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Thread: Powercleans vs Cleans

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    4

    Default Powercleans vs Cleans

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    Hi Mark and readers,

    Since this is my first post let me first introduce myself (you can skip this paragraph if you're in a hurry or don't care). I'm Johan, 27 y/o, 6'2", 205lbs, gaining like crazy, and, how original, I just started SS. I've been training for a long time, but mostly did high rep stuff (on purpose, my reasoning back then: I ran a lot and didn't want to gain mass, was <175lbs for a long time). In February I started focusing more on real strength training, but I didn't know anything about it. So a PT at my gym made a program for me. In retrospect, this was a pretty good program..... for intermediates!

    About two weeks ago I switched to SS. I started squatting at 80kg (x3x5 ofc) and I'll be up for 97,5kg monday. Awesome!

    Now, without further ado, my question: I can do pretty decent cleans, because I trained at John Broz's place in Vegas (www.averagebroz.com delete link if not allowed plz) during this summer (I was in Vegas for 2 mnds). Are they preferable to powercleans in the SS program and are the PC's just there cause they're easier? And, out of scientific interest, why (not)?

    Also, I probably started a bit high since I trained for a bit already before SS. Should I do something to change this? Or is it just a matter of: If you can make your reps with good form its ok?

    Thanks in advance,

    Johan

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    North Texas
    Posts
    54,817

    Default

    If you learned to clean from Broz, you know how to clean. We use the power clean in our programs because we are not making Olympic weightlifters, but rather teaching novices an explosive lift that can be used in a general strength and conditioning program, and the power clean is easier to teach and learn. We'd rather see you pull the bar over a longer ROM, instead of just pulling it high enough to get under. Most importantly, we'd much rather you learned to squat using hip drive, and most novices have a hard time separating the movement patterns of the squat we teach and the front squat part of the clean. We'd rather have the squat learned to the point that its movement pattern can be kept separated from the front squat, and this usually takes several weeks. So learning the clean would interfere with our novice's ability to squat correctly early in the program. This is discussed in the book.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    4

    Default

    Hi Mark,

    Thanks for the reply. The above sounds logical. PC's it is, I'll incorporate cleans(&jerks) again when I'm done with linear progression. At some point in my life I definitely have to C&J 100kg :-).

    Johan

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    London, England
    Posts
    2,250

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by JohanR View Post
    Hi Mark,

    Thanks for the reply. The above sounds logical. PC's it is, I'll incorporate cleans(&jerks) again when I'm done with linear progression. At some point in my life I definitely have to C&J 100kg :-).

    Johan
    It may seem a long way off today, but a 100kg power clean is certainly reachable.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    4

    Default

    Thanks for the encouragement Joe. Yesterday I PCed 62,5 x 5 x 3. I can probably clean (not PC and 1 RM )around 80 right now, so I'm confident the 100kg C&J is achievable by the beginning of next year if I keep training like this.

    It'll be awesome! :-)

    J

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