Starting Strength

exercises, whether the exercise is primarily an upper-body or lower-body movement, and the skill, strength, experience, and sex of the individual athlete. (Women can typically use a higher percentage of 1RM explosively than men can.) This range (50–75% of 1RM) is also where the power clean usually falls as a percentage of the deadlift.
    The popular Westside Dynamic Effort method, developed by Louie Simmons, trains power production by using weights in the range of 50–75% of max in the squat, bench press, and deadlift with an emphasis on maximum acceleration during the reps. Louie has essentially figured out a way to train the squat, bench, and deadlift as if they were Olympic lifts, by training them with weights that can be used at the velocity that produces maximum power.
    A logical question, the converse of our earlier one, might be: why do we need to squat and deadlift to develop strength at slow speeds if we are training for power? Both types of training are necessary and each type contributes to the development of the other. Again, a man with a 500-pound deadlift can clean more than a man with a 200-pound deadlift because of the great difference in the ability to produce force. But between two men who both deadlift 500 pounds, the one moving it faster is producing more force, is therefore stronger, and is training in a way that teaches his muscles and nervous system to produce even more force. Training faster with a given weight requires more force production because acceleration requires force. And when the ability to produce force goes up, heavier weights can be lifted. This is why the power clean makes the deadlift go up and why the deadlift contributes to the power clean.
    The weight that can be used for a heavy power clean, for most athletes, is the correct weight to use to improve force production. The weight is heavy enough to make the lifter pull hard, and by its very nature, the power clean cannot be done without explosion. Unless the bar is moving fast at the top, it will not even rack on the shoulders. The power clean’s only drawback is that it is a technique-dependent exercise. Let’s learn how to do it.
    Learning the Power Clean
     
    The power clean is best learned from the top of the pull, down. This means that you will first learn the technique of catching, or “racking,” the bar on the shoulders, so the emphasis in your mind is on the rack position from the beginning. When you are learning the power clean, remember that speed becomes important at the top of the pull, not off the floor. The lower part of the pull, from the floor to the mid-thigh, gets the bar in the correct position for the explosive movement that racks the bar, and this lower part must be done correctly, not quickly, at least at first. From the middle of the pull on up, the movement must get faster, but this cannot be done correctly if the lift has not been started from the floor correctly. By learning the top of the power clean first, and worrying about getting it down to the floor later, you assign the correct priority to the most important part of the pull. After all, the first part of the power clean is essentially a deadlift, which you already know how to do. When you have learned the top of the pull, we will slide down, a little at a time, into a deadlift, making the transition from half a power clean to the whole thing.
    The empty 20 kg (45 lb) bar will be correct for most people to comfortably learn the movement with, but some smaller kids and women might need a lighter bar, such as a 15 kg women’s competition bar or an even lighter shop-built one. There is no point in adding weight to the bar at first, because you are learning the movement only. It doesn’t make sense to learn this movement without a bar, as you do with the squat, because to do a clean, you need a bar to provide some resistance for the elbows to rotate around. A broomstick or a piece of PVC pipe is too light to have sufficient inertia to stay in place during the turn, and learning with PVC is an excellent way to introduce bad arm habits from the very beginning.
    Foot position will be the same as for the deadlift, and similar to the stance for a flat-footed vertical jump or a standing broad jump: place your feet 8–12 inches apart, with your toes pointed slightly out.

    Figure 6-6. The basic stance for the clean is the same position used for a flat-footed vertical jump.

This is the stance that allows you to apply maximum power to the ground