While some guys like Jiri Orsag (300KG)…wait hold on, 90% of the videos on Youtube are videos of guys squatting with their heads/eyes/nose pointed up.
We’ve all been informed to look up. The theory states that our eyes direct where we go. That’s why if we close our eyes and run, we’ll end up running in circles, often to the direction of our handedness. I’m not sure what happens to people who are ambidextrous though. Thus if we look down, we’re going to go down.
On the other hand however, keeping a neutral spine is better to deliver force into the bar. This is because it transfers the power better without losing a percentage of it through flex or excessive arch/curve. No disagreements yet right? A straight stick will deliver more force, than a stick that’s curved right? This is also dependent on durability of the stick, and amount of torsion the stick can handle. But our bodies aren’t sticks.
I’ve been doing some reading, experimenting with clients and myself and my mates, and 90% of us have realized improvements in our squats by looking downwards or forward instead of our previous cue to look UP. Mine’s probably the most extreme, where by looking at a point 3 feet in front of me, I get the best balance and feel. No my back doesn’t round. Tested and checked even with 95% 1RM @ 190KG. The comments I get most by looking downwards or forward are;
- Better stability and ability to feel the weights between the midfoot to the heels.
- They feel their hips and glutes working harder (I personally got up with major butt sores)
- Looking in the ground gives them more confidence
- The quads feel more fired up
- Easier to keep the knees locked in place
- Easier to get the right positions while going down and less mistakes when shooting up.
I can guess to why it happens, but I’m in no way sure, so I’m not about to make assumptions so soon.
In fact, two of our clients always had problems with the hips shooting too far back while the shoulder and bar stays in the same stop. They end up doing a good morning. Myself included, but this was minimized when I did a lot of pulling and front squats. I figure with stronger quads and back, I can keep a more upright position with less leaning forward. For the longest time I saw clients and friends improving, their quads getting all stronger with back squats and I was pretty upset that I had to stick to front squats to get stronger.
My best theory for this improvement;
By keeping a flat back, we have no “platform” to good morning the weight if we shoot our hips shoot back. So this helps us be aware of keeping our hips as close under the bar as possible.
It could also be due to torso length as a lot of our clients have long torsos and keeping a flat back, seems to alleviate the load on the abs and shift it more to the hips.
For the moment, looking down is working well but should the need to move back to looking up arise again, I’ll definitely switch back. Just thought others out there who keep falling over, can give it a shot. Look down, or forward and keep the back flat. Please don’t round the back though.
We’ve used this for presses, weighted chins and dips, squats.
Week 1:
70% 1RM x 4 x 8
Week 2:
75% 1RM x 5 x 8
Week 3:
80% 1RM x 5 x 5
Week 4:
85% 1RM x 5 x 5
Week 5:
90% 1RM x 3 x 3
Week 6:
95% 1RM x 3 x 2
Perform your desired lift, at least twice a week to a maximum of 4x a week.
At week 5, do at least twice with no more than 3
At week 6, only do the lift twice a week.
This was designed through the Prelipin chart and we added about 25% of loading on top of the recommended. NO, I do not suggest using this for your Olympic lifts. Please do not, because you’re avoiding the real work which begins at 85-90% 1RM when we’re talking Olympic lifts. Olympic lifts, past 5 reps are pointless if your goals are to be better at Olympic weightlifting.
One of the most difficult things for many weightlifters out there, is reject the comfort zone. The comfort zone of movements they know and believe will have the biggest carry over to their competition lifts. Allow me the luxury of explaining. The first thing we learn, is something we implant into our memory and thought bank.
So if a coach, is taught that back squats is necessary and it he sees the improvements, it’s likely he’ll bring that to his athletes. The athlete will learn this and continue this pattern. While this is all good, the issue is, how do you know, what you know, is right, across the board? After all, we don’t know, what we don’t know.
My point here is, sometimes, you’re going to need to use lifts that most “literature” don’t talk about, or go against literature. The Chinese coaches understand this, and quite a lot of times, you’ll see lifters doing odd things like a row, that rotates into an oblique twist (I’ve no other way to describe this), back squat + box jumps + dragging a sled.
Things that weightlifting dictionaries don’t have in existence.
Myself, for example.
