Critique my Squat + Deadlift + Press + Power Clean

[rivo]

Press - you are trying to move the bar around your head. Reach forward with your hips, thereby getting your head out of the way, and drive the bar straight up. As soon as it passes your head, bring your hips back.

I've been working on this a couple of times now. I find it hard to move the hips almost independently of the bar but I'm getting there. Takes a lot more core stabilization than what I did before. I still have trouble with the weights, though. Maybe it's too much already. I was able to increase them steadily before but I hit a ceiling at 49kg.

Also, where do the elbows point during the Press? Would I try to have them point forward or more to the sides? SS says one should pull one's shoulders back, chest up. I noticed that this turns the elbows outwards automatically.

[MattJ.D.]

Toms correct with the hip movement should be leaning back a little(from the hips not the thoracic spine) then once you clear your head with the bar you throw them back and it cause your traps to lock out the bar easily. The elbows should be forward at the bottom of the press then as bar ascends your elbows should start to flare out, its normal and correct mechanics.

[rivo]

Thanks, Matt. Today, I was able to do 3x5 for the first time on 49kg. I failed the 49kg before, so reset to 47.5kg to improve my form. From what I can tell, these are the things that helped: elbows forward at the bottom, reducing my warm-up sets somewhat (the Press comes after the Squat so I'm fairly warmed up already), hips as you and Tom said, push-pressing into the starting position, and getting more sleep the night before I guess. It seems that previously, by the time I got to my first work rep, my arms were already pretty tired. I'll see if I can keep it up.