We use the medicine-ball clean in warm-ups and cool-downs to reinforce the movement, and the results are clearly manifest in the number and rate of personal records we’re seeing in bar cleans with all our athletes. Yes, the benefit transfers to the bar — even for our better lifters!
In the duration of a warm-up, there are uncountable opportunities to weed out bad mechanics. Pulling with the arms, not finishing hip extension, failing to shrug, pulling too high, lifting the heels in the first pull, curling the ball, losing back extension, looking down, catching high then squatting, slow dropping under, slow elbows — all the faults are there. (Adapted from the CrossFit Journal, 2004).
CrossFit Seminar Staff member David Tittle (CF-L3) uses a tactile cue to help a participant fix a lack of hip extension in the medicine-ball clean.
Filmed during a Level 1 Certificate Course at CrossFit Decimate.
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Hip Extension in the Med-Ball Clean