Olympic Weightlifting-Clean & Jerk

Travis Ortmayer: Hey, Travis Ortmayer again with Athletic Nation. In this video segment I am going to teach you how to do the Olympic lift called the Clean and Jerk. Now as the name implies, it's a two part movement, the first being taking the bar from the ground to the shoulder position, this is the Clean, second part is the Jerk, that's taking the bar from the shoulders to arms length overhead, one solid movement. Now, we are going to get warmed up real quick. For me, I like to use just the bar, bar is a great tool just to stretch, do some lightweight reps, get the whole body loosened up.

First thing I like to do with it, just pop it to the shoulders, do about ten reps, shoulder press to the front then widen my grip and ten reps, shoulder press from behind. Alright, I am going to add a little bit of weight to the bar just because for me I need a little bit more weight than just a bar itself to put my body in the correct position. Alright to begin, we are going to start with the first portion of the Clean and Jerk and that's the Clean.

Now, most important thing here is the setup, you want to crouch down, I like to get over the bar, it just keeps your butt low. This is one of the most important factors, back straight, butt down. You are going to raise the bar off the ground slowly so you get over the knees, once you get over the knees it is called the Knee Rebend, you straighten your back, bend your knees forward and then jump literally through the roof, exploding with the hips and with the triple extension, triple extension is then the straightening of the hips, raising of the feet like a jump position and then shrugging with the bar.

So, hips, feet, traps, triple extension. Then once the bar is at that position, you pull up with your arms as hard as you can and force yourself down under the bar, this gives it as much momentum upward as you could possibly get, pulls your body down so that you can catch the bar in your shoulders before it begin to loose its momentum and fall back down.

Next thing we need to do is get a good grip on the bar. Here is how you do that with Olympic Lifting, you want to take your thumb and wrap the bar first with it and then take your first and second fingers and pinch the thumb on to the bar, this is called the Hook Grip. Okay, we archer back, make sure our butt stays down, chest is up, arms are locked, you want to make sure that your arms stay straight during the whole lift until you reach that triple extension and you begin to pull the bar up to the shoulders. Rock back on to your flat feet, pull the bar in, stand up just slightly, begin by extending the legs, once you get here, you rock back just a little bit and then jump.

Now, one smooth motion, back, extend, rock and jump. Alright, now that we have the bar in erect position, got our elbows up or shoulders forward, everything is tight, you want to get the bar overhead and as quickly in a motion as you possibly can, you don't want to sit there and mess with it. So, anyway what we are going to do is take a jump position, that's feet just outside the shoulder width for some, maybe shoulder width for others, easy way to start the jumping position is to take a step without looking, get ready to jump wherever your feet are, that's your power position.

So, anyway you have found your jumping position, ready to get the bar overhead, there are two ways like I said earlier, you have got Power Jerk, where you just spread your feet out to the side and dip under the bar and there is a Split Jerk, where you dip under the bar, one foot forward, one foot backward. Now, these are done in a very-very quick motion, one split second, Alright I am going to show you, get the bar on the shoulders, we will start with the Split Jerk. Bar is erect, I put my head up, keeps my chin out of the way, dip down slowly and then up really quickly. Deep breath, push it up, throw one foot forward, one foot back, bar is locked out overhead, bring the feet together inline, that's a good lift.

Power Jerk is taking the feet out to the sides, then back in with the bar still overhead for a good lift. Those were the two jerk methods.

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