Last weekend I wrote about how I was given some technique pointers on power cleans by our gym’s highland games competitor. It dawned on me that I didn’t say what the main advice was.
He suggested I try hook gripping the bar. Now I’ve tried hook gripping on deadlifts once, and immediately wrote it off. Keeping an open mind I jumped back in and was instantly better at cleans.
Since then I’ve been playing with some Olympic lifts every session.
With that one little suggestion I’m now much better at the lifts.
I’ve now hit 225 power cleans in a wicked fatigued state. It’s now a weight that I own. This means I’ll be hitting PRs very soon. Hell 255 was very close for a couple misses that same day, so I was near hitting PRs on a day where I had little “pop”.
I’ve hit a power snatch PR using it already.
Simply changing how I hold the bar has made a ton of practically instant improvement. I couldn’t tell you if my bar path is better, or if I’m now using lower body power instead of arms, hell my cleans still look like in the word’s of an old coach “retarded caveman heave” form. The effort involved is less though. I have improved.
The last few days of them brought me to the realization, one that I’ve been having frequently as of late, that I will hit some crazy lifetime numbers. I just have to keep going.
Never quit, and you’ll progress quite far.
-J