Yesterday I posted an article by former Olympic coach, Jim Schmitz on power cleans, military presses, push presses and push or power jerks and was looking forward to doing that workout today. It has been a while since I have done any power cleans since an errant lift messed up my right elbow due to improper form and I have been a little anxious to at least test the elbow and vindicate myself from  the crappy technique that caused the injury in the first place. I did not go any heavier than moderate and reset each lift, concentrating on nailing form. For the most part, it was good enough not to injure or re-injure, but it certainly needs work.

I warmed up with arm circles, push-ups, pull-ups, back extensions and two sets of the Burgener Warmup.


I continued my warm-up with empty bar 5 power cleans and 5 military presses and did the same again with 65#. So far, so good. Now, on the the 5×5.

5 Power Cleans (PC) + 5 Military Presses (MP) @ 95#
5 PC + 3 MP + 2 Push Presses (PP) @ 115#
5 PC + 3 PP + 2 Power Jerks (PJ) @ 125#
5 PC + 5 PP @ 135#
5 PC + 5 PJ @ 135#

As advertised, the lifts went quickly and my elbow doesn’t seem any worse for the wear. I am a little rusty on the amount of weight I can handle at moment with the cleans from not having done them in some time, but no worries, it was good to keep the weight down.

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