Power Clean Wide grip

[Chickma2]

Rip,
I've been power cleaning and it's quickly become my favorite exercise. I have long forearms and get bruising on my collarbone and can't quite get into the correct position on top. But I love the exercise! Is there a grip that can be too wide or can I go as wide as I need? Snatching is not as fun.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Grip width must accommodate forearm length. As discussed in the book.

[OZ-USF-UFGator]

im not naturally athletic, so it took me a long time to get the cleans "decent". In fairness, I do hang cleans not full power cleans, with a front squat tacked onto the end of the movement. I spent months, even after reading the book getting over the fear of breaking my collar bone and once I did that, my confidence went up, but my wrists took a beating. someone simply came up to me one day and simply said "dude, you're goig to kill your wrists if you don't narrow your grip. Since then, about 10 weeks ago, I've gone from 95 pounds for 3 to just yesterday reaching the 1 plate mark for 1 rep. That looked bad-ass Not an amazing feet, but I am a 41 year old, not overly-naturally athletic person. Experiment with your grip until you find the "sweet spot".

[hollismb]

im not naturally athletic, so it took me a long time to get the cleans "decent". In fairness, I do hang cleans not full power cleans, with a front squat tacked onto the end of the movement. I spent months, even after reading the book getting over the fear of breaking my collar bone and once I did that, my confidence went up, but my wrists took a beating. someone simply came up to me one day and simply said "dude, you're goig to kill your wrists if you don't narrow your grip. Since then, about 10 weeks ago, I've gone from 95 pounds for 3 to just yesterday reaching the 1 plate mark for 1 rep. That looked bad-ass Not an amazing feet, but I am a 41 year old, not overly-naturally athletic person. Experiment with your grip until you find the "sweet spot".

I'd like to understand the thought behind this statement. How was a wider grip hurting your wrists, unless you were having to twist your hands/wrists inwardly (i.e. hands not inline with forearm)? I'm assuming the problem was with the rack position and not the pull, since the snatch grip will normally be even wider than the clean grip. If anything, I'd think that a more narrow grip would cause more bend, and therefore stress, in the wrist.

[OZ-USF-UFGator]

100 % rack position. Pick up an empty bar with an ultra wide grip and hold it in the rack position, for me, My hands bend backwards and my wrists are fucked. As I pulled my hands in more and more narrow, from the rack position, I hot a spot that I just knew I could land the bar on my shoulders and nearly remove my hands from the equation. Every rep after that discovery has been with me focusing on hitting that position and I've nearly eliminated the wrist pain. Maybe my body is just different than most, I don't know but this is working for me and I am FINALLY able to focus on getting stronger and not on preventing injury. That is a good thing!