Clean & jerk is, for me, one of the most elegant movements ever devised by weightlifting. The meeting point between lightness and power, between gesture is mass, between flight and stability.
I have a very grainy video in my eyes: the Sydney Olympics, 2000. Pyrros Dimas, Greek lifter oly, rattles off a 215-pound C&J with epochal nonchalance. The only thing that really moves, betraying the weight of that barbell, is the Greek's tuft of hair. To watch.
Index
Clean & Jerk from the book: 5 tips to listen to
1 - Separate the parts
If you don't have a coach who follows you (but for Olympic moves, you should), you can take advantage of that thing in your smartphone called a video camera.
Ah: not to post stories on stories, hashtag # tokio2021arrival.
2 - Increase the frequency
If you can, train the C&J twice a week, or at least do it for a training cycle. Dedicate one session to weight-bearing work - and one to technique (see below).
3 - Use accessory and corrective exercises
The first: the split press. You stand with your feet in the final position of the movement, hold the barbell in rack position, and press it over your head USING THE UPPER ONLY.
You don't need to load up like hell - rather, use this exercise as a warm-up at C&J workouts. Short series recommended.
The second: clean with steady feet. Focus on turning the bar. If the feet rise to the heels, that's ok: but they don't have to move.
I corrective are exercises that facilitate good technique in execution of a certain phase of the exercise. As the front squat.
Do three repetitions of front squats, and then a jerk. It will help you set the correct positions.
4 - Dial the clean & jerk
Don't worry: not your entire career will be limited to the separation between clean and jerk. Obviously, you will have to at some point "Recompose" the movement, and run it all together. Maybe in the race. Maybe by destroying your opponents.
Provided that Dimas is not among them.
These first tend to be tricks will allow you to improve your clean & jerk performance. In the meantime you train the full C&J, learn more about the accessory exercises, to strengthen the weak links in your chain:
- lumbar exercises: good morning, Romanian deadlifts
- hamstring exercises
- exercises for the lats
- squat (always and in any case)
- plyometric exercises to increase explosiveness
5 - Work with the technique
Needless to say, despite it not being technically nuanced like the snatch, even the C&J involves a lot of technical awareness work. Solution? Dedicate one day a week - maybe exhaust - working precisely on the technique.
Light balance wheel, obsessive attention to detail, fluidity of movement, mobility, ego left in the bag with the change, tightly closed in the locker.
You will see that you will go a long way.
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