Hi, I just had a quick question about power cleans. When bringing the bar from the finished position (standing upright) back to the floor, do you guys do this in a controlled step where you bring it down to a hang and place it on the floor or do u just drop it?
The reason why I am wondering is because I have always placed the bar on the ground in a controlled manner, but i feel that this is starting to hurt my shoulders. (I have had torn cartiledge in one for years (before I even started weight training), and recently my other shoulder has really started to hurt). On the internet I have seen done both ways, but I cannot just drop it because at the places where I workout this is not allowed.
Also, I do power cleans twice a week after sprints, and I do 3x3 at about 85% (200 lbs). Is this too often to do these ( I do warmup, and have warmup sets)?? Do you think I am asking for trouble working out this way?
By the way I am 19 and weigh about 160 lbs. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
You are going to have to explain why you think it is not optimal to do them after sprint sessions. It wouldn’t be optimal if you were an olympic lifter that is for sure, but how about for a sprinter?
“Alternating your program” is another way of saying change the stimulus. Unfortunately, if this isn’t done slowly, it causes the stiffness, which in turn is a recipe for injury. Homogeneity within the program is one way of avoiding this.
In the old days Olympic lifters had to control the weights down to the floor - this also builds great eccentric strength. I have recenrly returned from working with Jim Schmitz who has been coaching Olympic lifters for 30 + years and 90% of the time his lifters controlled the weights down to the floor.
If you are using 90 - 100 % then yes I would drop it if not then there is no reason why you can’t controll the weights down. And if your shoulder is hurting then step away from the clean and concentrate on strengthening & rehabbing your shoulder and soon you will be getting the benefits from the Olympic lifts.
And I can’t see any reason why you can’t do your lifting after your sprint sessions!!!
I can’t drop power cleans where I workout so what I do is lower it to my hips and catch it with the tops of my quads. Also just recently my shoulders started to hurt a little when I was power cleaning a weight that was to heavy and I was catching the bar low before my arms were rotated around fully. After a few days of going lighter and making sure to rotate my arms it went away. Perhaps the weight is a little heavy?
My apologies for not being clear in my post, it is not good for optimal results in power cleans.
At our gym we do things like synchronistic cleans, as in 6-8 reps of cleans done in succession. As part of a specific warm up to power cleans. This is the only time I would let the bar drop while under control. If your gym doesn’t like you dropping the bar to the floor, they probably don’t have proper bars. This means that the stress normally absorbed by a proper bar is transferred to the lifter.
I have had a couple of nasty motorcycle accidents and plenty of other knocks along the way, so my body doesn’t like it when I try to control heavy bars with my traps or quads.
I am very sure that if CF says that this is the way then it is so. I am not to familiar with Charlie’s methods of training, I have just transferred from the Charles Poliquin school, but from my experience with the CP way, it’s flawed. This is why I am here.