Barbell Shrugged - Strength, Speed, Athleticism - The Three Pillars of Heavy Cleans w/ Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Travis Mash — Barbell Shrugged #401

Episode Date: June 10, 2019

The Clean is a beautiful combination of strength, speed, and athleticism. Strength to move heavy weights. Speed to move your body around the barbell. Athleticism to put it all together.  In the One Ton Challenge, if you are going to make it into the One Ton Club, you will need a big clean. In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Coach Travis Mash outline the technique, mobility, and training to increase your clean and get in to the One Ton Club. Minute Breakdown:   0-10 - What you need to clean big weight.   11-20 - Raw Strength vs. Speed   21-30 - Sprints and Plyometrics for speed   31-40 - Differences in start positions from deadlift to the clean   41-50 - Dorsiflexion in the ankle to increase speed   51 -60 - Jumping vs. pulling under the bar     Join the One Ton Challenge Leaderboard, record your PR’s and track your progress.   “What is the One Ton Challenge”   “How Strong is Strong Enough”   “How do I Start the One Ton Challenge”   Use code “SHRUGGED” to save 15% on the best recovery tracking tool in strength with Whoop. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Show notes at: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs-onetonchallengecleans -----------------------------------------------------------------------   ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Today, we squat. Actually, on the show, Shrug Fam, we're talking about cleans today. How you can get stronger, faster, and more athletic underneath the bar. But I want to say thank you to everybody that signed up for the One Ton Training Plan. What an amazing launch. I'm so excited to have all the athletes in our Facebook group coaching you, getting you bigger, stronger, faster, getting you into the One Ton Club. Life is so good i love the fact that we were able to put this program together over the last month i've had this vision in my head for the last four years and we're finally here and along with that not

only is this an online program so you can be a part of our online gym and all the badasses that we get to hang out with but we're also going to be doing live events. The first one is going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, the weekend of the CrossFit Games, Friday Night Light style. We're inviting 20 people to Madison, Wisconsin. We're working with some really cool companies, and I can't wait to get the word out about this event and all the details to follow. So stay tuned. I can't wait.

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Marcus Philly is going to be lifting with us, supporting Whoop. Get over to Whoop.com. Save 15% using the coupon code shrug. Been using this thing since Guadalupalooza, January of this year. Haven't taken it off, except one time I lost it. They shipped me one brand new.

The Whoop 3 is coming out this week, which is going to have two instant live updates on your heart rate so you're able to understand where your daily strain is coming from. Workout, sweet sleep quality. The Whoop Band has allowed me to tailor my workout intensity to my recovery, creating better workouts, better recovery, larger strength gains because I'm not overtrained. It's really, really important. Got to get your recovery in. You need to track it. HRV is one of the best ways. And WHOOP does

a phenomenal job of making sure that you are aware of how well you slept, how recovered you are. And the daily strain is actually a great way instead of just tracking your workouts because the normal stress of our day-to-day life, being at work. I remember one day, Doug and I were having some super intense business talks, getting the one-ton challenge fired up. And I looked down, I hadn't worked out, I hadn't really moved, but my daily strain was just getting crushed. Because recovery is not just about the gym and where you're training and intensity. It's about the entire package, the entire day of what you are, how intense your day is. And that's how the daily strain is calculated.

So get over to whoop.com. Use the coupon code shrugged. You're going to save 15%. And now that the program is out, everybody that is interested in understanding what the One Ton Challenge is, go over to theonetonchallenge.com and you can get on the leaderboard, see where your scores are at, insert your PR, snatch, clean, jerk, squat, dead bench. We're going to get you strong. The goal is to hit 2,000 pounds for men, 1,200 for women. Can't wait to do it. Get into the show. Let's do it.

Welcome to Barbell Strong. Dom Anders, Varner,oug larson coach travis mash in the house we are talking about the one ton one ton challenge today on your journey on your lifelong pursuit of fitness we're here to guide you and our way of testing how long you've been in the gym how long you've been putting in the work the one ton challenge six lifts the snatch clean jerk squat dead bench add them up that gives you your one ton total get over to the one ton challenge.com that's where you can input your put your numbers in right now find out what your one ton total is and find out what all the other strong people are doing in this world doug larson we're talking about the clean today yeah can't wait coach

travis match we're going to get into how people can really take the clean and get themselves closer to that one ton mark moving up the leaderboard, getting them big and strong. Clean is one of my favorite lists because I feel like strong people, you can get that weight to your hips. And all you have to worry about from there, getting under the bar. Rip under. You really should be able to rip that bar off the ground

and get underneath almost any big weight if you can get it there it's just a speed problem dude anytime i watch some usually for me chinese lifters that it looks like they're doing deadlifts yeah and like they can barely pick up the bar yeah and then all of a sudden it's on their shoulders they get under so fast i'm like i thought he was gonna do a clean pull at most and it was gonna barely get higher than his hips. And then, bam, under it, stands up. I think it was in episode one where you were talking about how the clean is my favorite lift. I really feel like if you have a big enough back to get that weight off the ground

and you can keep your legs engaged and you just have a little bit of athleticism, if you've ever played golf or baseball or some sort of sport where you needed speed through the middle, you should be able to get under that weight. Yeah. I know, like, Jordan De La Cruz is a lot like that. She's the top or top one or two girls in America, but she just stands up at such a normal speed. You know, she doesn't seem to accelerate. And then it gets to her hip, and then, whoom, she changes direction. She's under it.

You know, a lot of people are either, you are either fast and elastic or they're very powerful. They're two different categories. I'm super excited because we're going to have a bunch of powerlifters that are going to be able to pick a ton of weight up off the ground. But it's going to be really exciting to see if they have the athleticism, speed, and power to get under the bar. Actually be able to get a bar into the front rack. That's the key.

Is everybody going to be power cleaning that has a power lifting background? I mean, I can do it. You know, Shane Hammond is the best American heavyweight of all time. He started in power lifting. It just depends on how far they took it and what did they do to get get there a lot of people have really focused on lots and lots of hypertrophy yeah then they're gonna be in trouble you know like a larry wills could he clean i don't think so he's so big you know like nothing against larry wills not hating on you brother but like i don't know that i think his muscles would get in the way i actually actually watched. So when I was training with AJ, AJ Roberts, world record holder, giant,

and he was trying to lose a bunch of weight. We would teach him how to power clean. He could pick 315 up off the ground so easily. It was like picking up groceries to him. But he would catch it with his wrist totally straight. He'd be like, AJ, that's not how you want to catch that bar, buddy. You've got a big old body underneath you that is going to do a lot better job of receiving that barbell. Just floating in front of his collarbones.

