Power Clean Substitute?

So, I finally broke down and bought Starting Strength, 3rd Ed. It uses the power clean as one of the core excersizes. Well, I tried it yesterday with an empty bar to see if I could get the mechanics right and I don't think I can. My forearms are simply too long. I can rack the bar on my shoulders with my arms extended out, but I can't get my fingertips anywhere close to under the bar. I don't think it's simple flexiblity either. I might try going to a coach just to confirm my inabilty to do this, but I strongly suspect it's not something I can do. Rip admits in passing that some people will not be able to do the clean. But nowhere does he say what one should do as a substitute. In the chapter on "other" lifts he disses the row as a substitute for the clean, even though (I gather) both the 1st and 2nd editions of the book recommended the row and not the clean. So, row?

The advice given in that book with regards to that movement is mostly incorrect, with the 'jumping with the bar' cue being the one that irks me the most. That is to say, feel free to substitute an alternative movement, i.e. rows for it. You may want to look into a variation called the "pendlay row" supposedly named after US weightlifting coach Glenn Pendlay. That is what most people following the book seem to favor.

I don't quite understand what you mean by not being able to get your fingertips "under the bar." How and why are they supposed to be under the bar? I've been doing power cleans on and off for a half century, and I find this mystifying.

If for some reason you find doing power cleans with the bar awkward, why not use heavy dumbbells instead? I start my little weight workout with a set of heavy (for me, these days) dumbbell power cleans although the poundages are puny compared to what I could handle in my lusty prime.

Overhead swings with a pair of dumbbells of reasonable weight are another good one in this category.

Nothing quite like the power clean for building explosive overall body power, I think. The row is more strictly an upper-back exercise and doesn't really work your "core" that much. I note the term "core" has come very much into vogue in recent years. It was unknown back when I was training the hardest (from the mid-60s to the mid-80s).



JLibourel said:

I don't quite understand what you mean by not being able to get your fingertips "under the bar." How and why are they supposed to be under the bar? I've been doing power cleans on and off for a half century, and I find this mystifying.

Click to expand...

something like this

http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/export/sites/default/ironmind/ilya-ilin-233_lg.jpg

which illustrates a proper receipt of a clean. as you will notice from the picture, the bar rests on the deltoids supported by the upper back. a receipt where the elbows are low and the bar is supported by your arms is obviously incorrect.

unless you meant that one shouldn't allow the bar to slip onto the fingertips, which I would agree on. receiving a pc versus a clean should be basically the same, with the difference being whether you receive it in a squat or not.

Disregard power cleans if your not training for athletic performance. On that note just disregard starting strength too.

I can get the bar on my shoulders with my arms extended. But when I fold my forearms back, my fingers can't touch the bar. They actually end up behind the bar. I can't tell if this is a fatal flaw or not but from the pics and vids I have seen, it appears to be.

OK. If I'm interpreting what you're saying correctly it seems like lack of mobility, which as you already mentioned may be something that will be hard to fix*. If you want to consult a coach, I would humbly suggest trying to find one who knows something about weightlifting, as they are most likely to actually know how to fix the issue.


*or then it may not, I really can't say.

Most of the Olympic lift related motions are actually good at working out mobility issues just by doing them. I agree this sounds like a wrist flexibility issue, although it could also have to do with elbow and shoulder position.

A good rack position (top of the clean) has your chest wide but with your shoulder blades forward and up to make a bit of a shelf with your collar bone for the bar to sit on. Your elbows should be up. It's not a very natural position to be in for anything except a clean, so don't expect it to come easy. The goal should be to keep the bar (or something lighter than a bar) curled just at the end of your fingertips so that it's gently pulling your hands into the position you'd like them to end up in.

So start with even lighter weight than the bar. My coach had me use a broomstick for my first week or two, doing 50-100 reps a day of each *partial* movement that makes up the whole clean. It doesn't take long and it's not too exhausting - it shouldn't be. You want to get the technique good and ingrained before you start adding weight.

This article is a pretty good description of the partial movements: http://experiencelife.com/article/learn-to-power-clean/. So do 50-100 first pulls, 50-100 second pulls, 50-100 catches. You can add speed from one day to the next but technique is the main point of focus.

Doing that should start to work out your wrist, elbow and shoulder flexibility a bit. That flexibility will start to get hit harder as you add weight. It's probably OK to get up to moderate weight without your flexibility being exactly where you need it, but you should see definite improvements over the course of maybe 4-6 weeks.

Also, lots of good videos on youtube under the search "clean wrist flexibility". This one looks pretty good: . Maybe some ideas there for stretching you can do outside your workouts.

Any sort of explosive squat would work fine. You could just do a jumping goblet squat (obviously with not a ton of weight), tire flips, weighted box jumps, etc.... Hell, you could just do sets of explosive squats with a lighter weight than your powerlift squat.

The standard substitute if you really can't rack the clean is the power snatch, if you want to stick as closely to the SS program as possible.



Van Veen said:

The standard substitute if you really can't rack the clean is the power snatch, if you want to stick as closely to the SS program as possible.

Click to expand...

If he can't clean i'm pretty dubious he can snatch. Don't replace it with a squat because then youll have no back work, just do some barbell rows and pull ups. Your not an athlete why bother cleaning.



fuji said:

If he can't clean i'm pretty dubious he can snatch. Don't replace it with a squat because then youll have no back work, just do some barbell rows and pull ups. Your not an athlete why bother cleaning.

Click to expand...

If the only reason you can't clean is because you can't rack it due to anthropomorphy (long forearms), you should still be able to snatch. Whether or not you should (or want to) is a different question.

Unless your wrist (not fingers) goes back behind your shoulders when you bend your arms as described, and that would mean you have megalong forearms, then better wrist mobility should take care of it. I'd work on front squats before cleans to learn the front rack position with a (much) less complicated movement. That should allow you to work on your wrist mobility, which may end up needing to be pretty extreme to complete a clean.

Try doing a front squat!
same motion as the power clean at the end of the movement.