Stop Using Your Hands to Catch Your Cleans!
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 01/22/21)
The clean is racked (i.e., caught or received) on the shoulders. Not in the hands.
Figure 1: This is the correct way to rack a clean.
When you rack a clean, you do so by rapidly punching your elbows forward and up so that the barbell can sit on the shelf provided by your delts (Figure 1). This shelf is extremely strong, stable, and it can support a lot of weight - more than you can clean, in fact.
On the other hand - or rather, hands - if you receive your cleans by supporting the bar in your hands (Figure 2), your poor, tiny, bent wrists will hate you for it, and it’s possible that your collarbones will too.
Figure 2: Don’t rack your cleans like this. Your wrists will despise you.
To rack the bar properly, jam the elbows forward and up and receive the bar with a loose grip - be sure to let the thumb slip out of the hook grip as you punch the elbows forward.
Figure 3: Elbows forward and up and a loose grip on the bar
It’s possible that your pinky finger (maybe even your ring finger) will slip off the bar during the catch, and while this is not ideal (especially if you need to jerk the barbell overhead yet), it’s not the end of the world. Do whatever you need to do with your grip to permit the receiving of the bar on your shoulders.
Your wrists will not be straight when you catch a clean, and that’s perfectly fine. Whether a lifter receives the bar correctly on the shoulders or not, the wrists will be bent backwards in extension, but a bar caught on the shoulders (with elbows forward and up) is supported by the shoulders, so the wrists - although bent - do not take any of the load. A bar caught with low elbows, however, cannot be successfully supported by the shoulders and is instead supported on bent - and usually painful - wrists.
Tommy doesn’t even need hands to rack his cleans. (We do NOT recommend trying this at home, folks)
Be kind to your wrists and commit to catching your cleans on your shoulders. You’ll enjoy the lift far more when your wrists aren’t screaming at you.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
-Phil
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