• Rounding of the lower back
• Elbows too low
• ‘Reverse curling’ the bar up rather than shrugging

Crossfit encourages full squat cleans, which are technically more difficult to master than the variations of hang clean or power clean (or hang power clean).

A full squat clean starts from the floor and the lifter does a deep squat to catch the bar. With the power variation, the lifter simply bends the knees to catch the bar and doesn’t go into a deep squat – the receiving position is therefore higher.

Problem 1: Rounding the lower back before sufficient squat depth has been reached

With the full squat clean, your ability to squat can be the limiting factor at first. We practiced squatting without any weight and also adjusted our stance. Some people find it easier to adopt a slightly wider stance with toes pointing out – as in the picture above.

You can also do power cleans from the hang position – just above the knee – until your squat depth improves.

Problem 2: Position of the bar across the front of the shoulders

Many people hold the bar too far down because they are afraid of the bar banging into their neck or choking them. The way to prevent this is to shrug up with your shoulders. We practiced holding the bar across the shoulders very lightly with our fingers and shrugging up and down. You can see the difference in the pictures below.

If you feel that the bar is choking you, shrug your shoulders up. Also, make sure your fingers are just outside the shoulders not on top of them, otherwise they could be squashed if a heavy bar rolls back onto them.

One problem I had was in keeping my elbows as high as possible all the time. This is what keeps the bar in position across the shoulders, but I often let my elbows lower slightly, especially in the bottom position. We used front squats to practice the position of the bar across the shoulders. When you come up out of the front squat, imagine your elbows are being pulled upwards.

Problem 3: Failing to shrug the bar up

This is a very common issue when people are first learning the clean. It’s very difficult for people to get rid of the notion that if you have a heavy bar in your hands, you should pull it up with your arms. In fact, you need to shrug it up with your shoulders. The arms are simply a way of linking the bar to your body.

We practiced first with a plastic tube. We were simply jumping and shrugging from the hang position. The arms should be allowed to bend with the momentum, as if they are merely two bits of string attached to the bar.

For me, solving this problem made the biggest difference to my clean. I was simply failing to shrug anywhere near enough before!

Another useful tip is to curl the wrists slightly inward, as it helps to keep the bar close to the body.

Our clean workout

Having worked on technique, we then completed the following workout, with a choice of bars at 30 kg or 40 kg:

• 5 full squat cleans
• 200m-ish run (up the road and back)
• Repeat for 15 minutes

Crossfit London is holding Olympic lifting masterclasses in January and March 2008. Well worth checking out if you want to take up or improve your Olympic lifting technique.

Below are some useful assistance exercises to prepare you for the demands of olympic weightlifting.

Front squats

Front squats are a useful precursor to the clean as they involve squatting with the barbell balanced across the front of the shoulders – which is the top position of the clean.

Front squats are a great exercise in themselves, even if you never intend to clean and jerk at all. Mike Boyle, for example, recommends front squats over back squats as you get a similar result much more safely. Read more about Mike’s position on front squats and injury-free training in general.

Hang power clean

I’ll be honest with you, I’m partly into this exercise because I think it looks good! Fortunately, it’s also a good strength exercise. The hang part means that it starts from a hanging position not from the floor; the power part means that it is performed only with a partial squat not a full squat.

Some people argue that unless you are training to be an olympic lifter, there’s no need to do full squat cleans; you will get good results with the hang power clean, which is easier to perform than the full clean. You can see where front squats come in, as practice for catching the bar in the clean.

Push press

This exercise is good training for both of the olympic events, as it involves pressing the bar overhead. It’s also a great shoulder exercise.

The push press is actually the second of three exercises that form the progression to the ‘jerk’ part of the olympic lift. The first exercise is the military press, which is the same as the push press except you don’t bend your legs as you press – all the effort comes from the arms and shoulders. The push press is the second exercise, using the legs to initiate the move and get the bar off the shoulders. The push jerk takes it one step further by incorporating not just the bend in the legs but the actual jump as well.

Overhead squat

I have heard about the merits of this exercise from a number of sources and it is an important precursor to the snatch. But mainly I was inspired to do it by seeing the Crossfit women training this move so much. It takes incredible strength and hip power to perform this exercise, especially for high reps and with a lot of weight. My hips were aching after this session as they weren’t used to being worked so hard!