Clean and press?

[finner]

I have just started doing ME and am confused about the clean and press.

I'm not sure what muscle group I should be feeling with this exercise?
I have watched the pointers on the DVD, yet don't feel it for more than a few minutes--and only in my shoulders. You say in ME that it is a back exercise. What can I do to focus on the correct muscle group? My barbell is set at a challenging (for me!) weight of 25lbs.

Thanks.
-Cathy

 

[Connie1]

Cathe may answer you with a more detailed and specific answer, but I will tell you the benefit I get from this exercise. When doing lower body work, like squats or plie squats, many of us are so much stronger in the legs than anywhere else, we are limited only by how much weight we can safely hoist overhead-- and back down.

This exercise trains us to hoist a heavy bar up overhead and back down again. It also trains us to judge how it feels before we become too fatigued to safely bring it back down, in other words, to time which rep is the "failure" rep, when it's time to get that bar up and back down safely to the floor.

That is what I use this exercise for, and I avoid doing it much because I don't believe the behind-the-head position has any magical benefits to the shoulder joint. In fact, it's awkward so I just use it sparingly. Hope this helps answer your question.

 

[eminenz2]

Connie -

I was confused by your last paragraph -

"I don't believe the behind-the-head position has any magical benefits to the shoulder joint. In fact, it's awkward so I just use it sparingly"

In the clean and press, Cathe asks us in the video to not bring the barbell behind our heads while it's over our heads. It should always be in front of us, in our peripheral vision. Apparently it's quite dangerous to let the bar fall backwards behind our heads.

If I misunderstood what you said and spoke out of turn, please forgive me.

Susan G.

 

[Connie1]

Susan G,
I was thinking about when we bring the bar *down* to the behind-the-head position, where we sometimes hold it for lower body work. Rested on the back below the cervical vertebrae.

Some people do these as regular shoulder work. Overhead presses, coming down behind the head instead of under the chin. I avoid this version.

Now that I think about it, does Cathe use the behind-the-head position at all in this? I have forgotten! Been away for a week!