Literature suggests that snatch and clean pulls from the floor will improve our pulling strength to keep our torso over the bar. I don’t benefit much from floor pulls, so I ended up spending a lot of time pulling off the blocks and from an elevated platform. From these two movements, though I barely touched my clean and jerks (2x a week only), it shot up from 131-135KG in 2 weeks. While many may say that’s barely anything, keep in mind I was stuck at 120-130KG lifts for a whole 2 annoying months, so to have it move 4KG in 2 weeks is huge for me.
Literature suggests that back squats improve leg strength and back strength. Not the case for me, as I kept falling forward. It was supposed to improve it, but it wasn’t doing it. In the end, I did front squats, 2″ platform wide grip clean pulls, box jumps and sled pushes. I even did a ton of kettlebell swings and trunk work after each session. The only back squats I did was paused back squats so I wouldn’t topple over and could find my center. During this time, I still had no idea the leaning forward could be a hip tightness caused by my tight IT bands and wasn’t just about strength.
That helped tremendously. Finally shot my back squats up to a nice 195KG from 175KG. That took roughly 2 months. This was after my squats didn’t move for 6 months so I was obviously extremely satisfied. When I studied further about ITB, hip flexor and hamstring involvement in the opening and closing of the hip angle, I got my brother to massage my ITB daily and step on it. It felt like someone put a hot knife through my flesh, but it got the job done.
So yeah, just use the resources around to help you. It annoys me sometimes when people calls it the Chinese training method. There isn’t one. They just use resources around to help them. Not everything is a cookie cutter y’all! I’m sure many people have watched the vids of Klokov’s 120KG high pull/hip snatch thing.
I’m sure this wasn’t in much literature but he uses it. What does that mean? It simply means he found an exercise that he likes and can benefit from. Just experiment.
Another reason why the daily max method of lifting, sport specific method cannot be used for long. There, whether or not you like it, are too many variables it doesn’t address. And these variables can and will affect the lifter. They sent back the Bulgarian coaches in Indonesia because the lifters had too much injuries. When he came back to Asia, (Malaysia), he toned his methods down and included other moves like presses and pulls because he admitted, in terms of sustainability of training, it’s difficult.
Here, I’d like to discuss the point of using pulls and the reason we go to percentages so high relative to the snatch and CNJ. This is in stark contrast of the Soviet methods in training. As both teams have developed world champions in all weight classes, I think nobody’s in the position to actually judge. Hey, as long it works.
But before that, if you’re wondering why I had a Chinese coach come all the way to Malaysia to coach me, it’s because China has this sports agreement with nations around Asia. They want to develop sports around Asia. Whether there’s a political motive behind this movement, is up to anybody’s guess and yes I’ve questioned this. My coach says it’s a diplomatic relation thing (And I still need a visa to enter China, my own “home” country?!?). This may be interesting though. The Chinese government recognizes all with Chinese roots, as their own and should we want to return to China (emm, not too keen, wasn’t even born there), we can just apply. Provided of course we have the qualifications required.
First, let’s explore the Soviets principles of using the pull. The pull is used to overload the pulling height in lifts. They pull between 60-120% of snatches and cleans. On average, the Soviets like 2-6 repetitions per set, between 80-99%. At 100-109%, they like to use 2-5 repetitions. Sets used, are usually at about 8 sets for triples at loads of 95% and up to 3 sets of doubles at 115%.
Their analysis have uncovered that at 100% of your snatch and clean, your pull height in the second rep is 0.5-1CM less than the first and in the third, it’s 1-5-2.5CM lower.
At 110%, it drops to 5CM lower than the max height
At 120%, it drops between 5-7CM lower than max height.
So all in all, if you actually think about it, pulls aren’t really something you ought to do much. But that’s based on Soviet literature.
In the above video, at 0.19 to 0.49, you’ll see Yoon Jin Hee one of Korea’s lifters. She does this up and down pull, which in the Western weightlifting world, I believe is called the “Clean style deadlift” or “Clean deadlift” depending on which coach you’ve been listening to. For the benefit of the majority of the readers on this blog, who are from English speaking nations, I’ll call it the clean deadlift.
