Big Benefits from Some Rarely Used Exercises

Building overall body strength and flexibility is one of the best ways to stay on top in the game of life. In this brief article Im going to reacquaint you with two exercises that in my opinion are among the very best for building strength, flexibility and athleticism.

These movements have been mainstays in training for Olympic style lifting for many decades. However, they have not made the long and perilous journey to the Land of Powerlifting or to the machine dominated Land of Everyday Fitness.

IMHO these two movements provide a huge return on your investment of time and effort.

 

Power Clean

The power clean was once a routine movement in most sports conditioning programs. This lift gets just about every muscle in your body involved at some point in the lift.

I recommend that you practice the old time style of power clean that was used in Olympic lifting in the dark ages before the current style using a hip bump was introduced. The new style is more difficult than the old style and takes a lot of practice to master.

Thus, I recommend using the old style since the objective is doing an athletic whole-body movement rather than maximizing the weight you can clean.

The old style can best be descried as grip and rip.

You pull the bar off the floor and bring it to rest across your shoulders in one quick movement.

 

 

Your grip should be slightly wider than shoulder width. Palms should be facing toward you. Your feet should be shoulder width or slightly wider.

Get into the pull position, take a deep breath and hold it.

Pull the bar straight up with as much speed as you can manage.

As you pull the bar up, keep your hips low and back flat. Dont raise your rear end to do the pull off the floor.

You must pull the bar straight up. Dont swing it out in front of you.

Think about moving your body around the bar as it follows a straight path from the floor to the point where you catch it across the top of your chest.

Once the bar reaches your waist, pull your shoulders back. When it reaches the top of your chest quickly thrust your elbows forward and catch the bar across your shoulders as shown.

When you catch the bar at the top of your chest you can release your breath and lower the weight back down to the floor.

If you have not done power cleans before practice with a broomstick or PVC pipe to get the feel of bringing the bar to your shoulders in one quick move.

IMHO you will benefit from doing this regularly in training. Use a weight that is relatively easy to manage until you master the technique. Do 2-3 sets of 5 reps or less. Increase the weight you use gradually over time.

This is a great exercise for all around strength, conditioning and coordination.

 

Push Press

Putting a barbell overhead builds strength in your entire body. It also requires developing coordination and balance.

First, bring the barbell to your shoulders. I strongly recommend beginning with the barbell on the floor and doing a power clean to bring it to your shoulders.

I note the current generation of gym goers seem to avoid the extra effort needed to start a lift on the floor.

OMG!!! Start a lift on the floor!!!!! How absolutely.1970s!

IMHO taking the bar off a rack at shoulder height is candy-assed. But.some would say I come from an era in weightlifting before the invention of electric lights.

Once you have the bar on your shoulders bend your knees slightly and quickly straighten them to provide an upward drive for the weight.

The bar should just clear your nose on the way up. Once past your forehead, drive the weight a bit back and up so that it goes to lockout roughly in line with the middle of your skull.

When fully locked out, release your breath and lower the bar to your shoulders. Take another breath and hold it. Bend your knees and jerk the bar back to lockout position. When you have finished the intended number of reps, return the bar to the starting position on the floor.

 

I recommend using weights that you can easily do for 5 reps. When you have the technique down, you can do heavier weights if you wish.

Suggest you begin doing the push press for 2-3 sets of 5. Gradually add another set. When you feel comfortable doing more weight add a couple sets of 2 reps.

 

Coda

These are great whole-body exercises that involve every muscle in your body. I use them regularly in my own training and strongly recommend them to others.