Power clean low compared to other lifts, costing me speed potential?

    Posted In: Strength & Conditioning

        • Participant
          trackspeedboy on December 26, 2008 at 3:25 am #15185

          So I squat 335 for 1 rep, can short rep 285, deadlift 305 1RM, bench 225.
          But my power clean 1 rep max is 160-165. Clearly too low and everyone says so. So is this costing me speed because I have poor RFD?

          What can be done to improve? Heavy clean pulls..more cleans, med ball throws?

        • Participant
          premium on December 28, 2008 at 9:33 am #75838

          no…hows your form..you can get the muscle stronger by working the muscles around it

        • Participant
          trackspeedboy on December 28, 2008 at 11:28 am #75843

          my form is decently good, bar isnt too far ahead of my body, only problem is not conciously exploding on the 2nd pull sometimess, usually i get it right. Regardless everyone says the 160-165 clean is too low compared to what im squatting, so how would I NOT have poor RFD?

          Also seems like im having more problems on the 3rd pull, getting under the bar. High heavy pulls to fix this?

        • Member
          rican hurdler on December 28, 2008 at 11:55 am #75844

          have you been power cleaning much? for how long?

          maybe you just havent done it enough?

          i know in HS my best was 185 as a senior because id only done it like 10 times. in college i went to 225 not because i got outrageously strong, but because i simply started doing it more often.

          i feel dead lifts helps my power clean the most. im not expert and there may not be a huge correlation between deadlifts and power cleans but i feel as one goes up so does the other.

          i also feel my power clean transfers over to my sprinting more than any other lift in the weight room. so YES, i feel your power clean IS keeping you from running faster.

        • Participant
          trackspeedboy on December 28, 2008 at 12:30 pm #75845

          I did it like once a week last year, however it was mostly singles. Also did some hang cleans last year.
          This year I started doing it in september and my squat/deadlift went up and so did my clean from around 125 like it was last year to 160-165 now for 1 rep. I do it 1-2x a week.

        • Participant
          premium on December 28, 2008 at 4:23 pm #75852

          i’ve heard it before that you have to squat twice your body wieght to get full use out of the blocks….if anyone can certify that…that would be lovely

        • Participant
          trackspeedboy on December 28, 2008 at 4:49 pm #75855

          The 2x body weight squat is a good rule to go by unless you got the 1 in a million genes (ex. carl lewis). Anyway, im squatting more than 2x body weight but my cleans too low and im thinking poor RFD = slower speed?

        • Keymaster
          Mike Young on January 2, 2009 at 7:15 pm #76028

          i’ve heard it before that you have to squat twice your body wieght to get full use out of the blocks….if anyone can certify that…that would be lovely

          While I think squat strength is one of the more closely linked strength parameters with acceleration abilities, I know plenty of GREAT accelerators who couldn’t squat over 200 lbs.

          ELITETRACK Founder

        • Keymaster
          Mike Young on January 2, 2009 at 7:16 pm #76029

          trackspeedboy-
          I suspect the problem is technique more than anything. I’ve seen this plenty of times with athletes your age who have little Olympic liftng experience.

          ELITETRACK Founder

        • Participant
          trackspeedboy on January 3, 2009 at 3:52 am #76044

          Thanks for the reply Mike.
          Just one question I have though, in general do you think a better power clean = faster athlete? Im working on my form and trying to watch videos cause sometimes I cant even do the weights once that I can other times do for 3 reps. And working on clean pulls and high pulls.

        • Keymaster
          Mike Young on January 5, 2009 at 5:55 pm #76187

          Just one question I have though, in general do you think a better power clean = faster athlete?

          If all else is equal, I’d say yes but it’s not a requirement to running fast.

          Im working on my form and trying to watch videos cause sometimes I cant even do the weights once that I can other times do for 3 reps. And working on clean pulls and high pulls.

          I’ve seen high pulls cause as many problems as they do help because for people learning the lift it seems to ingrain an arm dominant pull.

          ELITETRACK Founder

        • Member
          Avi S (tkxii) on January 8, 2009 at 8:28 am #76345

          How much do you weigh? And a poor power clean can be due to many reasons. A much better way of testing your RFD, would be to test your vertical jump; standing, and off of a small height, 6-12 inches. If you can’t get higher from a bounce, then ur reactivty is terrible and you shuold try doing some pure plyos. Bouncy exercises, bounding, pure VJs. If you don’t have much experience with plyos, you probably need it, that’s the ebst way to increase your rfd and reactivity

        • Participant
          CoachAaron on February 26, 2009 at 1:04 pm #78702

          It is probably power clean technique. Doing Olympic front squats (correctly) will help you get accustomed to getting into the racked position. Also, I’ve seen some athletes who are relatively strong that do not clean well because they tend to pull the bar way too high and then have a high catch. I like using the high pull as a way for the athlete to learn how high to pull the bar. Really, about navel level, or a little higher, is all you have to pull to and then drop under. My athletes actually always do a set or two of jump shrugs and high pulls as warm ups before they clean.

          -Aaron
          http://www.beinekestrength.com

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