He picked it up so. Not touching at all. You saw this too. I would love to see that. Oh, yeah. I've seen AJ many times. Attempt to pick up a bar. His feet always went backwards.

He started with a wide stance and then his feet would go in. I'd be like, that's backwards, buddy. You're supposed to move feet out a little bit. Help with the squat. At least stay in the same spot. But it was such a massive mobility issue. And just, you know, if you move slow your whole life, not that he wasn't fast and powerful because they do a lot of, like, speed work,

but you're just such a big body that it's really hard to get that turnover in. They go in one direction. That's the big hang-up for most people. we're all used to going fast in one direction yeah throwers throwing when you swing a bat you don't swing about really hard and change directions you know yeah that's the big hang up is produce all this power change directions yeah now catch it but even olympic lifters i think are going to have there's going to be some some people that just have these like beautiful positions but you still have these, like, beautiful positions. But you still have to – the clean's so beautiful

because you actually have to have, like, a ton of raw strength, too. Oh, yeah. That's the one that the strong guy's going to win. Like, in our gym, Nathan and Morgan, you know, they're – you know, Nathan's cleaned 484 pounds, and, like, he's the strongest guy in the gym. Yeah. Morgan's cleaned 190, 418 pounds, you know, at 15, and he's the strongest 15-year gym. Yeah. Morgan's cleaned 190, 418 pounds. You know, at 15, and he's the strongest 15-year-old that's ever existed, I'm pretty sure.

I would give him that. Especially pound for pound, I'm sure. He is a giant. Yeah. He cleans how much? 419? 418. 418?

Yeah. Good Lord. He's very unsuspecting, though. Yeah. Like, when we were eating dinner last night, and I look at the end of the table, and I'm like, that fucking dude squats 600 pounds. Like if I just walked in a random restaurant and saw him sitting there, I would not have guessed that. You just think, oh, that's a big kid.

But you wouldn't think he was like the strongest. But he's just not a man yet. He looks like a normal big kid. He's not a man at all. I make a lot of mistakes coaching him. Like sometimes, you know, like my expectations are so high for him. And then I'm like, Travis, he is 15. What were you doing at 15?

And then I shut my mouth. Good job, Morgan. He's already in a good environment. He's already got a path. You know, to think that he's about to surpass my all-time best. I know he will before he's even 16 years old. At 15, my best is 4'18". Clean and jerk.

He's cleaned it, he's jerked it, and as soon as he cleans and jerks it, it's a wrap. Wow. You feel like he's an Olympic hopeful? Oh. 15 years old? Yeah. Smashing weights? I think the hopeful is not the question.

It's like, you know, how well does he do in the Olympics? Does he win? I think for sure medals. Because you want him to be going heavyweight, right? is not the question. It's like, you know, how well does he do in the Olympics? Does he win? I think for sure medals. You want him to be going heavyweight, right? Maybe 109. He's doing these weights.

Wait, is there another? Is it 105, then 109, then heavyweight now? 102, 109. It goes 96, 102, 109. So they got rid

of 105. 105 plus. Yeah, they added, got rid of, yeah, but in the Olympics it's only 96, 109. That other one in the middle doesn't even, it's not even a. Yeah. Yeah, he had his shirt off yesterday when we were training and was like,

you're not a man at all. You don't even have a chest. Yeah. You're still just like a skinny little pimply kid. Yeah. That clean and jerks 419. Holy crap. he's amazing oh but yeah i mean i think that the olympic lifters when it went a lot of people and and you we've probably seen it a million times you get somebody in the gym that's got like perfect mobility perfect limb length but they

you look at me go why don't you clean 315 i don don't understand. Everything's in the right place. You move perfectly. People still have to have that raw strength to be able to get the bar off the ground, get it to their hips, and maintain good positions. And you've got to produce enough power in the middle to, like, give yourself a little time. You know, because when the bar peaks, there's a split moment where you have a chance to pull under it. And so if you slow down in the middle, that peak is not very long and so it's going down as you're going down it so it beats you so if you can really produce a lot of power when it counts which is right in the middle you get a little bit longer hangout time for you to get

to the bar just as like a general thing actually i'm glad i just thought of this question when you start to look at the the barbell sports powerlifting olympic lifting crossfit uh if we consider crossfit to be like a specific i think it's a specific barbell sports powerlifting olympic lifting crossfit uh if we consider crossfit to be like a specific i think it's a specific barbell sport that the winners are always pretty much the strongest and very very good at dancing with the barbell they're just not definitely not weak that's yeah when you uh when you kind of if you line those up like the youtube video like the bodybuilder the powerlifter the olympic lifter the crossfitter i feel like the YouTube video, like the bodybuilder, the powerlifter, the Olympic lifter, the crossfitter. I feel like the one-ton challenge kind of like favors a little bit of that CrossFit thing

because they're not specializing. Like you specialized in both at different stages, so that's why your number is ridiculous. But I feel like the CrossFitters, they might have a little bit of an advantage just because they're practicing all of the lifts along the way. Yeah, a lot of weightlifters never bench press, and a lot of weightlifters, you know, don't deadlift. Some, a lot don't deadlift at all. So, and a lot of weightlifters are terrible deadlifters because they're used to applying pressure to the bar and then the bar just leaving the ground.

And we all know that deadlifting, you got to pull and then it comes off. Yeah. It's so different. They'll quit before the bar starts moving. Yeah, I never really got into the no deadlift thing. I always felt like if you did deadlifts, you were just pulling heavy weight off the floor. And then when you would go do cleans, it would feel lighter because you're stronger pulling things off the floor. Granted, the technique is different.

It's the same, same, but different. But with deadlifts, I feel like having that raw strength in your pocket for when you're trying to go from 99%, 100%, 101%, 102%, having had a barbell in your hands frequently that's maybe 200 pounds more than your clean, it just gives you that much more confidence when you're trying to clean the most weight you've ever cleaned ever well let me give you two examples you got wes kits and ian wilson both les kits just had a huge weekend and both are very similar in the amount of weight that they can squat however wes deadlifts way more

than ian like a way more and then you saw what Wes just destroyed the record. He destroyed like a – He's a big boy. He beat Mike. You know, I told you Wes Barnett was my first coach. He beat Wes's record that had stood since the 90s. So, like, yeah, since 1997, I guess. Damn. So, I say deadlift has a lot to do with it.

I think that's a huge mistake with zero evidence to back that up. Yeah, we all did. My whole team deadlifts. I think Wes just proved having a good pull obviously helps. Yeah. I mean, for you, do you ever see, have you seen like a bunch of carryover or is it just raw strength and the ability to get off the floor because, you know, different start positions.

