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A Step-by-Step Guide to a Perfect Jerk

Eric Auciello — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 15:00:00 +0000

When it comes to Olympic weightlifting, the snatch and clean get the most attention. The jerk just doesn’t get the same amount of love. As a trainer, I’ll take some of the blame. My weightlifting teaching progressions address the snatch first, followed by the clean, with the jerk bringing up the rear.

Although this approach is logical, the lifts shouldn’t be judged in this order in regard to complexity or merit. The jerk is every bit as technical and challenging as the clean or snatch.

RELATED: Perfecting Your Jerk

In this article, we’ll take a look at the entire jerk movement from start to finish, and detail exactly what you should be doing at each stage to ensure a safe and successful lift.

The Grip

A good jerk starts with the barbell in a solid rack position with a proper grip. The grip width for the jerk should be just outside your shoulders. If you have large biceps and/or a tough time externally rotating your arms while gripping the barbell, then a wider grip may be required.

“A good jerk starts with the barbell in a solid rack position with a proper grip. The grip width for the jerk should be just outside your shoulders.”

Once you’ve securely gripped the bar, raise your arms until your triceps are parallel to floor, similar to the position used in a front squat. Your wrist should be slightly cocked with the barbell gripped securely. If you’ve got poor shoulder or thoracic mobility, then you’ll need to let the barbell roll onto the tips of your fingers in order to get into a solid lifting position.

The Stance

The jerk primarily uses the lower body and trunk to dynamically get the barbell overhead. With that said, safety is paramount and your goal with any dynamic overhead movement should be to maintain a stacked spinal column while exhibiting force throughout the lift.

This is often best achieved by taking a wide stance with your feet slightly externally rotated. Although it varies from person to person, I prefer most people take a stance similar to their front squat.

RELATED: The Jerk Drive Comes From the Legs (Video)

You may have psychological difficulty with this because a narrow stance feels more powerful. But unless you have outstanding ankle flexibility, it is difficult to prevent your torso from shooting forward in the drive phase of the lift while in a narrow stance. It’s also difficult to wind up and subsequently release the stored energy in your hips while employing a narrow stance.

The Dip-Drive

When you are ready to execute the dip-drive of the jerk, take a large belly breath and hold it. This will help protect the lower back and transfer energy from your legs through the trunk to the barbell.

“The jerk relies heavily on the tension of your musculature in order to generate force. If this phase looks slow and sluggish, like a wet sponge, then you’re doing it wrong.”

To start the dip, slightly flex at the knees, pushing them out like you would in a squat. This movement should occur quickly. It’s a shallow and violent movement.

The drive phase is simply a redirection of force. This action is largely dependent on creating tense musculature throughout the legs and trunk, while quickly extending the knees, ankles, and hips. It’s important we drive through the heels during this step. You may end up on the forefoot or toes, but that should be a symptom of your natural kinesthetics – not a contrived effort.

The jerk relies heavily on the tension of your musculature in order to generate force. If this phase looks slow and sluggish, like a wet sponge, then you’re doing it wrong.

Jerk dip drill.

The Receive Position

Once the drive is initiated, the barbell should hop up with some zip. It will become weightless for a split second before reaching its apogee. It’s at this point that you need to aggressively drop under the bar into a split jerk receiving position.

“The first question you probably have is which foot should go forward. The answer is easily found by asking a buddy to give you a light push on the back when you’re not expecting it.”

Most adults will receive the barbell in a split jerk position (as opposed to the push jerk position) due to mobility limitations and the increased efficiency the split jerk offers. With that said, one of the most important things you’ll need to figure out when it comes to split jerking is footwork.

The first question you probably have is which foot should go forward. The answer is easily found by asking a buddy to give you a light push on the back when you’re not expecting it. Whichever foot you put forward to break your fall is your dominant foot. That’s the one that will go forward in the jerk.

Of course, once you’ve executed your dip drive, you’ll only have a split second to get your feet into this stable position, so it will take some practice and concentration.

The Lock-Out

During the barbell’s weightless phase, after the drive, you need to rotate your arms into a locked-out overhead position while simultaneously dropping under the bar. Done properly, the jerk only asks the arms to stabilize a load, not press it (that will result in a “no lift” in competition).

This position is best achieved by aggressively moving your front foot forward with a slight inward canter, while simultaneously driving the back leg’s knee down toward the spot on the floor the feet previously occupied. You don’t want to literarily drive the knee into the ground, but it helps to think that way in order to create a stable base.

