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I've been pretty busy for the last few months, and I think I'm coming up on a slightly less busy period, so I'm going to try to take care of some stuff that's been neglected for too long. Goals Power clean with proper form. During my last challenge, I increased my volume on power cleans and put 15 lbs. on the bar. However, my form has been deteriorating a little bit, and I've been catching the bar a bit low on my later sets. In addition to arguably being cheating, I think this is causing me some elbow pain. So my goal is to only do power cleans with good height and adjust the weight as necessary in my later sets to ensure that. Hopefully, this will not stall my progress on power cleans. This is worth 4 STR. Get a better mattress. For a long time now, I've been waking up with sore traps, and I've tried some pillow replacements that have sort of helped, but I think my mattress is just too hard. I did some research a while back, and I can probably get by with a memory foam or latex mattress topper, but I never pulled the trigger, because good mattress toppers, not to mention good mattresses, are expensive and difficult to return. I need to just pick something and get it, because spending years sleeping in a jacked up position can't be good for me. This is worth 4 CON. Do yoga twice a week. I've been slacking on this a little bit lately, but it seems to help with mobility, and I don't want to get out of the habit. This is worth 3 DEX. Spend at least 4 hours a week on personal projects. This has taken a back seat to interview prep for a while, but I want to keep learning new stuff about programming in my free time. It's good for the resume and good for the soul. This is worth 4 WIS.

I haven't done a form check in a while, and it seems like my form on a few things might be shaky. I've been doing squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, and power clean as described in Starting Strength, although I am no longer doing that program. Hopefully it won't be too confusing to do all five in one thread. Seems like my depth here is borderline. Here is where I think I might have a significant form problem. For several months now, whenever I do overhead press, the outside of my right elbow (possibly my lateral epicondyle) hurts at the bottom of the press. It gets better when I focus on controlling the descent, but it doesn't completely go away. I don't get elbow pain at any other time, including during bench press. I'm not aware that my form changed recently, but it didn't always feel like this. Sorry that the video is too zoomed in. Hopefully that doesn't frustrate analysis. Regrettably, I was not able to finish this set, despite the powerful encouragement from my spotter. Since this was taken, I have been able to do 187.5x5. Like overhead press, my bench press has increased very slowly (less than 2.5 lbs a week). I am starting to see a little back bend on the last rep. I'm not sure if the video captures it, but my hook grip was also starting to fail. When I watch this, it seems like it takes me forever to get under the bar. I appreciate anybody's feedback.

Ok so cleans are my favorite thing ever along with back squats because I've always felt badass doing them since a lot of girls never have. Well today, the weightlifting portion of our WOD was hang clean, and the rep scheme was 5, 5, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1. I wasn't feel that great because I've been on vacation for a week and haven't done anything heavy in a while. Well once I started on the first set I felt super good and I was like huh maybe I'll be able to hit 125! Because that was my previous max for a regular squat clean. So anyways, this is what I ended up doing: 5 @ 65lbs 5 @ 85lbs 3 @ 105lbs 3 @ 115lbs And then I was like ok next step would be 125..and I did that easily. Then I added a five to each side, hit 135 easily (I was texting my boyfriend after every set giving him minute-by-minute detailed updates), so I kept going, and then I hit 140, and 145 before I ran out of time. 145!!!!!!!!!!! On a hang power clean! Ok like I know this whole thing has been really long and drawn out just to say that I hit 145 on a hang power clean but like I AM SO PUMPED. And I maybe could've hit 150 if I had more time! Plus if I had been catching it in a squat like I probably should've been, I could've hit even more! LIKE WHAAAAAAAT. Ok sorry I'm done I'm just super excited and none of my friends except my mom and boyfriend care!!!!!

Hey guys. I just started to power clean and I'm under the impression that as long as you get in the front rack position, whether or not you catch it in a quarter squat or even perform a full squat, you've completed the movement when you stand straight up. Now my question is, do you dip down to a half squat or maybe even lower the higher in weight you go? Personally I just barely meet it at a quarter squat but I'm still trying to get used to the wrist movement. What are your thoughts?

Power Clean I'm struggling with where the rack position is, I don't seem to have whatever muscle it is that the bar is supposed to be resting on at the end and always end up with it in my fingers, what am i missing? OHP I had trouble before with overextending my back, and leaning back more & more after each rep, I also sometimes get this odd sensation in left shoulder (about 1-2" above the shoulder blade) where it feels like someone is sticking a pin in me as the bar is traveling up, anyone know what that is? What else am i doing wrong? Thanks!

Hi all, I typically currently do Starting Strength at the gym. SS calls for powercleans. I've learned most things from the book and then checked my form with good youtube vids ect. but I'm terrified to try the power clean. I'm 5'6 and fairly small and my upper body is not particularly strong (although much stronger than two months ago when I started the program) and I'm terrified of doing the power clean. I've contacted an SS trainer to teach me but I'm even afraid to meet with him because I'm so afraid that I'm such a klutz that I'll seriously hurt myself. Anyone who does olympic lifts, how and why did you get into them and what, if anything, did you do to cope with any fear that you felt about trying them? Thank you!