Muscle Clean and Man Makers

The muscle clean is a simple way to teach and practice the upper body movement of the clean turnover. Watch that you or your athletes don’t overload it; excessive weight will just encourage a return to existing bad habits. Focus should be on keeping the elbows turned out to the sides and elevating them maximally and to the sides before turning the arms over; retracting the shoulder blades and bringing the bar back in to the shoulders as the elbows move around the bar; keeping the chest up rather than reaching for the bar by leaning forward; properly timing the release of the grip to maintain connection to the bar and secure placement on the shoulders; smooth connection of the bar to the shoulders with no crashing. The muscle clean can be combined with the clean (or power clean or tall clean) to help incorporate the improved turnover movement with the lift. The muscle clean first allows the athlete to focus on the upper body movement and precise placement of the bar in the rack position; the subsequent clean puts this into practice. Numbers can be pushed in either direction for emphasis; for example, if the muscle clean is relatively new or inconsistent, something like 3 muscle cleans + 1 clean may work well; in other cases, a single muscle clean before one or more cleans might be all that’s necessary. WOD Three rounds for time of: Man-Makers x 10 reps (45/25) 200 Meter Run ]]>