Yet another power cleans question

[Irishman301]

Alright so I finally decided to put the effort into learning power cleans after reading about how useful they are.

Here's my deal. I suck at them badly. I took your advice and added some weight to the bar. I was using 95 lbs. yesterday, which is a pretty reasonable weight to practice with. I used the power rack so that the bar started at the same height it would if I had 45 lb. plates on it. My form is all wrong. I did read the chapter on power cleans, and I know how it's supposed to work. I also watched a bunch of videos on Youtube. Reading about it, and actually doing it are completely different.

I did the whole power clean workout - 5 x 3 yesterday with terrible form. I was practicing just jumping and landing with my feet in the same position between sets.

I'm just wondering how I should go about doing the power clean workouts. Should I keep working with 95 lbs. and doing the designated 5 x 3, until my form is better? Should I just hang out at the gym and practice with the weight for as many reps as it takes until I figure out how to do them correctly? Should I just keep adding small amounts of weight to the bar every workout and just do them the best I can?

Power cleans are just really unnatural to me, so I figure it's gonna take some time to perfect them.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Looks like you're going to to have to save up and come to one of our seminars, where all fuzzy things are made clear.

[Irishman301]

I figured other people may be having the same problem that I'm having with cleans.

Anyway, do you have a link to where I can find out more info on these seminars?

[Polynomial]

Coach Burgener has some good videos on the CrossFit exercises (http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html) page.

Power cleans take time and they're hard to learn without a coach present, but don't give up. As you continue to attempt them, you will have many 'ah ha!' moments and you'll obtain a new perspective on things in SS:BBT. Smart trial and error will definitely get you pretty far. With that in mind, I wouldn't stick to any one weight until you perfect the form because it might be the case that an extra 10 lbs slows down the bar enough for you to notice crucial things about your form. So, be sure that you know what to look for (the theory presented in the book) and try a bunch of different stuff without hurting yourself horribly.

Is this the fastest way to learn them without a coach and continue linear progress on SS? I don't know. But you'll probably get pretty far, and that's better than being one of the dudes that thinks that a power clean is a sped up upright row.

[mick in mpls]

Where can we find a schedule of your seminars?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Mine are the "Basic Barbell Certification" seminars on the right-hand side at www.crossfit.com