Hookgrip: Bar Acceleration in Second Pull

Hookgrip has been doing amazing work lately. Their Facebook and Instagram pages are constantly churning out beautiful weightlifting photography.

Lately they’ve been doing more “infographic” photos that provide insight in addition to beauty. Below is the best example to date:

The lines track bar path for three world-class 77kg weightlifters cleaning 196kg. The length of each line segment represents distance traveled between each frame.

Two things you can notice about Lu Xiaojun’s photo compared to the other two.

1) Look at how much more vertical Lu’s bar path is than the other two lifters. You can also see this in his lack of lean back relative to the other two lifters at triple extension.

2) Look at how much power Lu generates during his second pull. As hookgrip notes, it “show[s] Lu’s remarkable explosive power even compared to the best 77s in the world”.

Speed Under the Bar

This video has been shared all over the weightlifting community lately:

It is Ilya Ilyin snatching 200kg off blocks during his London 2012 prep. After seeing this video, it’s no surprise that he took the Gold. The speed with which he gets under the bar is incredible.

To many beginners it seems like the strength and power necessary to get the bar high is the fundamental struggle of weightlifting. But some say getting back down quickly is even more important.

This is definitely something I struggle with. Not being a natural athlete, the rapid reversal of direction is difficult to master. My instinctual “solution” is to cut my second pull early, which obviously doesn’t help the situation.

So how can this be fixed? Actively pushing yourself down against the weight of the bar is the answer, though something I’ve yet to really figure out.

Searching around a bit, here are two videos with helpful suggestions:

Split Jerk vs Squat Jerk

Did you know that split clean and split snatch used to be common? I had never even seen either one performed before until I started doing some research on the squat jerk. But that’s a topic for another day.

So what is the squat jerk? According to Jim Schmitz:

Done after a full squat clean, you dip and drive the barbell up and instead of splitting your legs fore and aft, you drop into a full squat with the barbell directly over your head and your feet widen just a little.

Here’s an example of 77kg world record holder Lu Xiaojun performing a 205kg squat jerk at the 2011 World Weightlifting Championships:

Here’s another example of the squat jerk, this time American Olympic athlete Kendrick Farris with a 215kg squat jerk in training:

So why choose the squat jerk over the more traditional split?

Well… I can’t find a good answer. Plenty of articles discuss the two. All make the standard acknowledgment that some world record holders squat jerk so it must work for them. But there doesn’t seem to be a clear and concise answer.

For example, Schmitz says: “I have asked the coaches of these squat jerkers why their lifters do it and they say that they have tried the traditional split jerk, but the squat jerk works best for them.”

Farris himself comments on his Facebook page that he squat jerks because 1) “How many exercises are we doing Splitting with a heavy load?” and 2) “How many times have you had a weight locked in (made) but lost it because of footwork?”

In a TechniqueWOD video, Doug Larson says that in order to squat jerk you need to have “very, very good mobility” and “a body type that will benefit from that jerk”, specially one with a “long back, short torso”.

In a forum post on Catalyst athletics, Josh Everett says the only advantage of the squat jerk is that “you do not need to lift the bar as high as you would for a split”.

Reading Greg Everett’s Olympic Weightlifting, he mentions nothing but disadvantages.

Finally, Kelly Starrett has an old video on MobilityWOD about the squat jerk and “identify[ing] where in the bottom position you feel restricted in your back” and how to fix it.

So bottom line, is the squat jerk for you? Probably not. If you’re a beginner lifter it probably can’t hurt to try both methods and see what feels more natural for you, but given the vast majority of lifters using the split jerk, that’s probably the way to go.

Back Angle Off the Floor

Spencer Arnold recently did a series of posts on preserving back angle off the floor. This is something I clearly struggle with.

As he writes:

One of my biggest struggles is not engaging my back muscles and keeping them tight throughout the entire movement.  I tend to tighten my back at the start and allow it to flex as the bar leaves the ground.

This is exactly the same problem I run into as well. Getting the back set is all well and good, but if you lose that angle from the moment you begin your first pull, it’s not doing you much good.

So what can we do to correct this problem?

Spencer lists five corrective exercises to try, including pauses at the knee, high pulls with tempo return, and some others.

I especially like the pauses because they reinforce the proper positioning while giving you time to make sure you’re in the right position. For desk jockey’s like me who aren’t as naturally athletic as more gifted lifters, really feeling those positions and being able to see how they look in a mirror at the pause is very helpful.

Additionally, the isometric hold and additional time under tension help build strength and hypertrophy, an added benefit for those of us who, as Jacob Tsypkin once put it, “figured out that you’re more likely to look like Klokov than lift like Klokov”.