For some people that may not be that athletic, they may screw with their wiring a little bit and not understand the difference but just raw strength in general getting off the floor man you got to have it i agree yeah i feel like if you are only focusing on weightlifting that's the only thing that you care about then maybe there's a subtle argument to be made there but but if you're a person who you have other athletic aspirations then then the deadlift's just another exercise just like doing lunges and glute ham raises and anything else and there's there's no reason not to not to do it if you are if you have very little to worry about as

far as it messing up your technique if you have years of technique under your belt and makes and you just know how to do it and doing deadlifts is not going to affect it at all yeah and i think part of the reason we want to test this lifelong pursuit of strength and the one-ton challenge specifically to test it is, like, I want you to look at a barbell and I say, go snatch 95%. You go, okay. And I look at you and I go, let's go deadlift 95%. Okay, cool.

It doesn't matter where my hips are. It's just hard wire that's ingrained into what I do because I've done thousands of them of all of the different things doesn't matter you can say like i got to snatch with the world's greatest weightlifting team on tuesday it's like i haven't snatched in a long time but hit 105 right hit 105 felt good slam the barbell felt good about it you got you got uh got pressure yeah so if you think that the deadlift is like really messing up your clean and you're not going to nationals which i would imagine most of us aren't or going to an international going to pan ams whatever it is like you should be able to walk up and hey today we're going to deadlift and your deadlift form looks great and you don't have to

think about it you should be able to clean right after that just because you know how to do those things um no matter if they're different or very similar just be an athlete you know the Chinese have really started to implement a lot of heavy pulls I think lately you're noticing that there's fine you know they're starting to pull much faster I think they recognized the same thing the rest of the world did that man our pool is so slow if we could like increase that strength like Lu Zhaozhang does not pull slow now. Like, he pulls, like, I would say his pull is perfect. In my eyes, what I consider the perfect technique is Lou, and he deadlifts a lot.

Well, yeah, when Khlokov came and was doing his, I don't even know where he lives now, but when he was doing his, like, U.S. tour and, like, going to all the gyms, putting on the seminars, if you didn't follow his youtube channel and watching that man lift weights for like three years in a row like he pulled a ton of weight off the ground yes tons of weight yes some of those training videos from the russian like training hall were the best i'd sit there and watch those things all day long i remember

meeting him when you guys interviewed him in utah i'm sure you remember that yeah 2014 wasn't it sounds about right yeah and uh just getting to talk to him a little bit and he was kind he thought it was funny how much americans debated weightlifting you know he thought he's like this he's like he didn't think that there was any like grounds for these debates he's like yeah he's like just pull it hard like he was he was the one that told me why aren't you well he's like, just pull it hard. He was the one that told me. Why aren't you just good? Well, he's like the perfect person. Like, I'm just brutally strong. Yes. I remember in his seminar, I think I never went to the seminar,

but I've heard many people that did go to it. They talk about how what he liked to do was almost like an RDL. He was just so brutally strong that his pull off the ground was almost, for snatch and clean, was just a big RDL to get it over his head. Like he was just that strong that he could just, yeah. And that's exactly what it sounded like before he picked the barbell up too, just screaming.

It was him that said, I stole the, you know, the one universal position is the power position. Yeah. He's like, you know, everything else that y'all position is the power position yeah he's like you know everything else that y'all debate is silly it was what he said and i'm like he didn't say y'all yeah but i don't know let's try and get his accent just very silly american um but yeah the the clean really kind of pairs itself with the deadlift on like on the olympic lifting side of things.

And then if you're a strong Olympic lifter, you better have a big clean. I think that that is just a mandatory thing. In fact, as an Olympic lifting coach, you go out and coach the snatch. You get three lifts. Yes. But, dude, that's in a way setting you up for it's about to get heavy. Yes. And things are about to move around on the platform.

We've just, like, done this precursor thing called the snatch. Right. Because now it's kind of like you were saying. Until the bar hits the floor, we don't really know what's going on in this meet. The clean and jerk, man. The clean, you know, we're talking mainly about the clean. But, like, in a meet, the clean and jerk is where if you have – if your athlete is the one who's the big clean and jerker,

you have such an ace up your sleeves. Yeah. The cleaning jerk is where if you have – if your athlete is the one who's the big cleaning jerker, you have such an ace up your sleeves. Yeah. Because, you know, a good cleaning jerker can pull out a massive 5, 10-kilo PR if they really need it at any moment. Yeah. Whereas if you're just a snatcher, you're just like – you know, John North is a great snatcher and a mediocre cleaning jerker. So he had to, like, pray that, you know, his lead didn't get overtaken in the cleaning jerk. So it's a good ace to have with Nathan and Morgan. I know as long as we're close, that's always our game plan, stay close in the snatch and then win.

Yeah. Has Nathan always been so fast under the bar? Yeah, he's fast. He is fast for a big dude. People talk about him being so strong. He's super fast. You should see. He is fast for a big dude. People talk about him being so strong. He's super fast. You should see him jump. He's a short dude.

He dunks with ease. Whoa. He's super athletic. He did a one-legged backflip once. Stop. Really? Yes. You never guess.

Bo Jackson ain't got shit on me. Jumping out of the pool. Nathan is one of the most athletic guys I've ever coached. Wow. I've coached multiple NFL guys, and Nathan is one of the most athletic guys I've ever coached. Wow. And I've coached multiple NFL guys, and Nathan is one of the most athletic kids I've ever trained. Yeah. Yeah.

Would you consider the clean to be kind of like the biggest expression of just like raw power? Yeah, it's my favorite. Oh, it is 100%. That's not debatable. Yeah, as far as it is the number one expression of power in the gym. Yeah. Like if you have an NFL player, you could look at his clean and be like,

oh, you're really good. Like you're going to kill somebody on the ground. But their snatch probably doesn't translate to that because it's so technical. I coached a dude, John Abadi. I don't know if you guys remember him. There was a movie called The Fifth Quarter. Anyway, he was a Wake Forest All-American linebacker. And I coached him, getting him ready for the NFL.

And the first day we're doing some tests and we're warming up to clean, you know, and he power cleaned 405 with ease. Whoa. And I was just like, we're good. We're good. Like, we don't need to work on power, obviously. So we just, like, worried on stabilizing it. What am I going to do to make you more powerful?

Like, it was so easy to and when i say power there was no power or nothing yeah power we see people that can make like i mean all of when i watch all of your lifters in the back do when they lift i look at them i'm like it doesn't really look like that impressive off the floor and then all of a sudden they're just it's so fast and so powerful from the knee to the hip yeah and it's it looks like it's in slow motion but they're moving so fast that through the middle with Nathan and Morgan it's like yeah neither one they're both good pullers but not great but their ability to increase speed from the knee up is like, that's where it's at. Yeah. You know. Do you do much in the sense of explosive weighted jumps? Some, you know, especially we did a little bit with Morgan.

