Deadlifts and Cleans

[PapaBear59]

At the gym this evening I was listening to one of the trainers talk to a new member,who seems to be in his mid 40s, about your program. He said that he would like to focus on the squat, bench, press, and deads and not worry about attempting cleans untill he could dead lift twice his body weight establishing a good strong core. Was he giving him good or bad advice? I know in one of your books you suggest doing deads a couple weeks before the cleans but I don't remember anything about getting to a reaching a certain percentage before attempting them.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think my opinion on this has been made clear about 500 times. Chances are The Trainer doesn't know how to coach the lift, but he does know that if a 2x bodyweight deadlift is the criterion for doing cleans he's not likely to ever have to teach them to the guy -- most people quit before then.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Mark is right (par for the course). Most trainers don't even both with the clean or snatch because they can't teach it correctly (or do it themselves even). I have taught approximately 50 or so "older" clients how to clean and we do it once a week at least, depending on the training cycle/block. It's not that hard.