Clean and Press Form

[John Watson]

Was curious as to what those with a long forearm and short upper arm ratio should do in the clean and press, as far as the transition from the clean rack position to the beginning of the press position.

I'm talking about those like myself who need to use a wider grip and close elbows, and still end up with only fingertips, or maybe less than 4 fingers on the bar in the rack position.

Is it better to catch the rack position in our hands, so as to be in better position to press?
Or catch it on our shoulders as in the power clean, and then somehow (with a quick bounce?) reposition and re-grip into a more suitable press position?
Are lifters with these anthropomorphics just kind of screwed?

I realize the C&P is kind of a rare bird these days, and maybe a form model hasn't been developed for this scenario, or maybe there are enough similarities of form technique in the C&J that could just be adapted to the C&P?

Or am I overthinking it, and just pick the damn bar up and press it overhead?

[Mark Rippetoe]

If the anthropometry problems are profound, it may be that the clean and press/jerk are not useful to you. I'd have to see the video.

[John Watson]

If the anthropometry problems are profound, it may be that the clean and press/jerk are not useful to you. I'd have to see the video.

Thanks Rip, it may well be the Olympic lifts may not be useful to me (as mentioned many times on this board) due to age; I'm 58,

I'm returning to NLP after a layoff, but I felt inspired to give those lifts an experimental go after reading about the WFAC Weightlifting Challenge.
Would be a little while before I got my press up to anything worth posting a video of.

[obelix]

How much of a problem would it be, to hold the bar as you would for the press, power clean it like that and catch it in the hands, in the start position for pressing, without having to adjust the grip at all?
I figure, a weight that can be pressed should be a pretty submaximal clean, so you should be able to get away with some inefficiency.

[John Watson]

How much of a problem would it be, to hold the bar as you would for the press, power clean it like that and catch it in the hands, in the start position for pressing, without having to adjust the grip at all?
I figure, a weight that can be pressed should be a pretty submaximal clean, so you should be able to get away with some inefficiency.

I think you're correct, and that's the way to proceed.
I just re-watched Rip's video of Bre doing the clean and press, and it appears that that's how it's done.


Rip, why no book on the 3 Olympic lifts?

[Mark Rippetoe]

You want me to add the jerk to the blue book?

[John Watson]

You want me to add the jerk to the blue book?

I'm actually a little surprised it's not in there.
There are 3 pages devoted to the curl.

[John Watson]

To be fair though, it is obviously out of the scope of the Blue Book, and you do in fact mention that fact in the section on the push press.
So I'd presume that the jerk is of limited utility in the sphere of strength training.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Do you know how many people want to do the jerk vs the barbell curl?

[John Watson]

I imagine that ratio may improve slightly after the WFAC Weightlifting Challenge.