And it was cool because, you know, I have – you guys met the young football players I coached too. And so Tate, which is like the – you know, we have the big lineman and then the running back. I told you I already had a – Wake Forest already offered him as a freshman. Anyway, him and Morgan are the same age. So we had them one day we kind of tested their power production.

Morgan just did a few jumps and all of a sudden he could really out jump that freshman running back. It was insane. I didn't even know at the time that Morgan could jump like that. We do some of that. It depends on, you know, are they this fast, elastic person

or are they this powerful person? Like Morgan doesn't do as much as, say, like Ryan needs to do. Ryan doesn't produce as much power. However, he's faster and, like, you know. More athletic. Yeah. So, like, he needs to do more of that than, say, Morgan. Yeah, for the stronger, more muscular guys that are just a little bit stiffer in general,

do you do any complexes with them? Like, you do a couple of snatches and then you follow up with immediate max height box jumps or whatever it is? Absolutely. And with all my football players. So, like, you know, if I was a person trying to be, like, strong and athletic, I would definitely do that. Like, we did a workout uh the day that you met them they were doing they did cleans supersetted with um box jumps outside then they did squats supersetted with um broad jumps and then they did um trap uh deadlift supersetted

with trap bar jumps and like so everything was like yeah it, it was complexes. Every time I've ever done that type of training, I always feel so good. Yeah. Like, you know, during training is fun. I feel good. After training, I feel good. Like the next day, I don't get too sore and too beat up from it, but I feel very fast and athletic. I just want to move fast.

Like I feel good as an athlete when I do that type of training. I think that's a great way to, I mean, this is a little off subject, but it's a great way to peak if you guys coach a football player or athletes. Instead of trying to peak their strength, peak their strength early and then finish up with power and let them be powerful and fast rolling into the season, which is what we're doing with these boys. Yeah, back when I played a couple years of small college football, we always had that more linear periodization type model.

The season would get over, we'd do a hypertrophy block, strength block, power block, speed block, and then the season would start again. Right. I don't really train like that anymore specifically, but I really enjoyed it for the time that I did it. I know. I think about that a lot. I loved how I felt when I played college football.

Coach Kent, who was my first big mentor you know he we trained like that the plyometrics and the and the sprints and i felt like ah superman i thought i could jump and run and i just loved the way i felt and then when you stop that you stop training like that you wonder like why did i stop you know i've done a lot of stuff well it's hard to do on your own because now you're just jumping around on one leg out there by yourself. But, yeah, the thing about really the clean to me is, like, it is the most powerful and athletic. That's why I like it so much. I always felt like, not that I was a world-class weightlifter by any means,

but, like, if I could survive the snatch, I thought I had a pretty okay snatch when it came to competition, but if you could just get me um my overhead wasn't the greatest but if i could just get to the clean i thought it looked good if i could just get to the clean yeah things were going to be better yeah i knew that we were going to be able to move some weights around and that was going to be that was going to be like a good spot just i hope that's a movement i can do the rest of my life is clean yeah because when i do a clean i feel even like that it just makes me feel powerful and athletic yeah i don't feel like this

slow fat you know old dad you know i feel powerful yeah yeah uh earlier you're talking about aj robertson and you know catching a clean um not actually on your shoulders but like just catching it in your hands in front of your collarbones but the bars just like floating off your chest uh travis for you certainly there could be some mobility limitations there with a lot of people, and there's all kinds of stretching and mobilizations that you could do. But are there any weightlifter-specific things that you guys do outside of just stretching that help people get into a better rack position? Absolutely. You know, it starts with the front squat.

You know, too many people do the front squat in a totally different way than they do the clean. That's a mistake. Front squat is very sport-specific if you're weightlifting or doing the one-ton challenge. So like when you do the front squat, let's say that you normally catch with two fingers. Try doing the front squat with three fingers. If you catch with three, try to have four, all four. If you can do all four, try to keep your hook grip. If you can keep your hook grip, you will be the best cleaner that you possibly can be. And here's why. As you're pulling under, if I can keep your hook grip, you will be the best cleaner that you possibly can be, and here's why. You're pulling under. If I can keep my hook grip,

that means I can pull under right until the bar meets the shoulders. If I catch with two or three fingers, that means somewhere in space I had to let go and stop pulling. When I talk about the clean, I talk about Morgan and Nathan because they're the best on our teams. They keep their hook grip.

That's why it's so beautiful to watch them clean it looks effortless john north was really you know everyone talks about his snatch but he was a really good at cleans just not good at jerks that messed him up but he could clean and rack almost anything because he could keep his hook grip and so meeting the book there was always an attachment you always knew where the bar was kinesthetically. So that's what we would do. I know that Nathan didn't. He used to not do that. But then what he did, he took straps and put straps on while he was front squatting.

And now it's a little extreme, but if you're close to doing it, that's a good way to do it. And it hurt kind of a little bit at first, and then he just got used to it. Now that's what he does. Would you move your hands from finishing your clean, like a power clean, and they come in? When did you learn that? Oh, you do the wide to close? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I mean, I have pretty lanky arms, long arms.

So I grab a lot wider than most people do when I'm cleaning. Some people think I'm going to snatch, and then I don't, and I clean it. That's a good idea. Because I grab collar to collar on snatches, so as wide as you can go. And then on the cleans, I usually put my ring finger on the hash mark on the bar. A little bit wider, yeah. I'm pretty wide. But, yeah, there is that period of disconnection from the bar where my hands slide in.

And if I was competing in weightlifting, I might potentially lose a few pounds on that disconnect from the bar where I'm not pulling on the bar anymore. But I debatably make up for it by having the bar hit a little higher on my hips. Yeah. for it by by having the bar hit a little higher on my hips yeah like if i have if i because i have really long arms like if i just stand with my arms straight the bar is going to hit me like on upper thigh it's not anywhere close to hitting pockets or like right on my belt line um so in addition to just hitting lower it also when i'm in that power position because it's lower on my thigh it's actually further in front of my body as well and so the mechanically that that lever arm is shorter the

higher up you hit on your on your thighs so if you have really short arms and you're you know with straight arms the bar is touching you on your belt line like that's that's beautiful but if you have really long arms you can you can widen your grip a little bit and that'll bring the bar up a little bit higher or you can do more of a hip clean like you that row variation during the transition and that'll pull the bar up a little bit higher uh but that's worked really well for me is just grabbing wider and then my hands just slide in a little bit yeah it's super fast you see it a lot even with the international lifters yeah that's what i was gonna but it brings two questions so someone comes in and they're they're trying to find the right grip length or width of their grip um where do you lead

them to i mean normally just right outside, you know, shoulder width or right outside the legs. Yeah, you don't want the hands to touch the legs as you're pulling up. It'll slow it down, causing friction. Isn't that illegal too? I don't think so. Oh, I thought there was a rule. Maybe.

