If you cannot rack the clean due to skeletal asymmetry, just move to power snatches. Your clavicles will thank you. Bigger deltoids will help, too.
Starting Strength Coach
Power Clean: Clavicle Problems
Hi coaches,
I am at my wit's end with this. As I've continued to try and improve my rack position, I have determined that I have no flexibility issues with racking the power clean. I can get my elbows through just fine and land the bar on my deltoids where it belongs.
The problem is, I can't stop the bar from hitting the clavicular notch where my sternum and clavicle meet. I have two protuberances on either side of my sternum about 1.5" apart, and I always seem to hit the right one. The pain is absolutely crippling.
As I was typing this, I went and grabbed a close-up photo of my clavicle region with my elbows high in the rack position. I was quite surprised by what I saw, and had to take several photos. I tried to make my hands and elbows as symmetrical as possible by touching my thumbs to my deltoids and very gently resting my elbows on a level shelf. Despite that, there is a clear asymmetry where my right clavicle is higher than my left. You can also see the bruise at the clavicular notch from my attempts today and Monday.
What can I do? The last thing I want to do is stop cleaning. Would it be the worst thing in the world to pad or cushion my clavicle somehow so I can clean comfortably? I'd feel like a giant pussy doing it, but if it means I can clean pain free...
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
✓ Member
If you cannot rack the clean due to skeletal asymmetry, just move to power snatches. Your clavicles will thank you. Bigger deltoids will help, too.
✓ Member
Do you happen to have any video of your cleans?
Starting Strength Coach
I have a really bad one from a couple weeks ago. I filmed these for personal use on a whim to check for arm pull. Since I've taken these, I've improved greatly on getting my elbows through faster. The more my rack improves, the more likely I am to hit the notch. In this video, you can see that I'm landing the clean too low on my sternum then rolling it up to my delts, which avoids the notch but is obviously bad on my wrists.
Here's a better video of five sets worth from a couple months ago. This was just 95 lbs and was the first time I started cleaning since giving it up awhile back. I had been snatching for awhile, but the iron plates were getting too heavy to lower comfortably. You might want to hit mute since I sound like a grade A idiot gushing over my shitty 95 lb cleans. I was proud of myself at the time, but looking back I'm just embarrassed.
I don't think the #t=5m12 thing is working. Cleans start at 5:12.
Member
I've got one shoulder higher than the other, and my power cleans look odd due to that (and bad form, but that's a seperate issue). Try moving your grip around. For me, moving my grip out helped avoid a painful catch at the top. Snatches are great, but in my book they don't provide the same stimulus.Originally Posted by Tom Campitelli
✓ Member
You are correct in this. I like power cleans better for this reason.
✓ Member
Nick, talk to me about your rack in these videos. When you catch the bar as low as you do, you are far more likely to bash your collar bones. When you get your elbows higher, your deltoids contract and form a protective cushion for receiving the bar.
Starting Strength Coach
Agreed, Tom. This, indeed, is what is actually happening as far as I can tell. He's catching the bar right at the level of the sternoclavicular joints, with no engagement of the deltoids. This is corrected a second later, when he then raises his elbows...too late. He also appears to be leaning back on the rack, which would exacerbate the situation.
sternalrack.JPG
Starting Strength Coach
In the first video posted (which is most recent), the bar actually makes contact below my collar bone on the sternum. I think lift my elbows and it "rolls" back to the proper position. I knew this was wrong all along, but it was the way I was able to work around "clavicle-ing" myself. As the weight increased, it took too much of a toll on my wrists.
I've spent the last two weeks working on elbow speed and high elbows at the rack position to try and find the right balance. As far as I can tell, when the bar racks properly on the deltoids, it never fails to make contact with the notch on the right hand side. It wasn't until I took that picture in the first post that I noticed the asymmetry, which explains why it always hits on the right and never the left.
You're right, and they do. But it's not enough. When the bar hits my delts, the bar compresses them down and makes contact on the notch. It doesn't sound like much, but it's extremely sensitive on me, almost like an ulnar nerve "funny bone" feeling combined with a sharp pain.When you get your elbows higher, your deltoids contract and form a protective cushion for receiving the bar.
Larger deltoids would likely solve the problem as I would have extra cushioning. I'm pressing and benching as much as the program prescribes, but I'm not really doing any assistance in that area.
When I met with an SS coach in late July, he recommended I not even bother with the power clean (back then I couldn't even clean the bar properly), and instead do dumb bell power cleans. So I did that and snatched for awhile. I'm stubborn though, so I've continued to work on it. And I hope to come to a seminar at some point in 2014, so I don't want to make an ass of myself.
Maybe I'll just try wearing a thick sweatshirt for now. Beyond that, I'm at a loss.
Community Organizer (Administrator)
Nick, it's not just your elbows or your delts, but your shoulder girdle. Put your elbows up in position right now. Shrug up. See the difference. You can't let the bar settle, you have to push up into it. Try the same thing out of the rack with the bar, then loaded up. Then work on getting to the correct position at the rack by meeting the bar with your *shoulders*. Focus on immediately finding the bar with them.
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