Fix Bouncing Elbows In The Jerk
Do your jerks look like someone dropping a barbell onto a pile of timid marshmallows? Well quit falling under them like you’ve momentarily lost all electrical activity in your nervous system!
In the jerk, always make the effort to elevate the bar as high as possible. Make this a continuous effort throughout the lift, not just during the initial leg drive.
There are two commonly overlooked mistakes that cause pressouts and bouncing elbows overhead.
The first is to drive with the legs… then stop doing anything at all to the bar while you split the feet… and then try to push up on the bar again that’s now falling from the sky down onto you.
The second is to drive up with the legs and then put all your effort into moving the body down low under the bar.
Keep pushing the bar up continuously through the lift—first with only the legs as you drive, and then immediately with the arms.
When you split your feet, or move them out into a power receiving position, that push up against the bar with the arms will push you down under it.
But what people forget is that it also continues pushing the bar up—it preserves more of the bar’s upward momentum and keeps it moving higher than it would go with just the leg drive alone.
In other words, quit trying to get down low under the bar—drive and push as hard as possible without letting up, and move your feet as the bar is leaving the shoulders while you continue to punch through the bar as violently as possible.
You’ll move as low as you need to lock it out unless you’re stepping too short and/or creating too much resistance with your legs, both of which are actually common symptoms of not driving the bar up enough.
You can improve your drive, push and transition with a push press + jerk complex, or with pause jerks, which can also be combined into a complex with a regular jerk.
In the jerk, always make the effort to elevate the bar as high as possible. Make this a continuous effort throughout the lift, not just during the initial leg drive.
There are two commonly overlooked mistakes that cause pressouts and bouncing elbows overhead.
The first is to drive with the legs… then stop doing anything at all to the bar while you split the feet… and then try to push up on the bar again that’s now falling from the sky down onto you.
The second is to drive up with the legs and then put all your effort into moving the body down low under the bar.
Keep pushing the bar up continuously through the lift—first with only the legs as you drive, and then immediately with the arms.
When you split your feet, or move them out into a power receiving position, that push up against the bar with the arms will push you down under it.
But what people forget is that it also continues pushing the bar up—it preserves more of the bar’s upward momentum and keeps it moving higher than it would go with just the leg drive alone.
In other words, quit trying to get down low under the bar—drive and push as hard as possible without letting up, and move your feet as the bar is leaving the shoulders while you continue to punch through the bar as violently as possible.
You’ll move as low as you need to lock it out unless you’re stepping too short and/or creating too much resistance with your legs, both of which are actually common symptoms of not driving the bar up enough.
You can improve your drive, push and transition with a push press + jerk complex, or with pause jerks, which can also be combined into a complex with a regular jerk.