A slight internal rotation of the front foot will help create a stable split receiving position. The downward motion of the rear knee helps create relaxed flexion, enabling you to adjust depth based on the outcome of the drive phase. This position also prevents tight lifters from getting stuck in the split because they’ve reached their end range of motion in the anterior hip capsule of their rear leg.

“You don’t want to literarily drive the knee into the ground, but it helps to think that way in order to create a stable base.”

When you’re in this split position, imagine we painted a circle on the platform the size of a large hula-hoop. Your feet should be in contact with the inside edge of that hoop. If your rear foot is way back and outside the hoop, then it’s a problem.

The Recovery

When the bar is locked out overhead and you’re in a stable split position, then it’s time to stand the weight up. This is easily done by taking a half-step back with the forefoot, bringing the rear foot a half-step forward, and then repeating that process.

It’s important your feet are parallel to one another on the platform at this point, and you’ll need to have control of the barbell overhead. Again, failure to do so will result in a “no lift” during a meet.

RELATED: Behind the Neck Jerk Balance (Video)

Never ghost ride or drop the barbell from overhead. I always encourage my athletes to maintain control over the bar until it descends to their mid-thigh. From a safety standpoint, I understand it may be necessary to drop from overhead during a poor lift, but it’s important to respect the equipment and the sport by exercising some control when appropriate.

Summary of the Split Jerk

The jerk requires a great amount of athleticism, concentration, and timing in order to do it well. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it burned in one. Take your time and use reasonable weight while learning this lift.

RELATED: Catching the Bounce: The Jerk

The jerk is a demanding lift that can help a wide range of trainees when done properly. But due to its complex nature and each individual’s anthropometric nuances, I feel it’s of utmost importance that all trainees find a knowledgeable and competent coach to help them in their journey.

The information I’ve shared here is certainly not everything there is to know about jerking, but I think it offers some good conceptual starting points as well as tips for the intermediate lifter. So, I encourage you all to take these points and go have fun training the jerk.

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 courtesy of CrossFit Empirical.

Photo 3 “Clean and Jerk” by Jamie Jamieson. Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

Photos 4 and 5 courtesy of Eric Auciello.

The post A Step-by-Step Guide to a Perfect Jerk appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

How to Eliminate the Problems With Your Press

Dresdin Archibald — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 14:00:00 +0000

The middle portion of pressing lifts is the most problematic. You know this from experience.

This is due to the fact your elbow or knees joints are at about a ninety-degree angle when in mid-press. In a third-class lever, this is the most inefficient position possible, commonly referred to in gym parlance as the “sticking point.”

How you perform there will determine whether you make the lift or not. I’m going to break down the press for you and outline where you’re making your mistakes – and how to fix them.

The Press Is a Lift of Three Parts

Most barbell exercises involve the arms and/or legs. Each of these limbs is roughly divided in half into an upper and lower portion, separated by a joint. That’s the elbow on the arm and the knee on the leg, as if you didn’t already know.

Most such barbell movements start the concentric portion with the joints closed and then proceed in a direction that opens up the joint. We’re talking here about various presses with the arms and squats and presses with the legs.

Any of these exercise movements can be divided into three parts:

A starting movement
A transitional movement
A finishing movement

Due to the third-class levers involved in extending the arms or legs, the starting movement (the first part of the lift) is easy, but the movement gets harder as the arm or leg is extended. You all know this from performing presses or squats. At the start, it’s not that difficult to move the bar at least a little bit. But as the lift continues, it gets more difficult.

“Due to the third-class levers involved in extending the arms or legs, the starting movement (the first part of the lift) is easy, but the movement gets harder as the arm or leg is extended.”

In contrast, the finishing portion of presses and squats (part three) begins with some difficulty, but then gets easier the closer you come to lockout. Once you get to this finishing part of the lift you are generally home free as long as nothing else goes wrong.

The end of the first part is difficult and the start of the third part is difficult, so it’s only natural that the transition in between (the “sticking point”) will also be challenging.

Why the Middle of the Press Is Difficult

It generally doesn’t matter which type of press you are talking about. Whether done overhead or on a flat, incline, or decline bench, they all act the same. You take the bar out of the rack and perform an eccentric movement down to your starting position, (except in the overhead press where you start from the shoulders with no eccentric movement). With arms fully bent you start the press, usually with some extra initial effort (and I don’t mean knee action).

The deltoids and pectorals get the lift moving. With that drive, the bar will come off of the shoulders and chest and move upward. But as we all know, you start running out of power gradually along the barbell’s path. The higher you go, the weaker the position you’re in.

As you keep pressing, you will approach the middle phase of the lift. This is the part you never look forward to – because if you have not given the bar enough initial force, you will run out of gas at this point.

