Cleans and Jerks
 

It is necessary to do cleans and jerks? if so are there any other alternatives? I try and try but until I strained my back the other night:gay: I don't wanna do it again. I mean I DL Squat FB and the other stuff but cleans just down right gives me a hard time.... any suggestions? thanks

are you training for any competition? why do you want to do olympic lifts?

No I was just wondering because I just wanted to learn a bit more about it from others.

You don't have to do them. Shoulder presses, Rows and deadlifts work fine.

What weight are you using?, maybe it was too heavy for you. Make sure your form is perfect when you do any of these exercises and that will minimize the stress and strain.

I started out with the bar to get form, so when I felt like it was time I added two plates making it 135 it felt fine until my back told me to stop so I just simply just gave up.

So I'll just keep at the DL military press and rows... Thanks guys

don't have to jump right to 135 :)

I'm going to probably go all the way up to 205 tomorrow for a single and 135 will be the 3rd warm up set that I do most likely...I have never started to even warm up with that much.

EDIT: I was talking about cleans, because I missed the title of the thread somehow...? Same principle applies though.

you don't have to do cleans but they are one of the best exercises around.
Here is a web site that I used to help with the progression of how to do cleans.

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/PowerExercises.html

Just look at the olympic style lifts and the Example of Clean and Jerk training progressions.

enjoy.

Nice thanks Dave its a great site all around. I'll be saving that to my favorite.

I'll throw my hat into this potentially old ring.

While I don't think that you HAVE to do cleans and jerks (or most likely push presses) I think that they are hands down one of the best exercises to increase overall power and athleticism.

No other lift has the ROM that clean and jerks have. That alone is a huge plus. Taking a weight and moving fromt he ground to as high as you can lift it overhead... huge distance and huge amount of work to get it there. You could get this ROM with something like a weird deadlift/upright row/military press (or SLDS/reverse curl/military press) but in the end, part of the beauty of a clean is the speed and power it develops. It is the speed with which that distance is covered that is the real key to the benefits.

One of the best things I ever did for my shoulder strength and development (not that development is a major concern of mine, but I thought it would be an interesting note to some "bodybuilders" around here) is to ditch strict pressing and hang my hat on push pressing and jerking... Olympic Jerking :D

If your back is strained have someone who knows something about PCs watch your form. I'm guessing that you're just not used to the explosiveness and you're losing your arch as you pull the weight off the ground. I can't be sure of course because I can't see it but thats my guess.

IronWorker