Power clean hard on traps/shoulders?

[Brian]

I've finally decided to start doing power cleans. Never had an objection to doing them, per se, but I was worried about messing up my shoulder joint.

For some reason my shoulders don't take well to things like shrugs and upright rows; I did heavy shrugs once and really strained one of them.

I always avoided cleans because I figured they were kind of like an explosive shrug/upright row. I know it's more complicated than that after reading SS, but I'm wondering if it still might be risky.

Just to clarify, my shoulders/traps are perfectly healthy but are really sensitive to abuse. I do rotator cuff work and it seems to have helped, but I don't want to undo my progress of making them stronger and the joints tighter.

Would power cleans likely screw them up if done in bad form (which will inevitably happen at least a couple times)? Is there a way to minimize the danger? And would you ever decide general joint laxity is a reason not to do them at all?

Thanks for all the help, by the way.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I am sorry about the sensitive nature of your traps and laxity of your shoulder joints, and the danger posed by performing cleans. It has been my experience that starting light and then adding more weight as you get stronger usually renders even the scariest of exercises less intimidating for most timid novice trainees such as yourself, and provides a way to obtain the benefits of exercise without the excessive risks that normally make barbell training such a famously lethal activity. Very light weights make even terrible form both safe and unproductive; safety is the most important thing in the Whole Wide World, and a lack of productivity is indeed a small price to pay for it.

Heavy shrugs weren't the best choice of things to do with untrained shoulders, and upright rows are just plain old stupid. But cleans -- my god, man, they can be as dangerous as a dose of Spinal Meningitis! I'll bet you personally know dozens of lifters whose shoulders were destroyed by doing cleans incorrectly. I recommend that you ask your physical therapist for a safer exercise that can be done with the same dumbbells you've been using for your rotator cuff exercises.

[Brian]

Thanks for the reply.

Here's another thing I didn't get from SS. Maybe you can help me?

I keep intimidating people in the gym I go to. I have kind of a John Wayne look to me, I know, but I try to smile as much as I can to soften it a bit.

Doesn't matter what exercise I'm doing: cleans, rotator cuffs, whatever--people are nervously prancing around, trying to retrieve personal belongings near me, apologizing for getting in my way, and asking my permission to take weights off any rack within 20 feet of me.

Can I condition myself somehow to seem friendlier? Are there specific exercises I can do to make my presence less threatening? It's starting to make me nervous when the weightroom goes silent as I walk in.

[bango skank]

[Mark Rippetoe]

Brian:

You have asked some decent questions before. But really, go troll somewhere else. This kind of shit makes the day too long.