“It’s as if the first part of the press is not important, only the middle, and lifters want to test it without momentum.”

Another reason this phase of the movement becomes difficult is psychological. When the middle is reached, it’s natural for lifters to take their foot off the gas and move gingerly through the sticking point. Why this happens I’m not certain, but it does. It’s as if the first part of the press is not important, only the middle, and lifters want to test it without momentum. This, of course, is the worst thing to do.

If there is enough force put on the barbell to drive it through the sticking point, then the lift gets progressively easier. Barring any other serious error, you should (with determination) be able to lockout the bar in this final phase. So it appears to most that the middle of the press is what will give us the most problems. But is it?

Where the Real Problem Lies

The first reaction of those who power out while passing the sticking point is to work on this portion of the lift. This is not a bad idea. It certainly won’t make you weaker. But it may not be where the real problem lies.

“It’s all about fiber recruitment right out of the starting blocks, not about saving energy. If you drive the weight hard enough, you should be able to power sufficiently through the sticking point.”

The problem is more one of not giving the barbell enough force off the chest or shoulders. Lifters who do this may be trying to save energy, thinking they could better use that extra energy in the middle portion of the lift. But that gambit does not work as well as they think it will.

You are far better off driving the bar out of the hole as quickly as possible. It’s all about fiber recruitment right out of the starting blocks, not about saving energy. If you drive the weight hard enough, you should be able to power sufficiently through the sticking point. If you can’t, then the weight is probably just too heavy.

Once you’re to the finish, the press should feel easier. Do not try to test the weight of the bar and make the middle portion the main part of the lift. You simply do not have enough angular advantage at that point to play that game.

A Lesson From Boxing

Let’s take a lesson from the sport of boxing. When boxers throw a punch, they do not aim for the target so much as they aim for a point six inches behind that target. The difference in fist delivery is dramatic.

Those who aim at the target only end up with a powder-puff punch. Those who aim for the imaginary opponent six inches behind will ensure their punch still has maximum torque when it hits the actual target. So must it be with the press.

Think about driving your bar to a point above the sticking point. This is all one movement. Drive straight through. Do not stop at the bottom of the sticking point and see what it feels like. Believe me, it will feel heavy if you are lifting near your limit.

This idea of testing the feel of the sticking point is not that serious a matter when you are only lifting light weights, such as in warm-up sets. But as the bar approaches maximum, the lifter will become very aware of any slow down during the middle portion of the lift. This unconscious slow-down happens in all kinds of presses. It also happens in squats where many misses can also be blamed on the lifter testing his or her middle range.

“Think about driving your bar to a point above the sticking point. This is all one movement. Drive straight through. Do not stop at the bottom of the sticking point and see what it feels like.”

The Importance of the Drive

I have mentioned before that a jerk is not just a fast press. As the jerk goes overhead, there is not quite the same middle part of the lift as seen in the press. You have a drive similar in concept to the initial part of the press. You also have a lockout that is similar. But the transition point is different.

The transition in a jerk is where you split under the bar. The barbell travels upward from your initial leg-drive momentum, while you drive under the bar using your triceps, or pressing, muscles. There is no leverage problem.

But, if you do not have a strong enough jerk drive, the bar will not go high enough for you to start your split under the jerk. The reason this would happen is one of two things:

The bar is too heavy to drive high enough.
The bar is not too heavy, but was not driven high enough.

The latter is a problem similar to the one in the press where the lifter does not generate enough force to follow through.

Eliminating Pressing Problems

In order to eliminate these problems you can do several things:

Train the middle portion of your presses or squats with lockouts from the midpoint position or with some limited range isometric-isotonic work. This will help some.
Better is to train the bottom part of your lifts. You will get stronger in this position and this will enable you to drive further.
Don’t forget your psychological training. You must train yourself to give 110% on your initial drives whether you are training presses, squats, or jerks. Commit to the weight and do not be afraid of effort. Don’t wimp out. Just drive it up!

In conclusion, remember you can’t get rid of sticking points in your lifts. It’s an inherent part of the leverage you are given. What you can do is work around that weakness and make the strong parts of the movement as strong as possible.

Photos 1, 2, & 4 courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography.

Photo 3 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How to Eliminate the Problems With Your Press appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Dip Error You Don’t Even Know You’re Making

Dresdin Archibald — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 16:00:00 +0000

I have noticed a basic error that many newcomers to weightlifting, both young and old, are now making. The problem occurs during the dip portion of the jerk, in the clean and jerk event.

