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Take a look at this broken down- step-by-step guide on how to perform the power clean and help you safely lift more weight for bigger gains.

The Pull:

Wrong:  extending your legs and driving up with your hips followed by your chest.  This common mistake will increase your chance of a back injury by a million percent!

Answer:  Keep your chest up and arms straight.  An exercise to help strengthen this movement is the deadlift.

The Second Pull:

Wrong:  Thrusting the hips too early and muscling the bar up.  This will limit the amount youl be abe to lift and plus leave your thighs extremely sore afterwards.

Answer:  Even though the Power clean is a powerful movement don’t rush it.  The hips will naturally drive through the bar.  Make sure you keep the bar close to your body.

The scoop:

Wrong:  The barbell will swing away from your body.  Not only is energy lost but the amount of weight youl be able to lift will significantly limited because you rely on your arms to bring the bar back in to catch.

Answer:  If the barbell is close to the body the hip drive should provide enough momentum for the bar to come up and not reply on the pulling of your arms.  As the bar is on the way up, pull yourself underneath and prepare to catch.

 The Catch:

Wrong:  1. Supporting the bar with your wrists and arms. 2. Catching the bar while with your legs too wide.

 Answer:  The bar should rest comfortably on your shoulders.  If your legs split too much in your catch phase then you are not going underneath the bar enough.  Improve your leg strength by performing front squats so you are able ot support the weight you are lifting.

Featured image used from www.strengthpowerspeed.com

Broken down image from crossfitforthood.blogspot.com

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Without further adieu, welcome to the playing card Push up workout.

 Rules!

• Shuffle the cards and place the deck face down between you and your partner.
• Draw a card from the top of the deck.
• Perform the number of Push-Ups based on the number on the card. If it’s a face card or an ace, repeat the number of Push-Ups from the previous card. If you draw a Joker, perform as many Push-Ups as you can.
• Once you finish your Push-Ups, your partner takes his or her turn by drawing a card and performing the prescribed number of Push-Ups, while you use your partner’s action time to rest.
• If you are playing by yourself, discard every other card and give yourself a strict 10-second rest between cards.
• Keep flipping cards and performing Push-Ups until you can do no more.

This is for push-ups, but alternatively you can use any exercise you want…burpess, pull-ups or body weight squats.  Take your pick.

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When training to improve your vertical jump you must remember that it all starts with your Central Nervous System (CNS).  This means you need to train and perform explosive movements to train not just to improve muscular strength but your entire neuromuscular system as a whole.

The main muscles used in vertical jumping are the gluteus maximus (used for hip extension and hip stabilisation), hamstrings (used to shorten and lengthen the impetus that will propel you higher) and the quadriceps (stabilise the knee and provide leg extension from the knee joint and also decelerate the landing after the jump).

Before performing any plyometric exercise you should always have a strong foundation.  You should be able to back squat 1.5 times your own body weight before using plyometric exercises in your workouts.

Box Jumps

One of the easiest ways to improve your vertical jump is to….jump!

• Start with a box height equal to about 1/4 of your height (you can easily add plates or more boxes to increase the height)
• Start in a squat position with your knees slightly bent
• Leap onto the box, landing in the squat position
• Fully extend up without locking your joints
• Step down and repeat
• Complete as many as you can until form becomes compromised

Single-Leg Squats

One of the reasons your vertical has plateau’d is that there are muscular imbalances in your legs.  This isolates the muscles to work correctly without the other leg compensating.

• Begin in a two-legged squat position
• Hold one leg straight out in front of you with your toes pointing up
• Squat on one leg to a comfortable depth
• Do not allow your knee to extend beyond the frontal plane of your planted foot
• Fully extend up without locking your joint
• Complete as many reps as possible with proper form. When form begins to break down, rest.
• Perform 3-4 sets

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A simple equation for power is Strength x Speed = Power.

There are many athletes that are strong but unable to compete with the rest.  This is due to the lack of speed.

Believe it or not but the majority of power is generated from the core and hips.  Having a strong core doesn’t just mean having a flat stomach and a six pack but the intercostal muscles and the whole torso should be working efficiently and the hips are crucial for that hip extension.

Performing power based exercises are best done nearer the beginning of your workout since you will be less fatigued from other exercises. In your warm up limit static stretching as it will impede and limit your power output.

Exercises to improve your power should be performed with 100% intensity and not necessarily max out each rep.  3-5 repetitions at around 80% of your 1RM will help improve your power output with 3-5 minutes rest in between sets.

Here are some exercises proven to incorporate your core muscles and heavily accentuate hip extension and explosiveness.

• Squats
• Trap Bar Deadlift and Romanian Deadlift
• Step-Ups and Lunges
• Hang Clean (my favourite) and Push Press
• Kettlebell Swings
• Plyo Push-Ups
• Sled Drives, Hill Runs and Parachute Runs

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