Now in the Chinese principals, this is what the clean’s for;
- Teaching the body, of the most accurate angles for exerting the maximal amount of power
- Accurately moving the load from the quads to the hips once the bar hits knee level. Important so to not tilt forward
- Strengthening the entire back structure especially because a lot of Asians have long torsos
The pulls, according to the Chinese principals has nothing to do with increasing the height of the second pull. That’s settled by the block work and high pulls. The reason you see some lifters going up and down when they’re pulling, is because they’re finding the feeling. We’re reminded constantly to imprint the best feeling we have during the snatch/CNJ. When we’ve this feeling, we’ve to find a way to align ourselves and find this exact feeling. When we find it, we pause and wait and repeat till we get it over and over. Sometimes, closing your eyes will help.
This is another difference in their theories. It’s pretty simple and logical. Somewhat similar to the conjugate methods preached by Westside Barbell.
If you squat 180KG, you’ll be able to deadlift 200KG. If you rack pull below knee, say 270KG, you’ll probably pull 240KG. However, the carryover from the floor pulling and off platform pulling, may not translate so much to the classic lifts.
We actually have a ratio of about 70-78% for snatch to snatch pulls and 72%-82% of clean to clean pulls ratio. Why I say it’s about there, is because these coaches will analyze speed of pulling and the type of lifter. Su Dajin 1RM in his pulls can be higher than Lu Xiaojun, but Xiaojun will always outlift Dajin in his snatches because of his muscle fiber build-up. Zhang Guozheng will certainly pull more than Shi Zhiyong but Zhiyong can outsnatch Guozheng. I don’t know how to teach this, but you’ll see it after a while.
Now what happens with lifters like this is, we spend more time on the block. This is because their strength deposits are so much higher, there’s no real point to increase that. Spend time on power. I’m one of the lifters that are like this, but because I was stubborn thinking, I needed to improve my floor pull strength, I refused to listen to my coach. I know, you’re probably thinking idiot, but these are the mistakes I had to make before I could learn. Lesson learnt, coach knows best. Usually.
Then we explore block pulls.
Block pulls put you in a far more advantageous position thus enabling you to snatch and clean more, if you’re quick enough. The reduced distance between the “pocket” and the bar start height forces you to explode more quickly and in weightlifting, it’s all about power. Being able to take the shortest distance to produce the most amount of power, is going to make you even more powerful in the longer distance. No, you cannot dispute that, because I’ve got floor pulls and pulls from a platform to save my ass in this argument. Besides, arguing isn’t going to get you anywhere, especially with so many nations all employing the methods written above.
It’s usually better to employ the block pulls after your heavy floor pulling. Against all research and science, the Chinese believe after a power movement, (snatch, CNJ), you should move directly to a strength specific movement like the squats or pulls. Now what happens is, your body has already turned the maximal amount of fibers from the snatches/CNJ’s, and by training the strength movement now, your bodies will be stronger and faster.
Now right after the strength movements, you want to do some more speed movements just to “nail” it in place, that you must move fast. If the question of how true this is arises, I don’t have research papers, but my best training sessions are always in the evening when I’ve done a morning workout. Or when I did some quick sprints before my morning workouts. So I suppose this theory, works, for me.
Now a few notes here.
- You can use block pulls to your death. 10-20 sets, whatever. It’s up to you. Just make sure you pull it high enough and drop
- Similar to the squats, the stronger you are, the less time you need to be spending on the floor pulls. You don’t need that much strength deposits.
- Repetitions should stick between 2-4 reps most of the time.
A sample training could be found here. Good luck my fellow weightlifting friends.
This is a relatively simple template I feel most people can follow. It’s designed to point out your technical issues and hopefully, you’re smart enough to correct them.
Here’s a few guidelines before starting.
For the squats, just do a 1RM once a week. It takes too much to keep going to 1RM’s and it cuts your capacity for more work.
The stronger you are, less time should be spent on strength. More time must be spent USING that strength and power.
90% of the training population won’t achieve the point above so stop worrying about it.
Unless you hold a paper with pre-calculated percentages or have a calculator, using reps to determine the weight.
Mix your rep ranges, but never stray too far off the 1RM. This is weightlifting, not crossfit or bodybuilding.
Always do unilateral movements after training, like 1 minute of walking lunges or some lateral raises. Muscular imbalances.
