hangcleans?

[eaglesfan!]

do hang cleans help speed?

 

[Gazhole]

Running speed? No. At least not directly, though the hips are important in pretty much every sport and athletic event.

They'll help you be more explosive with hip drive, though. Deads, squats. Oh, and they make you better at hangcleans.

 

[N_I_C_K]

I'm pretty sure the help with explosion/explosiveness. Before you take it from me though, let someone else confirm this.

 

[johnnyringo74]

ive trained players on the collegiate and high school levels for over 10 years, and we have come to the belief that they DO have some carry over to speed performance. performed correctly and at a high rate of speed the carry over from this lift can be felt in most all sports. we've incorporated them for basketball players for years to improve speed off the floor...

 

[stepaukas]

been doing this great exercise for 40+ years.. its great for the hips traps grip forarms back. a pretty good overall exercise.. as a former runner it gave me no more speed in running.
you want speed in running, run intervals from the 40 on up..
as a current pro bicycle racer, this exercise helps the upper body, cause in an 80-110 mile race you not fatiguing, with excess body movement burining unwanted calories..
so my opinion, its a great exercise, but dosent help running speed..

 

[johnnyringo74]

well im certainly not going to dispute anything you have been doing for 40+ years, but the athletes we have trained have had some carry over from hang-cleans. different strokes for different folks. i also admire you have been lifting that long. thats awesome and admirable.

 

[cshea2]

Hang cleans are a great exercise, but I think you would be better off doing the full lift from the ground.

 

[johnnyringo74]

i agree........

 

[HATEFULone]

Personally I always did power cleans, from the floor. It really depends on your goals, if you are training the olympic lifts then break it down, deadlifts, hang cleans, high pulls, etc. Personally I feel that cleans do not increase your max speed, that is only done by increasing stride length and stride frequency. However training the clean will increase your hip explosiveness and drive, which when added to form work, will definitely aid one in decrease their 40 time, so directly increase max speed, no, improve times, yes. Some trainers do not advise cleans however, as they feel most athletes do not perform them the right way with no triple bend, too much risk for injury vs other equally beneficial lifts, i.e. squats, deads, as mentioned above. Joe Defranco has his guys do jumping hex bar deadlifts for sets of 2-3 reps in place of cleans. Thats my opinion, hope it helps.

 

[pwloiacano]

I personally do a combo hang clean and press to start out my shoulder workouts. I feel that it has really helped all of my pressing movements. It also hits the traps quite well. And believe it or not, if you do them correctly, your forearms will be a bit sore as well.

 

[gtbmed]

Hang cleans are a great exercise, but I think you would be better off doing the full lift from the ground.

Not necessarily - if you don't know how to correctly pull the bar from the ground to the hang position, you end up with poor leverages that make the lift a lot more difficult. This is a big reason why a lot of people are more comfortable and (sometimes) stronger from the hang position than from the floor - they don't know how to do the first pull.

To answer the OP - hang cleans help you get better at hang cleans. In general they help with rate of force development (power), but if you want to run faster, you need to go out and run fast.

Anyone who wants to get more athletic needs to do a few things - they need to develop general physical qualities like strength, rate of force development, flexibility, etc. and they need to develop specific skills that will help them in their sport. A sprinter's "fast" is a lot different than a football player's "fast" but they are based on the same physical qualities.

EDIT: The key is using loads that actually require you to drop fast. If you don't do that, IMO there won't be nearly as much carryover.

 

[cshea2]

Not necessarily - if you don't know how to correctly pull the bar from the ground to the hang position, you end up with poor leverages that make the lift a lot more difficult. This is a big reason why a lot of people are more comfortable and (sometimes) stronger from the hang position than from the floor - they don't know how to do the first pull.

I always assume if someone is going to do an exercise, that their going to do it the right way.

 

[gtbmed]

Yeah, but I'm just saying - that first pull is a lot more technical than it looks and most people don't know how to do it correctly even after watching videos.

Most training videos don't focus on the first pull, but the positioning involved is very important. If you don't start correctly, you're not going to have the leverages needed to finish the lift correctly.

It's a lot easier to just deadlift the weight to the top, drop into the hang position, and clean it. If you can master the form of the first pull, then I'm all for doing the full lifts. I don't do any clean variations anymore - when I want to do O lifts, I do the full cleans and full snatches.

 

[cshea2]

Yeah, but I'm just saying - that first pull is a lot more technical than it looks and most people don't know how to do it correctly even after watching videos.

Most training videos don't focus on the first pull, but the positioning involved is very important. If you don't start correctly, you're not going to have the leverages needed to finish the lift correctly.

It's a lot easier to just deadlift the weight to the top, drop into the hang position, and clean it. If you can master the form of the first pull, then I'm all for doing the full lifts. I don't do any clean variations anymore - when I want to do O lifts, I do the full cleans and full snatches.

That's true... I hate doing oly lifts in my gym because I can't drop the weight. It feels real awkward bringing the bar down. It's probably not a smart idea to be doing oly lifts in a gym like that.

 

[VolcomX311]

Off the block speed, yes, as there is a lot of hip extension involved in getting off the block, and taking strides when the leg goes behind you is a minor hip extension. Sprinting can be seen as a series of single legged leaps, which require a lot of hip extension & triple extension.

Not to mention the nature of the o-lift being high in velocity will inhibit the activation of the golgi tendon organs during high velocity movements, such as sprinting, which would have an effect on peak speed.

 

[gtbmed]

Off the block speed, yes, as there is a lot of hip extension involved in getting off the block, and taking strides when the leg goes behind you is a minor hip extension. Sprinting can be seen as a series of single legged leaps, which require a lot of hip extension & triple extension.

Not to mention the nature of the o-lift being high in velocity will inhibit the activation of the golgi tendon organs during high velocity movements, such as sprinting, which would have an effect on peak speed.

This is true, but I've also found that the catch portion of the lift can be good for athletic performance.

In a lot of sports you have to race your opponent to a position in space. The same thing occurs in the catch part of a clean or snatch.

Another thing - it teaches you how to drop quickly which is crucial to jumping high.

 

[Diesel618]

I think cleans of all variations helped bring my 40 time down significantly in high school. I always thought I was fast but when I started making my body more powerful and explosive, I got that much faster. I think power cleans are your best bet for speed, but like gtbmed said, make sure your form is right. Also, we had a machine in college called a power runner. You step in it and put plates on the back of each leg and put your shoulders on the pad so your facing the ground and you just basically kick each leg back one at a time like a running motion. My first 8 weeks incorporating these I dropped 2 full tenths off my 40.

I don't do any of this stuff anymore since I hung up the cleats, but I like to do clean and press on shoulder days from a hang position sometimes.