the finger tips
- Your elbows should be up pointing towards the wall in front of you
- Head and eyes are straight ahead / slightly up
Common Mistakes:
- Not relaxing the grip on the bar (a death grip will keep the elbows from getting high enough)
- Holding the weight in the hands instead of letting it rest on the shoulders
- Not continuously working on that front rack mobility
The Hang Position
The Hang Position is a spot just above the knees that the barbell will pass as it comes from the ground up to the shoulders. This position is also the one you’ll work from when your developing the 2nd pull. The body’s position in the hang is very similar to that of the Romanian Deadlift so you may hear it referred to as the RDL position.
- Feet should be shoulder width apart
- Slightly bend the knees
- Set your back
- Hinge at the hips and lower the bar to just above the knee caps
- The chest and shoulders should be out in front of the bar
- You should be pressing the bar back into the thighs
- Head and eyes remain straight ahead / slightly up
Common Mistakes:
- Bending the knees too much (start with a slight bend, then hinge at the hips the rest of the way down)
- Not bending the knees at all and pulling only with the back
Hang Power Clean
Now let’s take the two positions and connect them.
- Start in a good Hang Position
- Extend the hips forward and as the bar comes up the legs, add a little "pop". The movement in the hips should be similar to that of jumping as high as you can.
- Shrug/pull that bar up the Body
- Drop under the bar. When you drop, rotate the elbows around quickly and relax your grip.
- You should receive the bar in a quarter squat with a good rack position.
- Stand up
Common Mistakes:
- Muscling the bar up by using the arms (use the power generated from the hips and drop under the weight)
- popping the hip and knocking the bar away from the body, as opposed to knocking the bar up and pulling up the body.
- Don't make a "C" with the bar path, keep it tight.
Hang Clean to (Squat Clean)
As the weight of the bar increases, it becomes harder and harder to pull the bar all the way up on to the shoulders. To lift heavier loads, you’ll need to receive the bar in a lower position. A full clean requires the athlete to drop into a squat and receive the barbell. The more experienced the athlete, the lower they’ll receive the bar. Newer athletes should start by catching it about parallel and riding it down into a deep squat.
(Today's Level 2 progression)
- Execute a Hang Power Clean
- Instead of standing up right after receiving the barbell, you’ll continue to ride it down into a full squat
- Your feet will transition out to a slightly wider squat stance as you drop
- A full squat is as deep as you can go while maintaining a flat back and flat feet and engaged ham strings
- Make sure to maintain a good rack position with the elbows up, lower back tight
- Stand up
Common Mistakes:
- Jumping into too wide of a stance (a good squat stance will have the heels about shoulder width, with the toes flared out a bit)
- Letting the knees dive in as you stand up or drop down(keep your knees pushed out and feet flat)
- dropping the elbows in the bottom, resulting in core collapse and missed lifts or back strain.
Full Clean - From the Ground Up
- Feet should be about shoulder width with toes slightly flared out
- Your grip should be the same as the rack position. For most males, it’ll be about thumbs length from the knurling on the bar, the spot where it changes from smooth to rough, and females a bit more narrow. ( Depending on shoulder width.)
- step up to the bar until it touches the shins ( bar over laces)
- Drop your butt and set your back ( make a triangle)
- The hips should be slightly higher then the knees
- Head and eyes should be straight ahead / slightly up
- Squeeze the bar off the ground slowly, keeping it close to the shins
- As the bar approaches the knees, push them back out of the way and start to apply some speed
- Once the bar passes the knees, you’ll be in the hang position and will do the same as a Hang Power Clean or Hang Clean
Common Mistakes:
- Rounded back (make sure the back is flat and tight)
- Jerking the bar off the ground (squeeze it off the ground nice and slow, apply force as it comes up the body)
- Pulling to fast, knees can't get back
- Not opening the hips at full extension, dropping to soon
- Elbows to slow or not far enough up.
- Afraid to commit, missing the weightless moment
..
Conclusion:
These are just some basic reminders and technical points that without execution, cause the common faults listed above. Reminder, that without the correct mobility we need to scale and progress. This could be as simple as a hip thruster or a KB swing to continue to develop the movement. It is here in the progressions we get to become better. There is nothing wrong with scaling back and perfecting each progression even when you have accomplished the higher progression. All parts of these lifts deserve equal attention. Take your time and progress with perfection..
Tuesday August 22, 2017
Focus:
COMPLEX E2MOM for 12 minutes - increase to heavier than WOD weight on final set1 Clean Shrug2 Clean Pull1 Power Clean1 Hang Power Clean2 Front Squats1 Squat Clean.
Workout Of the Day:
15 min AMRAP5 Squat Cleans, 155/1055 Burpees, jumping over the bar.
Lvl 2 Fitness
15 min AMRAP5 Hang Power Clean & Front squat, 135/955 Burpees, jumping over the bar.
Lvl 1 Technique:
15 min AMRAP5 Power Cleans, 95/655 Burpees, jumping over the bar.
Lvl 4 Competitor:
15 min AMRAP5 Squat Cleans, 185/1255 Burpees, jumping over the bar**Hold at least 1 round a minute**.
Cash Out:
Coaches Choice.Check back each night at 8pm for the next days WOD.
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