There's some funky rules. I mean, I've never heard of that. I mean, maybe, but I've never seen it. I don't think anyone does it in that, so I have never. Wide enough so that when you catch the bar on your shoulders, you're not breaking your fingers. Wide enough when you catch the bar that you're not breaking your fingers. You see a lot of rookies do that.

Like, you know, they first start and they catch it, and their fingers are underneath the bar, you know, between the bar and the shoulders. So, yeah, that's definitely too close. But, you know, like, I think start what I'm talking about, like, a little bit outside the shoulder width, and then go from there. I think people are a little bit faster if they're in closer. You know, we get wider.

If they stay wide, sometimes it can slow things down just because it's not as mobile. But, like, the way Doug does it, when he brings it in, then it's still fast. It's like best of both worlds if you have long arms yeah well being patient over the bars and the clean specifically because you just have to have a strong back to be able to hang over that thing that long right and knowing that you're i mean it's it's the heaviest lift that you're going to have up probably in the on the olympic side of the total um but doug's talking about um how high that bar gets on your on your legs it's close to your hips into that power position that we talked

about in the snatch definitely upper thighs you know like normally it's going to be a little bit lower than snatch but at least upper thighs and for some people who are able to either they have short arms or maybe they do a slight arm bend, then it can be in the hip. You know, Nathan and Morgan both are close to that. Yeah. But the main thing is being patient, like you said. Like Morgan and Nathan both have, like Morgan looks up to Nathan so he listens to a few things he says. And like, you know, they really try to be patient on the pull.

Like if they make a mistake and the bar is forward, it's because they weren't patient. So the one key that really works for both of them is, like, patient pull. And then if they just wait a little longer than normal until their legs are fully extended, and then they transition into the second pull, then it normally ends up right in the hip. And then that sets up their jerk. Because both of them, well, especially Nathan, if you guys are going to do the clean and jerk, just remember this. The clean will therefore set up the jerk. If you have a bad clean, say it's forward, now you're going to try a jerk with the bar a little bit forward.

It's hard to get it back with a massive clean. Yeah. Well, I think everybody should video all of their lifts just to be able to watch that. But I think there's something also that happens in the clean where you feel the bar lower on your legs. So you feel like you have to jump early because it's like, Oh, I made contact where the snatch stays a little bit away until almost it gets to your hip crease into that power position. But the clean is going to hit your legs.

So if you're able to slow the video down and go kind of frame by frame, you'll see that, yes, there's contact lower, but if you can stay over the bar, you just drag it up your legs. If you look at an actual singlet, it's got those pads there so that there isn't that friction, and it slides really well into the pockets. One thing we talked about, especially with Jordan yesterday on the poster you have in the gym, or two days ago, was that early arm bend and coming off the floor.

Can you talk a little bit about the early arm bend? Who may or may not want to be thinking about that? Most people, we don't want thinking about it, but it kind of happens. Yeah, like, you know, like, used to, they would say that that is a big no-no. And then, obviously, over time, people are starting to see. The good thing about the internet is, like, there can be no-no. And then obviously over time people are starting to see. The good thing about the internet is like there can be no more lies. Like you see the truth by videos. And so now we see world records being set with bent arms.

So it's obviously not an absolute no-no. So, you know, a lot of people who are like Doug with long arms, like a CJ Cummings who's a world record holder in the clean and jerk. So it's obviously not a bad thing. But a lot of long arm people will do that. Obviously, if you've got short arms, you probably want to keep them straight because the arms can move a little faster. So it's just you lose a little speed, but you gain a little height.

So same thing with sliding. You were saying the sliding. Some people, even with cleans, can stay a little bit away from the body. But then it's about a give and a take. A lot of Chinese will slide. And so the thing about sliding is it's closer to the body, and so you win the center of gravity. However, it slows it down.

A little friction on the bar. But like the studies that I've seen, it's about the same. So whichever one you prefer, it'll end up being the exact same clean. Yeah. I want to talk about the start position a little bit because it is you know when you look at the deadlift with to the to somebody that doesn't really know those start positions may look very similar and then you get into the snatch where the start position is pretty similar but they're still a

little bit different poles off the ground you know you know the easiest way to do it without having to think a lot is simply i love the whole don Don McCauley taught me this, looking at when you set up, if the knee is equal to or slightly in front of the elbow, is a good, lets you know that you're in a good place to push versus pull. And we've talked about that in the other episodes about, you know, pulling just that, you know, that cue will lead to a lot of people yanking and getting pulled forward. But if you think about, you know about pushing your body away from the floor, that ends up putting you in a better position. So I would say set up to where that's going to put your hips obviously below your shoulders, which is where you want it, and it's a good position.

Yeah, I think it's really important. That's actually the thing that I think about before I'm about to pull off or push the floor away, pull the bar off the ground, is can I feel the floor with my feet? I want that really, my brain talking to the lowest part of my body, feeling the floor. And I know that if I feel like I'm gripping the floor, then I've got really good balance. Because getting pulled forward is

no matter how athletic you are when you get inside 90 if that bar floats just an inch forward it's going to be a miss because now to recover is just it's all back and arms pulling as hard as you can to get that bar back in your body so you really want to be able to find that midfoot and you know actually i don't know exactly where you coach people to be able to find that midfoot and you know actually i don't know exactly where you coach people to feel it but um i've always thought like the knuckles of your toes if you can get the weight just behind the the knuckles of your big toe that's going to be like a really good place for your midfoot so we can shift that weight back as we pass through the knee i would think to simplify it you simplify it, because obviously when it's going really fast,

it's hard to think about, okay, now I'm in the ball, now go to my heel. So if you just think about pushing your feet completely through the floor, I like to say rooted, because you think about your toes being actually rooted in the ground.