Monday
Snatch to 1RM (3×3)
CNJ to 1RM (3×2)
Back Squats (5-7 x 3-5)
Clean Pulls (5 x 3)
Behind neck push press (5 x 2-5)
Tuesday
Snatch to 1RM (5-8 x 2-3) – Overhead squat after completion of each rep)
Snatch Balance (5-8 x 1-3)
Snatch Pulls (5-6 x 2-3)
Block High Snatch Pulls with Rebend (6-8 x 2-3)
Wednesday
Clean + FS + Jerk 1RM (5-8 x 2)
Front Squats (5-8 x 1 -3)
Clean Pulls (5-6 x 3)
Behind Neck Push Jerk (8 x 1)
Push Press (5 x 3 )
Thursday
Back Squats to 1RM (6-8 x 2-5)
Snatch 85-90% (2-3 x1)
Clean and Jerk 85-90% (2-3 x1)
Strict Press (5 x 3-5)
Friday
Snatch to 1RM (3 x 1)
CNJ to 1RM (3 x 1)
Snatch Pulls (5 x 3)
Block snatch high pull with rebend (5 x 2-3)
Jerk Drives (8×3) – About the same weight as your max 1RM back squats
Saturday
Front Squats to 1RM (5-6 x 1-3)
Platform Clean Deadlifts (5-6 x 1-3)
Snatch Balance (5-6 x 1-3)
Push Jerk (5×1-3)
If you still have some strength, do whatever you think is necessary to address whatever else your weakness is. Address weakness, increase work, do whatever you think is useful, even if people think it doesn’t work. You’ll be able to tell if it works in 4 weeks.
Play around with it. It’s a fun and easy template.
In the Chinese methods, recovery is greatly emphasized. The Chinese spread recovery into two segments. The mental and physical aspect.
It’s believed that when the human mind, focuses on something too intensely, it tends to miss obvious glaring errors. So something as simple as the second pull height that’s slightly off, that it pisses the lifter off. If he tries over and over again, he may not be able to see that the fix could be as simple as the grip width.
If he the lifter, doesn’t focus enough, he may not understand a subject well enough. So in essence, the trick is to be right in the middle. The balance.
The Chinese understand this, which is why they emphasize mental relaxation methods for their lifters. This is done in the form of
Music and television
Relaxing games (Checkers and Chinese chess or some general messing around)
Chilling, chatting and laughing
Meditation or relaxation techniques
Unlike Abadijev, they actually do allow the lifters to enjoy their time outside of training. It’s not purely work. Some senior lifters even have families to distract them outside of weightlifting. It’s believed that a solid work-life balance is very important for producing good athletes.
The physical sense is in terms of recovery comes in
The food that’s eaten is usually high protein, medium fat and loads of rice. I’m unsure why they say starch is super good for recovery but it’s somewhere along the lines of rice increases a hormone (I’m assuming insulin) and helps recovery. Insulin isn’t a Mandarin words we use often in Malaysia and I was the only English speaking person there, so it was hard to get a translation. Finally, they described it as;
“A gate that opens only after hard training, but that gate requires rice (carbs) to open. Once it’s open, the meats (protein and fat) can enter and start the repair process with the rice giving these meats the energy to work“
It sounded ridiculous the first time I tried translating it directly to English in my head that I laughed for days thinking about it. I still do actually.
But yes, the idea is to eat plenty of meats. Full good quality meats. None of those GMO shit here. And NO soya milk. Tofu yes, cuz it’s density of estrogen isn’t as high as soya milk and you can’t consume that much tofu without feeling sick. Lots of veggies and fruits. If you don’t want rice, eat more fruits. If you don’t like fruits, you’re a retard cuz fruits are awesomely sweet.
What do I mean by a lot? No we don’t have macros, but if your plate isn’t covered in meat, go back to the canteen and get more of it. In general, about 500GMS of meat per serving should be enough to keep an athlete relatively full. Opt for more if you need to.
Massages are usually done for 10 minutes before training.
Massages on the legs, back, shoulders. Quick activation massages, none of those relaxing effleurage for 1 hour things. Just effleurage and tap and you’re training. Post training, a slightly longer 15 minute massage that involves effleurage, kneading and rearranging.
Electrical stimulants is in the form of this machine, that involves a sponge, some water and 8 settings which you choose. Whether for stimulation of muscles post workout, pre workout, pains, or a bunch of others. Generally we select the “Relax” mode and let it do its work. It kinda pulls deep into the muscles and it feels like someone put his hand inside your flesh and squeezes the muscles. Not as fun as it sounds though.
