Chalk Talk #10 – Clean Your Press

Since I was clean and pressing last week, I figured I’d turn it into a Chalk Talk that revisits the “Clean Your Press” post from three years ago. It also forces me to do a video in one take since I’m actually lifting in the beginning (it’s just 90k for a double).

Power cleaning the press can accomplish several things like: give you extra clean practice, work more musculature, get more of a systemic stress, and look a lot cooler than everyone else in the gym picking their press out of the rack.

I prefer to clean presses. The main thing most people need to work on is catching the bar in the press position instead of a clean position, which is preferable to catching the bar in a front rack and repositioning for the press. You’ll need to have good practice with the grip, hand position on the bar, and elbow position, and you can read/watch more about that in “3 Press Fixes“.

Note that spandex will help.

5 thoughts on “Chalk Talk #10 – Clean Your Press

  1. I’ve actually been cleaning my presses for the last few weeks after the idiots who run my gym moved the rack over 2 feet, just underneath a low ceiling fan. (I didn’t notice at first and may or may not have taken out a lightbulb).

    But anyhow, yeah, if I pull that clean and rack it with the intention to hurt the bar, I feel so much tighter when pressing. I think it played a part in helping me to finally break my former PR (coming back from a shoulder injury).

  2. Pingback: Chalk Talk #10 – Clean Your Press · My Daily Diversion

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