Posted: 4/23/2010 11:19:35 AM EDT
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How good is this lift? I have been thinking about adding those in to my routine, but I am really a bit unsure on them. I would describe myself as an intermediate experienced lifter, which means I have proper form on my deadlift and squats. I really don't want to injure myself or look like a fool doing them. It seems to be a fairly loud lift. Is really necessary to jump as seen in most of the instructional vids? And do you have to drop the bar back to the ground? Or is fine to lower it back? Anyway, if anyone has any experience with this, please give me some advice. I may not even need to add this lift in.
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Quoted:
How good is this lift? I have been thinking about adding those in to my routine, but I am really a bit unsure on them. I would describe myself as an intermediate experienced lifter, which means I have proper form on my deadlift and squats. I really don't want to injure myself or look like a fool doing them. It seems to be a fairly loud lift. Is really necessary to jump as seen in most of the instructional vids? And do you have to drop the bar back to the ground? Or is fine to lower it back? Anyway, if anyone has any experience with this, please give me some advice. I may not even need to add this lift in. I don't like them. I do dead lift and cleans. Separately. It seems like a sloppy workout together, and doing them separately allows you to use the proper weight and technique for both exercises. |
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I don't like them. I do dead lift and cleans. Separately. It seems like a sloppy workout together, and doing them separately allows you to use the proper weight and technique for both exercises.[/div] Sprinter/Jumps collegiate athlete and coach here. We do power cleans all the time, as well as snatches, clean and jerk, and single-arm snatches along with various squats and deadlifts. It is not sloppy to do both in the same workout together and you can still use proper technique for both in the same workout. The order is important though throughout your training. Generally we end with Olympic lifts like the power clean because this leaves the body with the explosive impression we want our athletes to acquire. This transfers to usable force output when sprinting and jumping. Power cleans are an AWESOME lift for somebody wanting to get stronger, faster, and more explosive. It works the entire kinetic chain (calves, hamstrings, glutes, back, shoulders). Yes, you want to jump and get feet off the ground if possible. This is an explosive lift. Do not dally with the weight otherwise you're just training to be less explosive and more likely to suffer injury. Use bumper plates and be on a platform or strong cement flooring with rubber pads down and do let the weight drop. You do not want to be letting down your body weight and more on the bar without letting it go, it can wreck your back and will also limit how much you can actually lift. Starting out we have jumpers break the whole lift down into segments of the whole power clean lift. To familiarize yourself with exploding up and getting full extension of your body and using your shoulders to shrug the weight up we do what we call Power Pulls, starting with the bar on the ground and getting the bar up to just below the pecs, keeping the bar close to the body the whole time, and then letting the weight drop without getting under the bar. Then we'll progress to hang cleans, then eventually doing the whole lift. Later on we'll progress to hang snatches and full snatches. ETA: bold type |
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Everyone is different but I learn from Tom Hirtz, google him if you want, and you never just drop the weight. I don't know what your watching so I don't know what exactly you mean by dropping the weight but we had to keep our hands on the bar and control the weight all the way down and control the bounce too. Just dropping the the bar from even your shoulders, let alone from over your head, would get you yell at about disrespecting the equipment and the safety of those around you. Missing a lift was different but on a made lift you controled the weight going down too.
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| Oh and you got to get your feet off the ground. 007 is right about how great the lift is for your over-all fitness and what you need to do to learn to do it right. But you don't need to be "loud". That could partly be the result of the shoes that are being worn and the specific individual that is doing the lift. When I wear my lifting shoes I make a some noise and not much at all with my normal gym shoes on. But I've been around people that slam their feet down so hard I would swear that they should have broken something. All the noise really means is that your feet have left the ground. Is that what you mean by "a loud lift"? |
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Power cleans will beef you up! An excellent way to build explosive power, balance and core. From the floor up do them, and try some jerks at the end. You'll know you're power cleaning good when you can snatch.
Do this, measure your vertical jump, do the power cleans for a good few months and then measure the vertical jump again. It will be up! I don't quite understand the post regarding sound of feet, some excellent lifts styles actually shift the feet in the catch phase. What harm can it do to try them? It's only going to make you stronger. |
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I just started doing PC's in January and they have quickly become one of my favorite excercises. I lift at a Gold's gym that doesn't have bumpers so I don't drop the weights. Get the book/video Starting Strength by Marc Rippetoe. It covers the squat, deadlift, benchpress and power clean.
My upper back has really benefited from the PC. I do them once a week on Mondays after Squat and Flat bench. I'm the only guy in my gym who I've ever seen doing this lift 
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I guess I should clearer on dropping the weights. Bumper plates are meant to be dropped and not be a safety issue to anyone. There are two ways you can 'drop' the weights. You can keep your hands on the bar on the way down and just guide it down to keep the bar even upon contact with the ground with hardly any muscular force or interruption of the bar's momentum down. The second way is just letting the bar drop without hands on the bar and then slightly catching/blocking the bar on it's rebound (about a foot) off the ground just to keep it level and both sides of the bar hitting evenly.
Eventually you're going to get to the point where you'll have to drop the weight to continue to get stronger. When your PCs are 150%+ of your body weight the momentum down puts a lot of stress on the lower back and it's 200%+ of your body weight because of the acceleration due to gravity. |
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PCs are HARD to learn how to do, in my experience. Don't just look at pics, watch videos, at least a few different ones, and practice totally unloaded, then with an empty bar, before you even consider sticking any weight on there.
They are also a great workout in terms of energy used; nothing in the Starting Strength program makes me as tired and takes as long to recover from as power cleans. Probably best to do them at the end of your workout. Also, I don't drop the bar yet, but I'm working with low (sub-100 lb) weights as yet. This is pretty good for me since, as a student, I work out at my college's gym and would get my ass chewed out for dropping the weights if I actually needed to, much less as a regular part of the exercise. Once you start getting up there in weight you apparently pretty much will need to throw on bumper plates and start dropping, but by then you might be able to find somewhere more friendly to the idea (and with the requisite equipment) than, say, the local Gold's Gym. |
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Quoted:
I guess I should clearer on dropping the weights. Bumper plates are meant to be dropped and not be a safety issue to anyone. There are two ways you can 'drop' the weights. You can keep your hands on the bar on the way down and just guide it down to keep the bar even upon contact with the ground with hardly any muscular force or interruption of the bar's momentum down. The second way is just letting the bar drop without hands on the bar and then slightly catching/blocking the bar on it's rebound (about a foot) off the ground just to keep it level and both sides of the bar hitting evenly. Eventually you're going to get to the point where you'll have to drop the weight to continue to get stronger. When your PCs are 150%+ of your body weight the momentum down puts a lot of stress on the lower back and it's 200%+ of your body weight because of the acceleration due to gravity. The day I throwing up a 375lb - 500lb power clean is the day that I don't need to worry about anyone telling me not to drop weights in the gym 
I'm only at about 90% of my BW for 5 reps now. |
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Thanks for all the advice and tips! I picked up an olympic bar and weights from craigslist today. Since it is the last lift I will be doing, I am going to do them at home until I feel competent. I like to come home and cooldown on the heavy bag anyway, so I will just fit this in. Thanks again!
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| If the aren't bumper plates, go get some rubber mats to protect the floor and the weights. I went to a local feed store and bought 2 4x6 stall mats, cut them so I had 4 6x2 mats and stacked them. Worked well, just a bitch to cut. Best way is to just use a utility knife. Around here they are about $30 a mat. |