Since my last post, I trained one more time, where I just did hang cleans, and today, where I did an actual power clean.

I thought it’d be awhile before I add any weight to the bar, but some on the Starting Strength Forum suggested that adding weight would help. So, the last time I trained, I put a couple of 25s on the bar. I did some jumps with the bar hanging, and I did some hang cleans. I had a terrible time getting into the rack position.

When I was done, I talked to one of the guys that works at my gym. He agreed that adding weight would help; however, he also said it’s been his experience that the hang clean is harder to get than the power clean. He suggested that since I already have a good deadlift, I should start cleaning from the floor.

A couple days ago, I got a comment on my blog by Rogelio with a link to a post on his blog, Dissecting the Power Clean for phenomenal Manly Curls strength. This seems to be a pretty good article, which doesn’t suggest getting the hang clean before doing a power clean. Thus, today I decided to do a power clean.

I did my deloading bench training, then I made my way to the power rack with the bumper plates. I spent 15 minutes taking the bar off and on the power rack in the racked position and just got the feel of where everything should be while getting a good stretch. This was really beneficial as I found how I was holding the bar the last two times I trained wasn’t the best way for me to hold the bar.

For the next 10 minutes, I did some power cleans. I just did what felt natural and didn’t worry about each stage of the clean (next time I’m going to be more critical). I started racking the bar much better, but I’m still not consistently getting my elbows up enough.

Next time I have to deload with the squat before I do power cleans. I’m going to do  front squats to really work on the rack position. I’ve done front squats before, but I was doing California front squats. This time I’m going to do them right. I’m also going to add more weight to the power cleans. 95 lb. floats off the floor a little too much.