And then if you keep the bar back, all that other stuff happens. So the shift back happens because the bar is back. It's a little bit easier thinking about all I've got to do is keep the bar close. All this other stuff will happen. It eliminates a lot of these cues because you want to use the least amount of cues possible because it's too fast. Regarding start position, and we mentioned for me, I have this wider grip

because I have very long arms. I also have long femurs and relatively long legs because I have a short torso. So for longer-limbed lifters, especially the taller you are and the lengthier you are, if you, and we mentioned this on a previous show about stance width, if you have short femurs, you can go toes straight ahead, close stance, and the bar will clear your knees just fine. But for me, if I have a close stance and my go toes straight ahead close stance and and the bar will clear your knees just fine but but for me if i have a close stance and my toes are straight ahead and i and i grab you know like with a normal clean grip i either have to move the bar around my knees which means

it's traveling forward which is the opposite of what we want well maybe straight up but probably even sweeping back into you during that first pull and or in order to clear my knees i have to pop my butt up to push my knees back that way the bar can go straight up without hitting my shins right so what i tend to do is i have that slightly wider stance and i and i i push my knees out nice and wide and the the wider your stance and the more you push your knees out the more they also travel back away away from the bar and so i have to have that wide grip because even with the wide grip my knees are touching my elbows right when i clean and so it's it's just trying to find for you like with your very specific body type what which combination of factors is going to work the best for you i would recommend

and i mean i'm not like a dogmatic coach that says you have to do it i recommend no matter where you put your feet that you turn your toes slightly out. Here's why. Is that my knees will track where my toes go. And like, so my knees are pointed out and I push my knees out. The distance between the front to back knee and hip shortens a little bit. So it's easier, therefore, to keep the bar closer. If I point them straight ahead and my knees track on my toes,

now my knees are further forward. If I point them out, now my butt goes a little bit closer to the bar, my knees go out. A lot of Chinese you'll see really push out. They push out a lot to the point where it's like maybe that's dangerous, but I don't see them getting hurt, so I don't know. But I definitely recommend that. It just decreases the distance front to back, knee to hip.

Whenever I'm working with someone trying to improve their technique, I almost always just go back to the start position. I'll see their faults, and they'll be like, I was a little forward, low on my thighs, whatever, whatever, whatever. And I'm like, well, you were there because when you set up, you were like this. And so you had to make this adjustment, which put you out of position. And then it led to all these symptoms that occur later.

But you've got to fix that start position or you just can't get into a good position. You've lost before you start. I'm with you. I wrote an article maybe two months ago talking about the start position sets up the first bull. First bull sets up second, second, third. It's like the kinetic chain. If your ankles are messed up, it messes up your knees. It's the same thing.

If I mess up early, it's going to mess up everything. Yeah, especially once you're approaching 100% of your max. There's very little, rather, opportunity to recover once you're out of position when you're trying to hit a PR. You're just sunk. If you're warming up at 60%, you can kind of adjust along the way if you feel yourself a little out of position and even if you even if you are out of position it's light enough where you can you can just do it anyway yeah but but once it gets heavy you're

you're sunk we have a cool opportunity talking about the clean which we didn't get to in the snatch of talking about kind of that triple extension position and getting there um i i feel like a for for intermediate ish weight lifters they get really hung up on some of those those terms and like stretch reflex and in order to to lift or like the the double knee bend to get and i think it's really important to kind of just spend a little bit of time talking about like how that stuff just naturally occurs when you hit the right positions we spend a lot of time like if you're a lifter and you see somebody talking about like this double knee bend

or triple extension and you're standing over a barbell thinking about those things, just slowly step away. Yeah. Go get your head right and go get ready to lift some weights because all of that stuff, once you actually get off the floor and get to your knees, that stuff naturally happens happens if you're putting a good move on the bar vertically you're basically jumping really hard right and you're going to hit that triple extension thing so just a couple of those terms just to say like exactly what's going on talking about kind of

the double knee bend i'd love to get into just a little bit of like elasticity the stretch reflex and then triple extension which are kind kind of these terms that people think. They throw them out of like, oh, well, we've got to work on that. It's like, don't work on it. Just work on being strong off the floor and work on being aggressive through the middle. If you just think about extending your legs as fast and powerfully as possible and you think about keeping the bar close, all the rest happens.

And we will have already handled that. They won't know it, but I will have already taken care of the fact that they're going to be able to do it correctly because we have done that we will have done the top down approach they don't even know what's happened to them yeah their body will know exactly where the power position is their body will will know exactly where position two is so as long as they just you know when it you know when they do this whole clean mesocycles the two of them they'll all they'll have to think about is extend the legs keep the bar close and the body will know where it has to go yeah we'll be able to build that up throughout the year absolutely that's

the beautiful thing about it being this whole big long macro cycle yeah you know um and the the other piece that's it always throws people for a loop it It's going to be catch position. Right. As far as like we talked a little bit in the snatch about how you teach knees up. Do you teach that in the clean as well? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Going under the bar, you know, you can really, if you guys, you know, look at like Nathan is a great example. Watch him clean, or Morgan, you'll see their knees lift,

and they always get their feet flat. They never catch a clean on their toes ever. Yeah. Because of the way that they choose to go under the bar, you know, by lifting the knee and getting the foot flat down again, you know. The rep position I'd like to mention too is where it should be is the bar should sit behind the front delts and then in front of the traps. There's that little sweet spot between the front delt and the traps.

The bar sits a nice little line. They'll sit there along your clavicle and then on the other side. You definitely don't want to just rest it on the clavicle. Number two, number one is not a very sturdy place. You want it right behind the shoulders. We're going to have to do a video on the

knees up thing because that is something that when I actually watch, like, so like, there's CrossFit Olympic lifters and then there's like olympic lifters i'll show you world class olympic lifters and um anytime i'm in an actual weightlifting gym like olympic weightlifting powerlifting gym and i see somebody that really is dialed in on national international level like those guys um i notice the knees up position right because that is actually something i no one's ever taught me that right and i wish that i had been taught that because when i watch it i go oh that's how they get so fast under the bar right they they pick their feet up and place

them where they're supposed to go and then everything in the middle is so much faster and connected right and i know i don't know what the physiological side of that is, but it feels or it looks like everything they do is significantly faster in the middle because they bring their knees high, they're like dorsiflexed, and everything is like, everything just moves faster in that position.

That's a good, you know, you pointed out dorsiflexion. So they go from planter to dorsi quickly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like boom, boom, boom. It's kind of like a sprinter. That's how they teach sprinting.

Like you have to have the planter flexion, but what they're thinking is always toes high, knees high. And I wonder if, I mean, is there something physiologically to that position that makes you faster in that turnover? Yeah, because like with sprinting, the dorsiflexion position, dorsiflexed position is going to be powerful. Like if they're planter flexed, when they, you know,

do a sprint and their feet hit the ground, they're going to get a breaking effect because they're going to break at the ankle. If they're dorsiflexed, there's nowhere to go for the foot. So all the power is then generated forward. Same thing with, you know, if they catch it on their toes, it's a really bad position. Yeah. It's not very sturdy, just like in the sprint.

But if they catch it dorsiflex, flat-footed, they're sturdy. It's like a good base catch position. Yeah. For the front rack position, when people get down, do you think they find that's more of like a lat issue, a thoracic spine issue? It'll be lat and or it'll be lat, thoracic spine, or tricep. Or a combination of all three.