Ice baths are used after training to help overtrained athletes calm their nervous systems down. By now you must be thinking “Why do these Chinese do everything in reverse?” I know some research says ice baths don’t help physiologically and in fact increases cortisol levels but it’s rare that studies are angle to analyze the psychological POV of this method.
The Chinese believe strongly that all research can be thrown out the window if the athlete benefits from the exercise or the activity. Placebo or not, that’s of no importance. What’s important is the result the athlete gets from it.
The rest such as acupuncture, cupping and scraping are all recovery methods. These are done by professionals. The electrical acupuncture is neat though. They jab these little acupuncture needles in and then put a pair of clips and run low voltage electricity. Feels, tingly.
Now ginseng or “yan sang” is another interesting approach to recovery. As many already know, the Chinese are huge on roots, fruits, mixture of vegetables with certain meats and parts of the animal. Here’s a few of what I know. Jasmine tea helps relax. Blood from animals help recovery of muscles. Eating carrot improves eyesight. Turtles improve testosterone reproduction (I shit you not). Fermented foods are god’s gift to man because it encourages the production of good bacteria.
You can make this fermented drink, that I think the Western world calls “Kombucha”. It sounds like a directly translation of the Chinese’s “Kam piew zha”. The ones I drink is a combination of black mushrooms, white mushrooms, a funny fungus, longan, dried lemons, vinegar, water, loads of goji beans and funky herbs. Let it sit somewhere cool and keep the lid open. MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THE LID OPEN OR IT EXPLODES!!
It doesn’t taste very good though.
So yes, that’s about recovery. Sorry it took so long to write this. I was sick………clearly I wasn’t drinking enough kampiewzha.
I’ve been studying their methods for a few years, with occasional trips to China to explore more. Their success intrigues a lot.
Having learnt how they do things, I can attribute their success to a few factors;
The ability to work really hard and sacrifice things for a greater goal.
The good balance of work and play.
A central system that takes care of everything for the athlete while they’re training.
The close interaction between coach and lifter.
The clever variety of exercises selected and usage (*)
However, I’m not quite sure about certain exercises they choose to use and the loading. My coach and I have discussed this before and we don’t really agree to certain things the national coaches like to use. There are 5 of them and they all have their own methods. Liao Hui’s coach’s a bit peculiar. He doesn’t quite drop much exercises and continues to use a rather high range of repetitions. It seems to work for Liao Hui. Some Russian lifters do this as well as demonstrated from the recent Junior Weightlifting Games in Penang, Malaysia. For those who were there, did you like training in the barn? Hehe… we didn’t even have fans the last time.
For my coach, as it approaches competitions (3-4 weeks) , he likes to do more classic lifts, followed by 110-120% of pulling for 2-3 sets of triples, block high pulls and some jerk drives (my jerk is horrific) coupled with overhead balances. Bodybuilding work except pull-ups and rows are completely cut out. Meaning no bench presses, no more good mornings, no more heavy deadlifts, no curls and stuff. In the last week, its all about classic lifts to 100% and some triples in squats. Block high pulling is emphasized and mostly pulls to 100% of snatch/clean without touching the floor. He says this is to reinforce my the pulling position but not overly tax the back. 1 day before the competition, all we do is some bar and technique work for maybe 30 minutes in the morning and sleep, read a book, relax the whole day.
Some things are really a bit odd, but like I said as long it works!
It may be the bodybuilding culture, but in many Western countries, the first question they ask when an athlete’s weak in a particular segment of the lift is “What muscle is weak?” If you keep going like that, you’re never going to pinpoint the question because you’ll be using assistance lifts that don’t mimic the lifting, but rather the muscle. Weightlifting is a skill, so the moment you realize a weak spot, do something that addresses that spot. You can use partials, pauses, technique work with light weights, but do them slow. It’s NOT, I repeat, NOT about just executing an exercise. It’s all about executing the technique with perfection. If you’re doing hypertrophy work, it’s perfectly fine to cheat in form, so you can bang a few extra reps to fatigue and tear the fibres. In weightlifting, is not fine.
