Powercleans

 

Powercleans are the beginning of the olympic clean and jerk movement. Powercleans are an advanced movement, an individual should be confident in the deadlift technique and be able to perform this lift with correct shoulders back posture and a neutral lower spine. Once the deadlift has been mastered the next step is to increase the power of the movement. This is the foundation of the powerclean. The movement begins with an explosive deadlift, once the bar reaches the waist, the hip are thrust forward as the bar is shrugged up. With lighter weights, the bar can be cleaned to shoulder height without a squatting motion under the bar. With heavier weights a catch phase is required, this involves falling below the bar and catching in a front squat position. Functional Benefit The Powerclean is a whole body exercise, as a result it burns significant energy. The powerclean develops power in muscles similar to that which are used in the beginning of a sprinting motion. For this reason the exercise is used in many sports requiring short explosive running speed. Whole body exercises are a great way of creating an interval style high intensity workout. A whole body movement like powercleans mimics the physiologically effects of performing intervals in sprinting,  swimming or rowing. It should be noted although whole body movements challenge the entire body there is a lot of room for technique error and injury. Always break these movements down into parts and learn each component with correct technique

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