A lot of lats. How much do you actually do with the big guys when it comes to mobility work? I feel like if you're moving well, you don't have to worry about a lot of that stuff. I don't. With our weightlifters, they do it every day, and so their bodies have adapted now.

If I notice a mobility issue, then we'll attack that specific problem. But you don't want hypermobility. No, you lose that springiness. Yeah, like Morgan and Nathan and Hunter, they're all perfect. So if I mess with them, i'll create hypermobility even there have been times where you know they show signs of immobility in a certain specific spot joint and then we attack that one thing yeah otherwise they warm up well most of the time i feel like those mobility issues come because you're moving like trash right and your brain is cutting

something off there's something neurologically happening that's where your brain is saying hey you're gonna hurt yourself if you keep doing that so we're gonna tighten it up right and that way that that shoulder or whatever it is remains stable right and they do it by locking down a muscle right connective tissue whatever it is where if you're moving well your brain doesn't have any reason to block any of that musculature. I'm so glad that you noticed that. So when people ask me about mobility in clinics, or like this weekend I'm teaching a USAW course, the best thing to do is to get better, to get more mobile at certain positions, is to do those positions frequently.

So then you get better at them you don't have trash movements and the better you get you'll find that your body releases those areas so my guys are just mobile because they do them every day and you've been talking a lot about eccentrics and kind of putting those into the training plan like i think that eccentrics and just slowing the movement down putting those tempos in which there's a ton of tempo work in the in the training plan is just so important because your brain can safely go to those spots loaded. And it doesn't have to be at 110% of your max power output to get to the front rack. Like we can do a really slow front squat and find out you have bad ankles. And we can fix the ankle. Or just go to end range, hang out there, breathe a little bit, and just get comfortable down at the bottom you stole my and now all of a sudden

you everything loosens up you can just calm the body down crystal just posted a video like i'm having her do like squats front squats specifically where she takes three deep breaths in the bottom of each rep it's strictly for an accumulation phase so we're not trying to go heavy yeah trying to accumulate a lot of volume. And so her mobility, you see every breath. Yeah. Sink, sink, sink. It's been great for her mobility.

Eccentrics and breathing isometrics are the two best ways to get mobility at specific joints. Yeah. At least in my experience. And you can do it loaded. Yeah. You don't have to. It doesn't mean you have to get strong and go to yoga class.

Right. The best thing you can do is just hang out down there. She's front squatting with weight, yeah. I mean, and the isometric piece. If you sit down in the bottom of a front squat and you're breathing and you're down there for 10 seconds, holy shit. Yeah. That's hard work.

It's like PNF stretching without a partner. Yeah. With the bar being your partner. Yeah. And just fighting for perfect position. Like when you're down there, you'll realize that you're not in a perfect position. You can always have your elbows a little bit higher.

You can always, you know, get your thoracic spine a little bit bigger, chest a little bit bigger, shoulders in a better position, drive those knees out. Sometimes I'll just sit at the bottom of a squat and think about how tight can I get my glutes at the bottom of this where they shouldn't really be tight.

And next thing you know, your knees come out a little bit. You're in a really stable position down at the bottom. And my janky right ankle all of a sudden loosens up a little bit. The knees are in a better position. Just hanging out at the bottom, breathing. And you can all of a sudden your body your brain recognizes safety down there too which is one of the biggest issues when it just comes to general mobility and doing it it's your brain scared you're gonna hurt yourself so it stops you from going to that place absolutely i'm telling you if i'm sorry go ahead i was gonna say we talked about max effort isometric pulls the other

day when we're talking about deadlifts do you do similar things with people that are slow off the floor with cleans like put put them in a rack with people that are slow off the floor with cleans like put put them in a rack with pins that they're pulling the bar into and just maintain that that very perfect first pull position but pulling max effort yeah we do we've done we've done some pulls into pins we've done a lot of pauses off the floor we do like breakaway pauses you know even usa weightlifting teaches that in their search. It's like you pull, you know, two inches off the floor and stop. And so he has a great way to make sure.

What are those called? Breakaway pauses. Is that what it is? I think we call them, like, stop cleans or something. Some people call them stop cleans. Whatever you want to call them. They're hard as hell. Do, like, a set of five of those and then do a clean after.

Whoa. I like programming stuff like that for the weeks that I want to be lighter, you know, more deload type weeks where by selecting the exercise, you do the deload through the exercise selection as opposed to telling the athletes, like, we're going to damper it down this week because they don't want to damper it down. But if you put, like, you like, pause two inches off the floor and then pause right below the knee and then do your reps,

well, just by default you're going to be doing it a little bit lighter. Do a five-second pause front squat. That front squat's going to get lighter. Yeah, absolutely. How many people just stopped showing up to the gym that week? They don't stop. I don't know. He put these pause front squats in.

I couldn't breathe. It was hard. I'm just not going to go next time. They come when I do 10 by 10 they definitely come i want to spend a little time just talking about the program and uh you know the accumulation phase building up to this um how much are we like taking things off blocks different positions you're talking about that top down approach uh what are you thinking in that first four weeks of um you know really just accumulating really quality movement and getting people jacked we will do a lot of the like top down like throughout the year like when it comes

to the eight-week block of cleans it'll start that first you know mesocycle will be pretty specific but what we will do is like more isometric work it'll be full range because now we need to get that movement pattern perfect in those first four weeks then leading to you know mesocycle two where we're going to go heavy just like the others yeah but a lot of pauses you know stop cleans pauses the knee you know i like even do where they pause in the power so they do the pull slow pause in the power then go so you get that movement pattern i was about to say that's hard because your brain is so used to moving so fast through that specific range and then all of a sudden you have to stop and then regenerate all that power so quickly it's the only way to guarantee that they're getting

you know that that movement correct in the pool the first time even if you've ever done just a power clean or squat clean from the high hang or just that power position it's really funky it is you're so you rely so much on that speed through the middle of speed from your knee to your hip then all of a sudden you take that away i remember the first time screw the first time even if i do it now i have to like really check in and be like okay sit back on my heels chest up like i have to like really think about that position because it's so awkward without having that momentum getting you to your hip. You'll notice that the pure Olympic weightlifters will be very good at that position.