You need to increase your “usable” strength. It’s pointless if you increase your squats and pulls, but it cannot translate to the classic lifts. Always ensure that, when your strength rises, your technique is capable of taking advantage of this increase. That’s why someone has to tell Louie Simmons that the box squat doesn’t directly translate to increased snatch and CNJ’s. It’s not of usable strength to a weightlifter though it means you can improve your parallel squat.
Snatch & Supplementary
The snatch is obviously the main exercise. In the snatch, everything must be perfect and precise from the start. In our training, the feeling was emphasized. Coaches can’t “place” the feeling into you, but via their description and manipulating of the body’s angles, (EG: pushing you slightly backwards to load the hips, pulling the chest up to have a straighter torso angle) you ought to be able to get good positions.
In the snatch, the emphasis is on the first pull. Not the second pull. Without a good first pull, you can forget about a good second pull. You don’t have the position.
Strong as hell but just not in the right position.
A good angle where much of the load is supported by the quad, hip and lower back in the first pull and the athlete stays pretty flat footed right until the bar passes his knee. About 3 inches before the “pocket”, the bar starts to accelerate and load is shifted back to the middle. This is done by pushing the hip forward and the shoulders are pulled backwards. Throughout the whole movement, rhomboids must be kept extremely tight but shoulders stay loose. This process is generally thought to be natural. It isn’t exactly something we teach. In Chinese, it’s called “Ze ran”. I’m just detailing it for you technique Nazis.
When the bar is at the pocket, remember your loose shoulder, tight rhomboids? This is when you “open” your shoulders and chest upwards so you’d be able to produce the pop, keep it close and accelerate under the bar. From there, catch as high as you can and stick to it. Don’t drop. It’s not a maximum weight and you should be able to stop the bar from pushing you under. If you can’t, push your head out and push your shoulders back some more. That ought to help you get it in place.
Here are some errors and how they fix them.
Swinging of bar forward
Potential cause and correction:
- Extended wrist instead of flexed or neutral wrist.
Correction: Cock wrist inwards to body. Tight grip, but relax forearms and arms.
- Loose and rounded shoulders and rhomboid instead of locked in rhomboid and loose shoulders.
Correction: Imagine a pencil on the midback and attempt to pinch that pencil. Forces shoulders downwards and into the socket. Wriggle shoulders to ensure it remains loose but rhomboids are locked.
- Hyper extension. Weak legs and hips. Uses back to swing bar for more height.. Could be a technique, not necessarily an error.
- Bar too far from body in first pull. Back weak, and unable to support upright structure, hips drive up but chest stays low, swinging of back at last minute causing bumping of bar. Bumping of bar instead of “scooping” or “popping”. Could be because of weak quads OR bad technique, thus load is shifted into hips and hamstrings while chest stays low.
- Correction: Most squats and pulls from block. Focus on pausing right before the “pocket” and then consciously drive the bar up.
There are a few other causes of this but these are the most common ones. Mostly, pulls and front squats should fix them.
Lack of stability in overhead squat position
Potential cause and correction:
- Lack of shoulder, ankle and hip flexibility. Bar cannot be placed where it needs to.
Correction: Besides the obvious PNF, static, dynamic and weighted stretch, do snatch balances and overhead squats. Overhead squats for newbies, snatch balances for those who are more comfortable.
Overhead squats do not actually mimic the dynamic nature of a snatch but is good as a confidence builder.
Snatch balances are far better. It’s my coach’s estimation that your snatch balances ought to be equal to your jerk. I’ve never hit a 140KG snatch balance with a 140KG jerk, but he does have a video of a 180KG snatch balance while his jerk’s still 170KG.
Remember to push your head as far forward as possible and drive the bar up and back. This helps keep the bar locked in the centre and eases the squatting up.
Clean and Jerks error and it’s corrections
Weak drive when doing jerks
Potential cause and correction:
- Weak upper back and trunk. Unable to keep trunk arched thus causing a curve.
Correction: Keep the elbows up high in the sky consciously before jerking. Exercise to correct this, jerk drives. Get anything above 110% of your 1RM max jerk, and dip and drive while constantly maintaining a straight trunk. Load the hips and quads fully and explode upwards. Repeat this for 10-12 reps at the lighter weights to your 3RM
This used to be my MOST hated exercise because it was partial in movement, but painfully heavy. It hurt to do anything. It’s usually to match your max 1RM back squats.
