The Power Clean.

Nick | 04/29/2014 | 5

The power clean is a variation (or drill) of the full squat clean that has in some ways taken on a life of its own. While its design might have been to allow an athlete to work on certain parts of a squat clean without letting the complexity of the full lift bog them down, it is now used all over by “power” athletes (think football players, rugby players, or really any athlete that needs to be able to move explosively for short bursts) to develop, well, power.  Because we won’t be landing in a front squat, for many of us this takes some of our mobility issues out of the picture as well and we can just focus on the big jump necessary to get the bar up to our shoulders.  For those  you interested in some light reading, here’s an old CrossFit Journal article written by none other than Mark Rippetoe addressing the finer points of the “how” and “why” of the power clean: http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/48_06_power_clean2.pdf

STR:

Power Clean
1 rep max

WOD:

8 rounds
5 burpee pullups
10 wallballs

* Olivia is organizing a CrossFit Somerville Flag Football team again this year!  Games will be on Thursday nights starting on May 8th.  Email Olivia if you are interested at olivia.n.peters@gmail.com.  No previous football experience necessary!  Those that participated last year had a blast!