Power Clean Deadlifts

[Lililston]

I just started doing this type of deadlift but my left shoulder started hurting... (it's not a good kind of pain either)...

When doing this deadlift, are you supposed to shrug your shoulders in control(slowly) or shrug quickly(dropping and catching the bar under you)?

 

[Tagio]

it's not really a type of deadlift as the pulling technique is different from the setup to the finish. If your shoulder hurts you are probably trying to upright row the weight and/or catching it with your arms and not on your shoulders. Check the sticky with exercise videos and go to the link I posted to find some videos of a girl doing them properly, and also check out CoolColJ's thread for videos of him doing them. also do some searches as there have been a lot of threads about olympic lifts before I think.

this link has some good information: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~keen0018/wltips.htm


to answer your question, you should be exploding at the top of this lift - it should feel like you're jumping + shrugging simultaneously, but instead of letting yourself fly into the air, you immediately drop to a catching position and throw your elbows out to catch the bar on your delts by your throat. your hands should not be supporting the bar at that point.

 

[Tagio]

there's a full clean. in a power clean you will not have to drop so low to catch the weight because you avoid weights that would necessitate that.

 

[fastgain]

I've been hitting the powercleans hard lately. They are a great exercise and I've been making fantastic strength gains as I improve my form (maxed at 195 today). As Tagio said, most likely you are doing some upright rowing rather than using your full hip drive to explode on the secondary pull

While I agree with Tagio's description of the powerclean to a certain extent, I find that most of the power in the lift comes out of the hip drive of the secondary pull rather than the jumping or shrugging part of the motion. I'm certainly no expert as I just started them myself (with the help of a coach), but in the beginning I would be much more concerned with the hip and leg drive as opposed to shrugging the shoulders.

If you can find a reference somewhere on the internet regarding proper setup, I believe that was the single most helpful thing in increasing weight when I was starting. Grip the bar wider than shoulder width, shoulders above the bar, flare the lats, and make sure you sit back a little bit. It's much different than the deadlift setup, although it may appear similar.

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

to answer your question, you should be exploding at the top of this lift - it should feel like you're jumping + shrugging simultaneously, but instead of letting yourself fly into the air, you immediately drop to a catching position and throw your elbows out to catch the bar on your delts by your throat. your hands should not be supporting the bar at that point.

excellent description.

 

[coolcolj]

do them from the hang first as its much easier to learn the form. Doing them from the floor is a little bit more technical as the start position will greatly influence your technique a lot. Anyway when the bar is at knee level it should look like a Rmmanain Deadlift , shins vertical hips back back flat, shoulders in front of bar

Basicly your throw the bar up to your shoulder with your legs/hips and calves. The arms just act as "ropes".Once the bar is flying up and unweighted you start wipping the elbows around and prepare to rack it. If you keep pulling with the arms your timing will be off and you will hurt yourself. Keep the bar close to the body as well

also don't pull the bar, instead think of pushing the floor away with your legs and shrug violently