Power Clean Vs Row in 5x5

[Leather99]

Hi All,

I have just completed my first 5x5 SF cycle with great results. Lasted 10 weeks before I felt battered and had to back off for a week. The program gave me great results and I would recomend it to anyone. Upped my PBs loads.

Anyway my back has always been my strongest body part and all of the rows and deads (+ chins which I did on Weds) have made my back even stronger. However I did feal that my back was getting hammered and this was one of the main reasons I think I had to stop and reset. I weigh 70kg and was deadlifting 120kg, rowing 65kg and pulldowns/chins with 105kg.

I am going to do another cycle of SF 5x5 now and I was looking for some ways to reduce the load on my back. One of the options I came up with was replacing the rows and the dead with Power cleans as in bill starrs original program, my only concern is I don't want my lats to get neglected throughout this cycle. I have never done power cleans before but I get the impression they mainly target the traps. Does anyone have any experience of this? If so what have your results been? Has anyone done the original Bill Starr program using cleans - if so what were your results?

 

[Extra_Strong]

if you do them correctly you should hit your whole back. they should be very effective you could also keep pull ups in your routine.

 

[bignate73]

posterior chain, some quad and traps will be mainly taxed with power cleans. as ES said, keep pullups in there and you should be fine.

 

[Leather99]

great - thanks for the responses. Anyone else used them in 5x5?

 

[carlsuen]

yeah.. sure did.. my traps sure as hell grew.. and one thing about these oly lifts is that it forces u to perform them correctly or you'll end up injuring yourself.. but good luck anyway.. if u don't have the form down or aren't confident about it just post a vid or ask more question.. we'll be more than happy to help..

 

[Protobuilder]

I know this has been discussed elsewhere (I'm too lazy to read the 50 page mega thread, LoL), but does anyone scale their reps down when doing the cleans vs. rows? IOW, anyone think you oughta' be powercleaning doubles or maybe triples rather than sets of 5? How did you set up your sets/reps for the cleans?

 

[Leather99]

yeah.. sure did.. my traps sure as hell grew.. and one thing about these oly lifts is that it forces u to perform them correctly or you'll end up injuring yourself.. but good luck anyway.. if u don't have the form down or aren't confident about it just post a vid or ask more question.. we'll be more than happy to help..

Great, thanks! I am new to this lift but I will probably go very light for a few weeks to get the form correct then gradually increase the weight.

I am still undecided as to whether to swap out just the dead or both the dead and the rows. My upper back seems to be OK, it was my lower back that seemed to be getting battered.

 

[carlsuen]

I know this has been discussed elsewhere (I'm too lazy to read the 50 page mega thread, LoL), but does anyone scale their reps down when doing the cleans vs. rows? IOW, anyone think you oughta' be powercleaning doubles or maybe triples rather than sets of 5? How did you set up your sets/reps for the cleans?

you know what i actually agree with what u say.. i was doing 5x5 on cleans yesterday.. and when i reached my top set of 5 i was out of breath and thus my form might have compromised.. maybe we could consider doing 8x3? anyone has the same thought?

 

[Introspective]

I am still undecided as to whether to swap out just the dead or both the dead and the rows.

If your doing powercleans then swap the wednesday's deads for high pulls.

 

[Leather99]

Thanks intro - I thought about that but I was thinking of doing Bill starrs original program to the T.. So only those 3 exercises, 3 times a week in a heavy, light, medium schedule. What do you think?