Deadlift and power clean form?

Question

My form for these lifts totally sucks!! I always use my back and idk what I am doing wrong!!! Any pointers and tips?

Answer 1

dont move/bend your back when performing this lift. arc it back a bit at the beginning, and keep it locked.

make sure that when your cleaning that your snatches are clean. practice the motion on low weight to increase your speed.

all the power is in your legs. dont strain your arms to much, just explode from the waist down.

Answer 2

One thing I do that helps is mentally keep my hips and shoulders rising and falling at the same rate during the lift. Keep your back slightly arched and shoulders back at the beginning and focus on keeping your back straight through the movement. Sometimes it helps to keep your head up some (but not too much). The movement in the start of the lift definitely involves mostly the legs - think of them almost as squats with the weight hanging in front of you.

As mentioned before, practice the movement a lot using lower weight until it becomes second nature. When you go heavy, it's hard to be thinking too much about the movement so you want your body to "think" through the movement for you, which comes from practice.

I suggest finding someone with experience to watch you during the lift to see where your form needs improvement.

The toughest part of the lift, for me at least, is clearing the knees. If you're really going too heavy on the weight then this is where you risk your lower back. Deadlifts and power cleans are intensive power movements which take a lot out of you in a short time, so going too heavy will easily risk injury. These are lifts you don't want to mess around with. :)

Good luck!