Weakness Finder: Bar Position

Barbell complexes are incredible tools for building capacity for a number of different reasons. While today’s complex (and others like it) surely offer the training benefits we’ve discussed in the past, I’d like to call attention to another important aspect of training a complex like today’s can offer.

You see, we all have different strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, we all are slightly different mechanical movers based on unchangeable attributes like differing femur, torso, and arm length. On an effort, like a clean, you likely have certain positions you are stronger in than others. While understanding the reason for a weakness in any given position is important, what’s more important still is that you know where these weaknesses are.

Isolating various bar positions, for example, is a good way to better understand where you’re strong and where you can improve. For today’s sake, we’re accomplishing the same task (a clean) from a number of different starting positions. How you are shaped and based on your training history, you may be strongest from below the knee today, whereas I am strongest from the high hang position.

If we know this about ourselves we now can do something about it. Improvement in this context, then, will come by bringing up these relative weaknesses to the competency of the other bar positions.

Want to get better? Get informed.  

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach

11/7/18 WOD

Find a maximum attempt of the following complex:

 

1 High Hang Clean

1 Clean (Above the Knee)

1 Clean (Below the Knee)

1 Jerk

 

Then, EMOM 10

1 Clean and Jerk (85%)