Recovery from pulling: lighter power cleans instead of lighter deadlifts?

[bntbnr]

Hi,

I'm 38 and approaching the point where alternating power cleans and deadlifts will not work without a lighter day. So far I have been doing lighter deadlifts occasionally when fatigue had accumulated or I had a shitty week. Back extensions don't work in my home gym and I followed Rip's recommendation here:
http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=40578

I introduced power cleans late when I installed my home gym and would like to practise them some more, which I didn't do to not mess with my recovery. My question is whether lighter power cleans instead of lighter deads (with about 90% of my heavy work sets) would also be beneficial to my training both to practise form and to recover from heavy pulling. I'm not an experienced lifter, so I don't know if it might have negative consequences.

Yes, form check will then be the next thing. Thanks for all the valuable information that you provide in this forum!

[Michael Wolf]

This is the point at which I usually add chins to the program, doing something like:
Monday - Deadlift 5RM
Weds - Chin-up
Fri - Power Clean

You could also power snatch on Wednesdays. But if you want to practice more to improve technique, 2x/week practice is definitely a lot better than 1x/week. So doing lighter power cleans Wednesday, then heavier on Friday would work just fine. Due to the nature of the lift, the back-off in power cleans can be less a % back off from the work-sets than for DLs. If you do light DLs, 90% of work sets would be too heavy (assuming you're already a mid to advanced novice, which is typically when alternating cleans and DL becomes too difficult). For light power cleans, however, 85-90% might work well along with an overall volume reduction.

So try this:

Mon - DL 1x5
Weds - Light Power Cleans: 8x2, ramping the first 4 sets, then 4 doubles across at 85-90% of your Heavy Power Clean working weight
Fri - Heavy Power Cleans 5x3 across

After Wednesday's cleans, you may even still have energy for the chins.

[bntbnr]

Thanks for your quick reply! I'll do it like that.

The 90% referred to the power cleans (my syntax was confusing...), my light deadlifts were much lighter. I tried different weights during my power clean warm-up and came up with 90% because that felt just right. No trouble racking them, but still heavy enough that they require effort and concentration.

I have never done power snatches, but I guess they require more space than power cleans, and that's a limitation in my home gym (where I will go right now, because my wife wants to start Starting Strength today now that our youngest is half a year old).

[Michael Wolf]

How much floor/platform space do you have, and what's the ceiling height?

[bntbnr]

Here's a pic:



There's only about 1,70m / 5'7 between the rack and the shelf. Ceiling height is not an issue.

[Michael Wolf]

It can be done, but there's not much room for error there with the snatches. Try the 2x week cleans, lighter and heavier, and see how you like it.

[bntbnr]

Thanks! Works well so far!

[cph]

This is the point at which I usually add chins to the program, doing something like:
Monday - Deadlift 5RM
Weds - Chin-up
Fri - Power Clean

Wolf, when do you recommend moving to this schedule? Would you wait till the deadlift stalls, or try to avoid a stall by reducing to deadlifting once a week?

[Michael Wolf]

In the ideal world, this decision is made individually by the well informed trainee, or the coach, based on all the factors involved. In a general sense though, it really depends. I generally like the idea that it's easier to avoid getting stuck than it is to get unstuck, once stuck. Which would favor avoiding a stall. But it's also usually the case that Novices at this stage don't *usually* have a good enough idea of their own capabilities and how their body responds to stress and training to really be able to tell that a stall is coming. A review of the form check history over the years of this forum will tell you that many novices think they're grinding and about to fail, when the weights are basically flying up. So for most people, I'd say to keep pushing through. However, for the few people really in tune with their bodies and their training, I'd suggest moving to the lower frequency schedule sooner, to avoid a stall.