Day 12: Clean Positioning and Technique

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Welcome to Day 12 of the 30 Days of Warm Ups and Movement Prep.

Today we will be working on clean positioning and technique.

If you haven't already, download our 30 Day Challenge Guide.

The 30 Warm Ups and Routines in this guide are meant to be used before or after a training session.

Each day was originally designed to be done for 30 minutes, however, with much testing and feedback, 15 minutes is now recommended.

These sequences are designed to be done for the allotted time (15 minutes) working through the reps at a low to moderate pace.

Today is day 12 of the challenge and we will be focusing on clean positioning and technique.

Movements

• Thoracic Spine Rolling; 60"
• Tri-planar Hip Extension; 10 reps each direction each leg
• 10 Hardstyle Swings
• 3 Position Clean Drills

Thoracic Spine Rolling

Work on your thoracic spine going up and down and side to side on the foam roller. Don’t go down into the low back.

Tri-planar Hip Extension

There are three directions in the tri-planar hip extension stretch (Forward/backward, side bending, rotating)

By doing all three of these movements, we are improving hip extension in all the physiological ranges of motion available, rather than just in 1, which is the classic hip flexor or Samson stretch.

Hardstyle Swings

We are doing the swings here to utilize the shoulders after working on the tissue and range of motion. The hardstyle swing is a great way to do this. In the video, we coach a neutral neck position. There are several opinions on where the head/neck should be in the bottom of a swing. We like the neck to be in neutral or slightly extended (looking slightly up). Some people will coach keeping your eyes on the horizon, which is a great cue.

3 Position Clean Drills

Now that we have prepped the thoracic spine, worked on our hip extension, and then actively used it in the hardstyle swing, we are going to improve our clean technique.

The 3 position clean technique drills are simple but very effective. Even if you are using an empty barbell, treat it like it is a heavy load.

The three positions we will be cleaning from are:
1. The down position (knees bent, torso vertical, bar at pockets)
2. Hang position (hips are now hinged, bar is above the knee)
3. Start position (bar is on floor)

Perform 1 clean from each position. We chose to do power cleans in this demo, but you could use full cleans if you prefer.