Nathan can snatch and clean more like that than he can from the floor because their ability to fire their glutes at that one specific moment and then really focus on that rip under the bar, that's what separates them from like you know just the normal person is they're able to fire and go you know boom boom it's that timing it's that explosive glute firing boom extending the knees and then the rip under yeah wasting z morgan and nathan are so amazing to watch how like very little time they spend at the top you know i mean it is just it is like up then down is there's no like uh down yeah it's a up and down yeah so um i oh yeah i love taking things like from just below

the knee where i could get like some big stretch in the hamstrings and then go that was always my position me too me too i love three position clean snatches just because i could get below the knee just a little bit on one of them. It was like that was just a made lift. And then taking it from the hip was always just like, oh. Me too. If I could ever, anytime, if there was like a three-position, anytime I could get it to the hip and then cheat it to like the high hang a little bit more. That's what people do.

Cheaters! I'll be watching you. You're going to make sure you're staying in the power position. I'll call you out on the Facebook group. You were mentioning getting up and getting down really quick. In high school, when I was first learning the Olympic movements, snatches, cleans, et cetera, that jump up, jump down terminology really connected with me, having very little technical knowledge of the lifts.

Similar to that, Justin Thacker, a buddy of ours, he's a brilliant coach and a brilliant guy. And when he teaches new lifters, he says the clean is a jump. And then he says once you get good at it, it's not a jump anymore. It's just like oversimplified so you can have some concept of what's happening. You're jumping with a bar in your hands. But then eventually you have to graduate past that and realize it's not quite that simple. But for beginners, it's nice to be simple for a short period of time.

I'm with him. I'm with him on that. You know, like Don McCauley was our other coach here for the longest time, and he's sick right now. So he had to go to Florida with his family. But, you know, he does not like to use the word jump. But, like, I'll use it definitely for beginners because, like, because like you just like they'll want to use their arms yeah so let me just teach y'all one thing quickly if you have someone who's in that power position who when you

say uh i go one they go to the power position when i say two they're supposed to open up and go under it but like you know if they want to initiate it with their arms, the only way that I have learned to break that habit is, like, keep your arms long and jump. So you jump, like, three times, and I say now on this fourth one, do the exact same thing and pull under, and it works every time. So, like, you know, I like the – a lot of – that's a big way. Well, that jumping cue – yeah, that jumping cue really works because they don't have to think.

Everyone's jumped before. Right. And then – or if you're trying to figure out, like, that jumping cue really works because they don't have to think. Everyone's jumped before. Right. And then, or if you're trying to figure out, like, where should I put my feet? You try and tell them a million times. And, like, how about this? Just jump. Right. And then wherever you land, that's your landing position.

And there's a lot of great weightlifters in America who still, even at the peak of their careers, think jump. Like, Colin Burns, he's the guy, one of our competitors, you know, he uses the word jump all the time. Yeah. You know, and so he's. Well, I like what Bergener says, jump hard, not high. Jumping high has this, like, thing of I'm supposed to leave the ground and I'm floating. Jumping hard feels. I can see that.

Yeah. I feel like when people, when you can watch somebody and you can see the analysis paralysis thing happening, like they're in the hang position, you're like, go. And they're just like, uh, uh, uh. Jump. You're like, fucking quit thinking about all that shit and just jump as high as you can. They'll kind of knock them out of their head for a second. I'm with you.

And with that, just get strong, people. That's what we want you to do. We want you to get freaking strong, get the bar to your hips, and be fast enough to get underneath that thing. Make sure you get over to the one-ton challenge.com. We are testing the lifelong pursuit of strength. The one-ton challenge,

six lifts, snatch, clean, jerk, all individual, squat, dead, bench. You're going to add those all up to get your one-ton total. And then you're going to go over to the one-ton challenge.com. You're going to put all those numbers into the leaderboard. out where you rank if your name is highlighted you're in the rare air called the one ton club that's where all the strong kids are hanging out that's where you want to be that's why we put this together because we want to find where all the

strong people are so get over to the one ton challenge.com we also have a cool launch because this program that coach travis match is talking about is coming your way. And we've got an open cart coming. And Doug Larson, tell them about all the things. Yeah, end of May. Cart opens. It's only going to be open for about a week. And there's only so many spots available.

So get in there right away. If you put your numbers on the leaderboard, you don't have to put all of them, by the way. If you don't know all six of your lists, that's totally fine. Just put the numbers that you do know and then you you can log in and update it anytime you want as you go and collect more uh more prs and you get more accurate numbers uh or even if you even if you're like you know a few pounds away you're kind of guessing you're like god what i do is like 265 ish like you you if you're pretty accurate if you're pretty close you think you can still put your numbers on there you don't have to go get a number like right away you're going to retest all those things throughout the program

so you can put your most accurate numbers and then at the very end of the program there'll be the one ton weekend you'll you'll put you'll do all six lifts um within a 48 hour period and you can you can get that big update and a huge celebration so uh the the cart again opens the end of may the vip list people mond, Monday, May 27th. You have early access to sign up before we announce it to the rest of our list. Tuesday, May 28th through Thursday, June 6th is the full registration

is open then. We'll send out all that stuff over email and social so you can go read through the program, get all the details, ask us questions if you have questions and all that. But it's going to be a year-long training program written by travis mash again i've said this many times but i think travis is the most qualified person in the world to write this type of programming having been world class at both uh both powerlifting as a world record holder and then having trained all the way at

the olympic training center um you know just a very high level and then now just an excellent excellent coach has written many many uh long-term one year you know two year very high level. And then now just an excellent, excellent coach has written many, many long-term, one-year, you know, two-year, three-year, four-year training plans for national caliber and world-class athletes in the strength sports. As of recording date, you have the number one one-ton total in the world right now.

Damn. On top of getting over to the one-tonchallenge.com and putting your scores in, you're going to be getting the One Ton Challenge Starter Kit, which is going to walk you through the history, hanging out with Sina, the big weightlifting vacation, epic moments of my life, how we get your name stenciled on John Cena's door, just a big history of why we're doing this, what the lifelong pursuit of strength means, why we're using the One Ton Challenge to test that, and then the rules of each lift, tons of technique videos.

You can literally walk through the snatch, clean, jerk, squat, dead, and bench, and see every single piece of the movement explained by yours truly, Mr. Doug Larson, and just technique watts, hundreds of thousands of views on those things. So they're incredibly, they've literally taught the entire country how to have much better technique and lift weights significantly better. So all that stuff is in the One Ton Challenge starter kit.

Make sure you just get over to the OneTonChallenge.com. Get on the leaderboard, get the starter kit and launch is coming up. We will see you guys next week. We're going to talk about the jerk next week.

If you have missed any of the prior episodes, we've walked through the really high level stuff with John Cena in the invention of the prior episodes. We've walked through the really high-level stuff with John Cena in the invention of the One-Ton Challenge. And then Squat,

Dead, Bench, we've done all of them. Get in every Monday the One-Ton Challenge. So next week we're talking about the Jerk. Get over to the One-Ton Challenge dot com. We'll see you next week! Yup.