I have been using the crossed arms method to hold the bar for front squats and was thinking it might be time to improve my flexibility and hold it the other way. My problem is (other then not being able to bend my arm back that far) that when I bend my arm back and my upper arm is parallel to the floor my wrist twists in significantly. I am assuming this is not supposed to be and I was wondering if the back of my palm should be able to face completely upwards or if it will have some form of twist in it.
I hope that makes sense, if not I will try to explain it better.
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Somebody else may be able to answer this better then me but when I do these my hands really don't grasp the bar. They are relatively open, with the bar over my finger tips. I don't think my pinky finger is even involved. The bar is really resting on my chest (pretty high up my chest too). I like this method over the crossed arms because, besides the flexibility, I can keep an eye on my form by making sure my elbows don't drop during the movement. I thought that maybe you are trying to grasp the bar too much with your hands or the bar is too low on your chest and its causing your wrist rotation.
my arms aren't flexible enough to bend so that I can rest the bar on my chest and simply hold with my fingertips. I am just talking about with no weight. If I bend my arms into that position right now while sitting on my couch there is a significant twist in my wrist (almost to the point where my palms are facing my head rather then the ceiling). I am just wondering if some twist is normal or if my palms should be parallel to the ground.
__________________ Beginning is Easy - Continuing is Hard
猿も木から落ちる Even monkeys fall from trees
- Japanese Proverb
In theory anyway, you should be able to do them with both hands out in front of you without holding on. I do my warmup sets like this, thanks to breaking my wrists in the past a clean grip is almost impossible for me. when the weight gets heavy I switch to an arms crossed because i feel more safe.
If I bend my arms into that position right now while sitting on my couch there is a significant twist in my wrist (almost to the point where my palms are facing my head rather then the ceiling). I am just wondering if some twist is normal or if my palms should be parallel to the ground.
That's normal. When you're resting the bar on your front delts and have your fingertips under the bar they will probably turn a bit more palms up, but it doesn't matter.
Look at some pictures of people front squatting, like this one or this one or this one, and you'll see that there's some turn at the wrist and their palms turn in somewhat. People are different and each person looks just a little different. Just get under the bar and try it and then if you have problems we will try to help out.
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Lisa Holladay, CSCS
Last edited by Lisa~ : 12-18-2007 at 02:53 PM.
Reason: to add pictures
Nice answers
Just to add you can simply take wrist wraps and sling them onto the bar where you would grasp. Instead of grabbing the bar you hold the ends of the wrist wraps.
Of course that would not be the best thing if you were looking to progress into cleans.
Bad arm flexibilty? Do crabwalks and practice placing that bar in clavicle area with wrist bent back.
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i started a thread on here about a thread over at marunde's board where Jono showed people how to front squat. It's the way i use when i use a clean grip, and no wrist pain. You just need to make sure your elbows are pointed ahead and now out.
if you're not competing, just do whatever's comfortable, you can use the most weight, and not get injured doing.
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if you're not competing, just do whatever's comfortable, you can use the most weight, and not get injured doing.
Exactly.
Sometimes the hand position bothers me, so I put my hands at the ends of the bar intstead. the angles are kind of off so I then have to put the bar on my back to line everything up.
You can use straps and such, but where that will really affect you is if you ever pickup any olympic lifts. You are going to need that wrist flexibility to be able to rest the weight properly after a clean.
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Man, I think some folk have to read answers already stated before throwing redundant stuff out there
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These are some helpful suggestions. I am surprised no one mentioned straps, do you think they would be a possibility or should I just work on flexibility?
__________________ Beginning is Easy - Continuing is Hard
猿も木から落ちる Even monkeys fall from trees
- Japanese Proverb
I didn't mention straps because you specifically asked about improving wrist flexibility and about the position of your wrists during a clean grip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sign
I have been using the crossed arms method to hold the bar for front squats and was thinking it might be time to improve my flexibility and hold it the other way.
I think using straps to hold the bar (like the above picture) is a great way to go. Several of my clients front squat this way. It feels more secure than the cross body method (IMO). Unless you're planning to add O-lift variations to your workout (which require using a clean grip), just doing the front squat is the goal. How you hold the bar would be a secondary concern.
I would coach you to hold the straps closer to the bar than the girl in the picture is holding hers. Grab the straps close to where they're wrapped to keep the bar as secure as possible.
I didn't mention straps because you specifically asked about improving wrist flexibility and about the position of your wrists during a clean grip.
I know, I was just joking because of all the people mentioning straps (because someone said people need to read replies before posting redundant info)
Actually Lisa~ I think you were the only one to actually answer my main question
Today is my squat day so I am going to try the clean grip and see how things go, I am going to use it for as long as I can and then finish with crossed arms if I have to, hopefully that way I can slowly build up the flexibility needed.
__________________ Beginning is Easy - Continuing is Hard
猿も木から落ちる Even monkeys fall from trees
- Japanese Proverb
LOL I just didn't get the sarcasm. I stayed up late, had a few, am starting my day late and still having my coffee, lol. Maybe I shouldn't post anything else until I finish drinking it! HA!
The biggest factor for me in using a clean grip has been thoracic spine mobility. Once I started working on that it became way easier to rack the clean. The issue was that I couldn't get my elbows high enough and in a proper postition when I was really tight through the thoracic spine. Some extensions over a foam roller and there was a huge difference.
Danny
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That is a great link, his arms are out quite a bit further then I had thought they were supposed to be. From the looks of it though I still have some serious work to do to get my wrists flexible enough to hold the bar like that.
__________________ Beginning is Easy - Continuing is Hard
猿も木から落ちる Even monkeys fall from trees
- Japanese Proverb
That is a great link, his arms are out quite a bit further then I had thought they were supposed to be. From the looks of it though I still have some serious work to do to get my wrists flexible enough to hold the bar like that.
you'd be surprised.
a lot of it has to be with how you grip the bar. pay attention to (i think the 3rd?) picture with where he as his wrists and fingers, and then he kind of rolls the bar onto his delts. You just have to play around with it. I THOUGHT that my wrists were not flexible, but once i played around with the hand placement like he showed in the pictures, i was able to use the clean grip, pain free.
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Great! I can't wait to try it out, would be nice to finally be able to use the clean grip. I didn't get to workout today, ended up having to stay late at work and then my gym was closed.
On an O/T note I hate working retail during Christmas, I have found that I generally don't like people, I can't wait to graduate and get into Networking and get out of this customer service bullshit.
__________________ Beginning is Easy - Continuing is Hard
猿も木から落ちる Even monkeys fall from trees
- Japanese Proverb
Sign, there is a stretch I used to do that helped me to develop the clean grip. It's real easy to do too. Basically, you're holding one hand in a clean grip position with the other. Hold it for 30-60 secs, switch.
It might also help to try some SMR along the forearm. I'm not sure how you'd go about this, but I'm thinking perhaps crushing it between your body (you'd be laying on it) and the foam roller or tennis ball.
Front Squats and wrist flexibility
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