Barbell row similarities to power clean

[BareSteel]

Hi Rip, I noticed a few similarities between the barbell row as you teach it, and the power clean. For anyone new around here, this video shows Rip's method for barbell rows: Revisiting the Barbell Row with Mark Rippetoe - YouTube

1. Both exercises have a narrow band of time for force production to occur. You can't grind out a power clean and you can't grind out a barbell row performed as above (which differs from, say, a strict bodybuilding style row). It's a brief window of time for full acceleration of the load.

2. The top position can vary a bit, and what's acceptable is subjective. For instance, a light power clean can be racked with just a little knee flexion during the catch. A heavy one may be caught in more like a quarter- or half-squat. Eventually too much knee flexion makes it a squat clean. Same with the row - it's okay to bring the torso down to the bar a bit, but not excessively, and under your rule the bar must touch the belly.

3. "Fast elbows" cue is applicable for both lifts. Elbows in a barbell row accelerate UP quickly and in the power clean they rotate Forward quickly.

I don't have an exact question, but thought you might comment on the comparison I'm drawing here. For anyone on the novice LP, let me be clear that I am not stating that rows are equivalent to power cleans. I'm only discussing a few similarities in the movements, but the training effects are very different and they are not interchangeable exercises.

Thanks,

[Mark Rippetoe]

Correct: the barbell row is a power exercise, in that it cannot be done slowly. This observations are the same as mine. I'm glad somebody else picked up on the similarities.

[Johnsonville]

Good points. I feel athletic when I incorporate them, similar to when I incorporate cleans. Unfortunately I’m a lazy shit now and do neither.