Medicine Ball Cleans

[1981ASURay]

I've seen guys who are much fitter than I'd be willing to guess anyone on this thread, myself included, get completely burned out and vomit from workouts that included the MB clean.Today, for instance, we did 5 rounds of 400m run, 50 MB clean (20#), and 50 kettle bell front squats (two 53# KBs) in the shortest time possible. My gym's top time was sub-20 minutes. Looking at some of the guys after they finished might change your mind as to the potential of this workout.

[1981ASURay]

Not a lot of Crossfitters here, evidently. First, the medicine ball clean motion is slightly more functional than the standard power clean with a barbell as it engages the forearms a bit more. Secondly, a Crossfitter would never come in, do some MB cleans, and be done. This would be a single part of a larger workout. That workout might be designed with a purpose that is better suited for the MB clean as opposed to the standard clean.

[bendago08]

Balance your glycocidic, phosolegen, and oxidative pathways, essentially trying to trigger them all at once so that those using crossfit can be have long lasting muscle strength during workouts, oxidative pathways that allow long distance running, and explosive/quick power. It focuses on a jack of all trades instead of a master of one, that one being power.

[bendago08]

There is nothing wrong with crossfit or traditional routine workouts. Crossfit approaches a different group of people. Specifically military service members, certain athletes, and people who want cut healthy bodies benefit from crossfit. You will probably get more jacked and gain more power in a traditional workout in contrast depending on who you are.

Crossfit works for these people because it uses irregular routines, interval training, stamina, strength, and endurance exercises to cont.

[DrKanada]

im a male who actually trains with weights, and to ramp up my CNS i do heavy snatches. I also DO NOT do crossfit. but i dont understnad why a woman doin PERFECT cleans is being mocked. kudos to you ma'am. this is an explosive movement with a solid weight, so again congrats

[ibtarnine]

gold dust woman

[swrakow]

Poliquin obviously doesn't know everything about strength and conditioning (like qhams), or he would realize that there is a lot of value in the med ball clean and with CrossFit overall.

Not sure how qhams can challenge the exponential growth of CF. When we started 3.5 years ago, there were only 96 affiliates. Now, over 1300. You're either on the CF train to improved health and fitness, or you're not. If you don't like it, don't knock it until you even begin to try it.

[SilentWeazel]

Im sorry, but this is a terrible exercise. The clean is designed to produce expolsive power. Thats it. They are not designed for endurance purposes.

Clapping your hands together for 2 minutes straight as hard as you can will make you tired, but that doesnt make it a good exercise. You should leave the Power Clean alone. It is that way for good reason.

[swrakow]

Your name says it all. You're not up on the value of this movement. There's no reason in the world NOT to do high-rep/low-weight cleans with a med ball. Maybe if you tried it first, you'd understand.

[SilentWeazel]

There are very good reasons why not to use the power cleans of any kind for endurance purposes...

1. The postural muscles will experience fatigue long before the prime movers.

2. Power is not quality being trained at 15 reps.

3. If you looking for endurance in the lower body there are literally hundreds of better exercise variations to choose from. So as I said, just leave the exercise as it was intended to be and has been for a long time. Its much better that way!

[swrakow]

You just don't understand the movement and you certainly don't understand CrossFit. Moving object from the floor to shoulder height should be done in a functional manner. The clean is the best way to do this. Doing multiple rounds of light weight med ball cleans improves overall fitness. Why do you not believe this? Again, you must not have ever done a med ball clean, much less sets of them. This is also a good movement to do for warm up for just about any workout - and prior to heavy lifting.

[SilentWeazel]

Believe me, i fully understand the movement.

The problem everyone commenting has with this video is that, like so many trainers at the moment, it is taking a very complicated, very advanced exercise designed for a specific purpose... and turning it in to something to make middle aged women feel tired in the gym.

If you want to pick something off the floor for lots of reps whats wrong with a deadlift variation?

[swrakow]

NO. You don't understand the movement. And no, it isn't a barbell clean. doing a deadlift isn't going to get the load to the shoulders.

I've trained hundreds of peole in this movement and it does improve fitness.

Please go back to whatever you do and don't post here again.

[SilentWeazel]

Haha ok then! If you havent got an arguement for its use other than "Ive done it with people before" then dont complain when so many people have commented on here saying how bad it is.

Good luck with giant ball power cleans for 20 reps. I guess you are right and everyone else is wrong.

[swrakow]

Benefits - functionality of the movement itself - ability to move a load from ground to shoulder height efficiently - teaches people to do the clean correctly by proper set up, full extension of the hips, shrug, and quickly dropping under the ball. The functionality of the movement alone should convince you that your old school view of just do the movement with a bar isn't THE only way to perform a clean. Very obtuse thinking on your part. Again, I say, it is you that doesn't understand.

