Last night Jon Curry and I trained with power cleans and squat cleans. I went more with the former. Many lifters and strength coaches consider the power clean one of the top three most beneficial compound lifts with the deadlift and the squat. For that reason, athletes at all levels train with this classic lift. A lot of power goes into this movement, (hence the name). I like power clean after the deadlift and before the squat.

Take a look at this video and notice the good technique. I need to get more of the shrug into the lift if I want to increase my poundages as well as exploding the lift.

A couple of good “add-ons” to the power clean are the front squat and the push press. I added in some of the push presses yesterday when I got as heavy as I was going to go.

Taking a heavy barbell and picking it up off the floor and lifting it over your head is a great feeling, (as is dropping it to the floor after a successful lift and knowing you won’t get kicked out of the gym for doing it!)

Ah, yes, another lift I wish I would have been introduced to 30 years ago! I do get a kick out of the fact that I am probably the oldest guy in my gym doing the cleans, squats, snatches, deadlifts and definitely the kettlebell stuff and the guys I train with are 15-20 years my junior. The rest of the folks just don’t know what they are missing!

Related posts:

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