Ideally the lifter, after cleaning the weight, first sets him- or herself and then does a fast dip, followed by an even faster change in direction to facilitate the driving of the bar upward. The problem lies at the bottom of the dip when the lifter starts to change direction and drive upward.

A Faster Dip Is Better

The bottom of the dip is where you go from an eccentric contraction of the quadriceps into a concentric movement of same. In the dip, we store energy in the quads for later release. And by later, of course, we mean only a split second later. We take advantage of the stretch reflex build-up in this action to drive the bar overhead.

The faster this action is accomplished the better, as a lot more upward force can be produced. It should be remembered, though, that this quick reversal of direction places significant stress on the quadriceps tendons at the knee joint. Younger people naturally have more ability to withstand this extra tension, as we will see shortly. We call this ability reactive strength.

Another important thing in the dip is that the athlete must have total commitment to the upcoming jerk movement. Any tentativeness will result in a loss of energy for the jerk drive. It has to be recognized, though, that the jerk is always attempted after a clean. The lifter may have been shocked by the difficulty of the clean and will therefore be put in a bad psychological position as he or she thinks about starting the jerk.

The Hesitation Dip

The fault I see most in recent years is that of hesitating at the bottom of the dip. The lifter stops suddenly and holds the weight in what is essentially a quarter front squat. The time held might be a full second. Then the lifter realizes that he indeed has to jerk the barbell, so the upward thrust is made as vigorously as he can.

But his effort is usually not enough to properly jerk a heavy weight since the force that could have been obtained in a quick jerk is no longer available. Just as important, there is also no force left in the elasticity of the bar that would also have helped the lifter. He is trying to jerk a heavy weight with a dead bar and far too little initial drive. The result will be a missed jerk.

Why does this hesitation dip happen? The problem is usually one of insufficient commitment to the lift. The lifter is intimidated by how heavy the weight feels after a heavy clean and starts to doubt whether he will be able to jerk the weight. Too much respect for the bar is given, resulting in a downward portion of the dip that moved too slowly and perhaps even came to a complete stop at the bottom.

The Problem for Novice Lifters: Sense of Commitment

This error is most frequently seen in novice lifters. Their technique is not yet perfected, and they still possess a fear of the weight and an incomplete sense of commitment to the lift. Oddly, the novice lifter may still be successful in spite of this error. Because novice lifters have not developed enough strength, their attempts might be so low that they could still successfully complete jerks even with a hesitation dip.

The problem will show up more, though, as the bar gets heavier. At that point, the lifter will have to either learn how to dip properly or be content with low totals. Fortunately, confidence will develop with more training time so the problem should eventually disappear.

The Problem for CrossFitters: No Eccentric Movement

This dip dilemma also shows up with a lot of CrossFit converts. These lifters relate the jerk to thrusters, where there is no dip. In these athletes, you will see there is no pause between the clean and the jerk. The bar is driven off the shoulders immediately upon coming out of the clean. No dip at all means no eccentric movement before the drive. The only solution for a serious CrossFitter is to learn to jerk properly under coaches like Bob Takano or Sean Waxman.

The Problem for Older Lifters: Tendon Strength

There is one other area where the hesitation dip appears – older lifters in the masters age groups. You might think these people would know how to jerk after so many decades in the sport. And they do. The problem is they no longer can dip comfortably.

Earlier I mentioned the extra force jerking puts on the quadriceps tendons. As lifters age, the quad tendons are less capable of handling the forces they could when the lifter was younger. Because the jerk is quite hard on these tendons, older lifters will suffer. They feel the tension much more, to the point they have little choice but to take it easy on the jerk dip. A ruptured patellar tendon is no fun. This is another of the frustrations that has to be accommodated if lifters are to continue their favorite sport into their later years. Compromises just have to be made.

Learn to Change Direction Quickly

But most of you reading this are not masters lifters, you are younger. You may not have the experience yet to give everything to the jerk, but you can at least learn, and it’s not that difficult. The jerk is where you can move the heaviest weights overhead and that is why it is so satisfying. Jerking comes easy to some, while others need more practice. They have to study the movement a bit more to master it.

But, as I said, it’s not that difficult even then. Learn to change direction quickly and you will be able to jerk anything you can clean. The reactive strength utilized in this movement is the essence of what the Eastern Europeans call speed strength. It is what distinguishes the Olympic weightlifter from other barbell practitioners.

Image 1 “Clean and Jerk” by Jamie Jamieson. Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Image 2 “The Jerk” by Malingering. Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Image 3 “Andy Littler Clean & Jerk 172.5Kg” by Paul Furness. Attribution-NonCommercial License.

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