How to bail from clean (no bumpers)

[BareSteel]

What is the safest way to bail out of a power clean if bumper plates are not available?

I'm talking about a failure that occurs after the jump phase where the lifter fails to get the bar to the rack position. Yesterday, I couldn't quite rack the bar and I ended up in a pretty messy situation where I was still hook-gripping the bar, but it was coming forcefully back down to earth.

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Also, if I do decide to buy a set of bumpers, can I still use regular plates for the smaller (10, 5, 2.5 lb) increments without posing a risk to the bar's integrity?

Much thanks as always!

[Tom Campitelli]

This is a tricky situation. If your cleans are getting heavy enough that missing becomes a real possibility, you would benefit from some bumper plates. I don't know what the old timers did. My guess is that bars and plates lived shorter lives. Iron change plates are fine when coupled with bumpers, too. They won't hurt anything.

[hollismb]

If you miss a power clean the way you've described, when you've probably just failed to pull it high enough, and haven't let go of the bar, and it's either a high pull or a shrug, it looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NawoszZObXo

On the other hand, if you've let go of the bar.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKo72hMMy7k

That's when you might want some bumpers.

[DaveJF]

Not sure how heavy the OP is going but I just bought a set of the 45's on closeout and as Tom says, works fine with the lighter plates. If you have a set of 35's & 25's for example, that's 255 right there. Bumpers prolly won't last as long but worst case replacing just the 45's a couple of times is still cheaper than buying a whole set once.

[BareSteel]

Thanks for all the tips. Glad to know that I could manage with 45s and 25s. Maybe I'll try to save for a set of bumpers or see if I can find some used ones locally.

Hollismb, that's pretty much how the miss happened, but for some reason I failed to simply return to the hang position. I think the bar got too far forward. I ended up coming down forcefully with the bar in hands, and then losing my footing.

Weight was about 195lbs, Dave - sounds like you got a sweet deal.

[Tom Campitelli]

Not sure how heavy the OP is going but I just bought a set of the 45's on closeout and as Tom says, works fine with the lighter plates. If you have a set of 35's & 25's for example, that's 255 right there. Bumpers prolly won't last as long but worst case replacing just the 45's a couple of times is still cheaper than buying a whole set once.

You would have to very vigorously abuse a good set of 45 pound bumpers to make them fail. Hell, even 25 pound bumpers can take a fair amount of pounding.

[Kyle Schuant]

The cheaper bumpers chip off on concrete, not enough to make a difference on the weight, but enough to leave red and blue smears everywhere, and I don't imagine it'll be great for the inner rings. I got myself some gym matting, it's 3/5" thick and comes in 1m x 1m squares, four of those make a small platform for me and the weights drop with less drama.

At my work gym the 5 bumpers are becoming deformed from all the crossfit types flinging them down enthusiastically a million times, they're not designed to be used on their own, but I guess if you can only clean or snatch 30kg then...

[Tom Campitelli]

At my work gym the 5 bumpers are becoming deformed from all the crossfit types flinging them down enthusiastically a million times, they're not designed to be used on their own, but I guess if you can only clean or snatch 30kg then...

The 5 bumpers?

[Tom Campitelli]

As a data point:



I dropped a bar loaded with iron plates onto a concrete floor with a camping roll matt on top (the thin foam sort you sleep on), and the bar and plates were fine. The drop was after the last lift, near the end for those of you not interested in my rather individual 'lifting a bar from the floor to the front rack position' technique - let's not call it a clean, then we won't have to bother with form issues, eh! Wouldn't want to do it repeatedly or on purpose, but iron and steel isn't as delicate as us lifters believe i guess is my point if you were to take one thing home from this post.

That was a drop from well below the waist onto something that can absorb some impact, not from a missed power clean on to concrete. Note, I am not suggesting that iron plates and bars will explode when dropped, but it is not good for them, nor for the floor.

[hollismb]

The 5 bumpers?

I'm sure he means 5KG.