- Insufficient upper body strength and lack of leg drive
Solution: Push presses! Push presses force you to throw the head back, drive hard and push the bar straight. There is barely any room for error. For those who are thinking “Why not just rack jerks? It’s similar to a jerk and you can use more weight”
It’s simple. Has that worked for you? Would you rather ram into the same wall and eventually break it after much ramming, or would you rather ram the wall with an additional tool?
Crashing of bar in a clean
Potential cause and correction:
- You’re a retarded (I admit) lifter that tried to increase weights lifter too quickly. It’s when you rush the learning process and try to increase too quickly, that’s when you over-pull the bar and it comes crashing right into you.
- You can’t keep your trunk tight enough. You’ve estimated the right height of which the bar hits its maximum height but your back curved and it comes crashing right in. Then you strain trying to get your chest up.
Correction: Spend time with the empty bar or empty stick, and the entire clean process is executed perfectly and slowly, meaning perfect receiving height, sitting right down before standing up with a perfectly straight back. Repeat this for at least 50 repetitions before your clean and jerk day and another 100 reps after for skill practice.
Also, stretch your ankles. Flexible ankles cure cancer so I’m sure it’ll help your clean technique.
Pulls & Variations
The pull that many are accustomed to is one. Pull and shrug.
In the Chinese dictionary, there are tonnes of them. The Chinese break the pull into segments. Floor to below knee, to knee, to above knee, right before pocket, to pocket, from mid shin to above knee, etc. We just do something that fixes the weak segment, with less concern on “What muscle is weak”. It could be your brain muscles that are weak, causing you to constantly misfire.
The percentages in pulls, from the Chinese POV, is just to lift to a 1 or 2RM and then drop the weights slightly and complete a few sets for triples. Triples seem to be the average for most Chinese lifters. For those who are into percentages, I think between 110-140% of your snatch and clean are good numbers. Generally we’ll go up to 150% for a set or two of singles and then doubles and sets of triples at 110-140%. No really sure though. I don’t use percentages. Usually, a good rule of the thumb is to let the repetitions determine the weight. That really simplifies the whole programming.
In the Chinese system, the snatches and CNJ’s are usually broken into separate days. They usually start shifting into snatch and CNJ about 8 weeks before a competition. In a snatch workout, it could be;
Morning – Power snatch (6×3), snatch balance (5×3), push press behind neck (6×3), some bodybuilding
Evening – Snatch 1RM then (5×2-3) snatch pull or snatch deadlifts (6×3), block snatch high pull with rebend (8×3), snatch practice along with some random shoulder presses or dips or pull-ups (30 minutes)
Now this is merely a guide for those who are used to sets and reps. Actual volume can and is usually much greater than this, and athletes usually use how they feel and time blocks. For example, 1 ¼ hours is spent snatching, 40 minutes snatch pulling, 30 minutes block snatching and 30 minutes of practice. During this period, they try to take as many sets, reps and weight as possible.
Squats
3 main exercises are used. Back squats, front squats and snatch balances. The snatch balance is more to achieve maximal depth, trunk strength and stability when snatching. Squatting is usually done 3 times in a week for the well balanced lifter, 5 times a week if the lifter always gets pinned and up to one every session if the lifters are really weak. The Chinese do squats in numerous ways.
I’ll try explaining a few
Squat Loading The Chinese Way
One is to go to a 1RM, and repeat for sets of triples. The triples are usually fluid and rarely ever exceedingly difficult. Weights selected are types that you would miss if you didn’t pay full focus, but if focus is solid it should be fine. The emphasis is on technique and speed in standing up.
Another is to go to a 1-2RM, repeat, for 3 sets with a spotter. Drop weights to a 5RM for 2 sets, and ramp the weights back up again to another 1-2RM and see if it’s better than the original 1-2RM. Then do a few sets of 3-5 reps. I see this quite a bit too.
What they like to do is rack squats from the weakest point. I think the powerlifting group like to call it “Pin squats” We use jerk racks, and weight plates/platforms. The plates/platform increases the height so we have to squat lower. There we just drive the weights up and usually with no concern on eccentric lowering. Reps between 1-5.
Many methods are employed, but the gist is to work really hard at the squats. That’s the only way you’ll improve really.
