The BIGGEST Mistakes In Ultimate Sandbag Training Cleans

Few things bum us out like people not having a great experience with our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training. It can be frustrating because we know how effective and fun the training can be, but like any other form of training you need to know some foundational why’s and how’s to gain those results. Sadly, even though we do consistent blogs and content for social media, people many times just want to go to work and don’t read or watch any of our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training resources.

Even with a whole book on our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training techniques and progressions, people can jump in too fast and not realize how to optimize our system and tools. 

That leads to people defaulting to using techniques that they use with other tools. In some cases that can be okay, but not optimal and in others just leads to the wrong exercise technique. One of the best examples is how people perform our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training power cleans. A great exercise for its ability to teach power development, conditioning, and even injury resilience (when we learn to properly decelerate the Ultimate Sandbag). Many people love our Ultimate Sandbag Training power cleans because they remove one of the biggest obstacles in teaching the movement that is often done with the barbell in not putting stress on the wrists and there is no pressure on the wrist like the kettlebell provides that can be a challenge.

HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean there isn’t important technique to our Ultimate Sandbag Training power cleans. In fact, people miss some MAJOR keys ALL the time! They aren’t complicated cues, but they are important. Here are the 3 most important keys in performing our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training power cleans correctly, but also reaping the benefits.

Use The Right Handles

The neutral grip handles on our Ultimate Sandbag allow us to easily engage the lats which is key in connecting to our core so we can stabilize our trunk. When our trunk is stable we are less likely to pull with our low backs and way more with our hips. This not only reduces the chances for injury, but also allows us to produce more power.

When you use the snatch grip handles (used primarily for snatching;) we can’t nearly as easily use the lats and it is harder to create the tension against the handles that allow us to create that stable foundation for strong pulling and not using the low back. Plus, using the snatch grip handles for power cleans causes people to “flip” the weight more than the correct vertical pull that gives us so many results.

Learning to clean to fists is more challenging than to the front loaded position, but that demand on accuracy helps us solve any technique issues that we may miss when going to our other Ultimate Sandbag Training cleans. 

Elbows, Elbows, Elbows

If people ever have issues with hitting their chest or oddly scratching any part of their body during our Ultimate Sandbag Training power cleans, it almost always goes back to NOT getting the elbows high enough. A proper power clean causes a very larger vertical movement of our body, this includes the elbows going very high not to lift the weight, but rather to help our full body power and “float” of the weight. Often when the elbows stay low and into the ribs, you lost power, lift with the arms more, and get more of a terrible “flip”. This makes the movement awkward and reduces the results we achieve with our Ultimate Sandbag Training power cleans.

Physical Therapist, Jessica Bento explains how so many of our issues with the clean come from not getting high elbows.

Coming Back Down Right

If you have done any type of kettlebell training, you know that you just don’t let the weight down from either a rack or overhead position by just flopping down the arm. This would provide HUGE negative stresses on our elbows, shoulders, and back. While that may seem common sense in the kettlebell world, we are constantly surprised how people DO end up doing this with our DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training power cleans.

Not only does this technique flaw cause a lot of bad stress to the body, it also removes one of the key benefits of this movement. That is when done correctly we teach how to decelerate with our hips and pattern our body to use the right structures to help slow down our movement. While force production gets most of the attention in fitness and performance training it is actually learning how to decelerate that helps us reduce injuries more so. Being aware of how we lower the weight is vital to being strong and less likely to become injured in and out of the gym.

Our Ultimate Sandbag Training power cleans are both incredibly effective and generally easy to learn. That doesn’t mean we can ignore the important cues that help us achieve those benefits. If you really pay attention and master these 3 keys you will be on your way to nailing your power clean form, but most importantly getting all the results from this amazing and fun exercise.

Don’t miss our Black Friday sale with 35% off our Ultimate Sandbags, DVRT Online Certifications/Courses, and great workout programs like our Functional Muscle Building Program HERE with code “holiday2021”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by JoshHenkin, CSCS, DVRT Creator (@joshhenkindvrt)