[swrakow]

I have no idea what, if any, background you have in strength and conditioning, but you obviously have ZERO background in CrossFit training. Please, do some more research before you comment.

BTW - I know thousands who agree with me on the effectiveness. They don't need to post to prove a point. I could just delete the comments from those who disagree, but discussion is good and I've got nothing to hide.

[swrakow]

Why don't you Google med ball cleans, learn a bit more about the movement and its applicability to functional fitness. It's one of the single greatest ways to teach and introduce people to the clean and the sport of weightlifting.

[SilentWeazel]

"Google medicine ball cleans"... No thank you. For the same reason I am not going to google squats on a swiss ball, or a Db shoulder press standing on one leg... As I said before if you had a clue about program design you could get people "functionally" fitter in far better ways than this. Just stick to what works ok.

[kikkelsson111]

@swrakow Can you define this "applicability to functional fitness"?

And ehile you're at it, can you please enlighten me that why do you wanna do this with ball instead of barbell?

How can you overload any musculature with a fucking ball?

In what real life situations/sports does this excercise transfer to?

Could you tell us how much stronger you, or anyone, has gotten with this?

And i guess that you got calves similar to parrots and 11" arms .

[swrakow]

@kikkelsson111 - I'd respond, but your attitude leads me to believe there's absolutely nothing I can write that would change your mind about the effectiveness of this movement.

[kikkelsson111]

@swrakow That is not true.I'll change my mind about it if you can tell me the reasons why?

So far i havent come up with a single reason from you, or anyone else for tahat matter, that why cleans should be performed with something else instead of barbell.

Barbell is known for making people stronger, medicine balls are not.

And sorry my immature attitude, was just pissed of for some reason.

[liquidgeorge]

I'm not going to get into the finer points of this debate because it will only exacerbate the entire argument, but as a Personal Trainer and Corrective Exercise Specialist with a Master's in Sport and Exercise Physiology I can only say that I use this exercise in exactly the same fashion with a plethora of clients, and the results are excellent. I think Kelley gave a wonderful demonstration and she looks great!

[mitchleblanc]

I'm not going to get involved in your argument, but I think I would like to comment that you aren't "arguing" your point very well. Why would someone who is familiar with strength training need to be familiar with Crossfit in order make their point? I think they're making valid points, your arguments aren't particularly convincing. This from an "uneducated" outsider...

[iwasbornspecial]

some guy named poliquin posted this link bashing it.......he seemed like a respectable coach, probably just very old school and closed minded. I crossfit and I understand what med ball cleans in high reps for times can do to your metabolic system. I also understand how heavy barbell cleans will affect your ATP/CTP system, and so on........both are good in there own ways, its the close minded attitude and ignorance that is bad.....

[ALEXD32324565]

"some guy" xD

[Austin333]

good to see someone else noticed that....some guy! fucking unbelievable.....

[qhams]

Charles Poliquin is the or one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the world.

That crossfit stuff is a fad that will fizzle out over time. It is a cookie cutter approach one size fits all. I have yet to see anyone get that good of results doing it. The people who move really big weight doing it had a previous lifting experience before hand and trained in a more conventional manner.

[TheJustin1978]

why can't you just use a barbell instead like it was intended for! very strange but amusing at the same time,If you get stronger with this ball are you going to buy another medicine ball then another then another!

[Darkwarrior702]

Glad I found this . I was a having a hell of a time getting the form down yesterday.Now I can prctice at home after watching this with better form 4stars!

[mortskie]

This is one of the dumbest things i've ever seen. What's wrong with doing a clean with a barbell like it was originally intended. I suppose the person who decided to use a massive mediball was doing "functional training" or some other nonsense he/she just read about in Men's Health magazine. Training for power? Don't think so, set was about 10 seconds too long anyway.

[swrakow]

a comment posted from someone who has obviously never performed high-rep med ball cleans. Unless you're familiar with CrossFit training, your comment carries no weight whatsoever.

[iwasbornspecial]

10 seconds too long for what..........they arnt single heavy cleans jackass....this is high intensity training for muscle endurance and aerobic threshold...do a crossfit wod and tell me whats 10 seconds too long.

[peakmatt]

where do you buy those balls?

[poopman1618]

lol. try it with a barbell you'd get a lot better results

[Gubernick7]

GOOD JOB KELLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jbergeron200]

You might want to take a look at the video "Dynamax Movement-Based Medicine Ball training" for more ideas on how to use that equipment. You can get a lot more out of the Dynamax ball than just typical weightlifting movements :)