Hang Cleans vs Power Cleans for sprinting

You use your entire body with the movement. Legs, core, arms, upper body. Develops overall quickness and explosiveness. You don't even need go heavy on them either for it to be beneficial. In fact, you shouldn't because you want to do quick movements with a weight you can handle.

Pedantic police here. You've got the terminology somewhat wrong, so do a lot of strength coaches. "Power" in the world of Olympic lifts means a high catch, thighs well above parallel. "Hang" means you start the lift from a hang. So you can do a hang power clean, that means you go from a hang to a high catch. You can do a power clean. That means you go from the floor to a high catch. You can also do a hang clean, that means you go from a hang to a low catch. And finally there's the clean, that means you lift from the floor and catch it low. Lots of high school coaches will tell you that a power clean is from the floor, and that's not true. I know I thought this for a while.

Anyway, lots of sprinters and athletes do hang power cleans as their primary clean variation for two main reasons:

1) Technique. Going from the floor is certainly a more challenging lift. It adds an entire extra pull to the process. You have to navigate the bar around your knees and maintain an upright poster, very hard things to do.

2) Power. When you start from the hang position, you have less room to accelerate the bar. This forces you to generate bar speed as fast as possible. If you pull from the floor, you may accelerate the bar slower over the course of the lift, especially with sub par technique.

Yeah that's a more detailed explanation. You can also do a military press or front squat once the bar is on your chest. I prefer to take the bar off the trestle, do a half squat without the bar touching the floor, start from just above the knees then explode to the pull. Then repeat.

Apologies, I was referring specifically to a power clean from the floor as opposed to a full clean from the floor. I should have clarified power hang clean vs full hang clean as well

As to point number one, I’ve always been surprised by this as an explanation (not that it’s untrue) as I’ve always found cleans from the floor, whether power or full to be technically simpler than cleans from the hang, though that may be because I’m a very slow athlete

Any recommendations for hang clean progression? Similar to other Olympic lifts? I’ve been focused on those (okay just the clean and jerk) for a while as my primary goal, but I haven’t done much by way of variations. Looking to get back into running though

I'm not a weightlifting coach by any stretch of the imagination and I focus largely on my running performance, but I do like to see my olympic lifts go up.

Besides actually doing the lifts, I've incorporated some simple accessories into my warmup. Things like muscle cleans, high pulls, and no-feet cleans.

Oh, also, not all hang positions are created equal. A hang below the knee is very different from shooting from the hips. Sometimes I do "3 position hang power cleans," so one set is 1xhang clean from below knees, 1xhang clean above knees, and 1xhang clean at the hips.

I like the variety! What percentages do you typically do your main workload at?

It depends. A month ago I had a bit more energy to dedicate to lifting while I was just getting into the swing of running workouts again. I did a lot of 8–10x3 hang power clean @ around 70–80% of my 1 rep max. Those would get tough towards the last few sets.

Now that I'm a bit more focused on running I like alternate two days of cleans.

- One is to work up to a "heavy but snappy" double or triple, and do a few sets there. So I may start with 95lbs and slap on 10lbs at a time until I'm around 160–170

- The other is to work up to a heavy single, doesn't have to be as snappy, but keeping "good" form. This ends up just shy of my 1RM because I stop myself when my form gets sloppy. Again, I work through the weights, I don't have a set protocol. An example might be 95 for 5. 115 for 5. 135 for 3. 155 for 3. 165 for 2. 175 for 1. 185 for 1.

I'll stop working up to a heavy single in a few weeks and stick to different variations that I can move faster.

Thanks for the detailed response! I do something pretty similar already on my C&J days, work up to a heavy single or attempt a PR, then do two ascending backoff sets. I typically keep it to singles, but will double the jerk sometimes. Best clean is 200, best C&J 190

I figured hang cleans would be better with doubles and triples for the volume, but will probably need to work some heavier singles

I stopped jerking a while ago because I just didn't have the energy to maintain it in my training. I did 185 for one, once. I can probably clean in the 200 ballpark. Backsquat 1rm might be ~230–240 for a good depth. Front squat maybe ~210–220.

So, we're about the same strength. I'm curious, how fast are you? I'm training for the 800 now. I just barely dipped under 12s in a 100m at a lowkey club meet a year ago to test my speed. Thinking/hoping I could shave a tenth or two off that 100m soon, and then get a 22 high/23 low 200 and 48 high/49 low 400.

I hit 270 for a back squat a couple months ago, but back squats fry me and could maybe do 250 now. Hit 225 for the front squat last week. Weigh about 180 (wayyyy over my running weight)

I’m out of shape running-wise, and even when I was I wasn’t in the same universe as far as speed goes haha. Never run under 13 seconds for 100, I’m a sloooow.

Is this your first foray into middle distances?

I've almost always run the 800. I'm just experimenting with myself and approaching it from more of the 4/8 side for once. In the past my training was almost always a little more 8/15 style.

Agreed on this. I also think it's just a more common lift. I often had hang cleans in my lifting program, but don't think I've ever been instructed to do a power clean.

^^^ Also I was in the NCAA in a program that had turned out a lot of 800 runners in the 1:44-1:47 range, and some 44/45 400 meter runners. They did a lot of hang cleans, with pretty big weight. Probably more cleans than squats, although squats were certainly done as well. In my lifting they had us doing more front squats than back squats, not sure why.

My guess on the front squats is that they're a bit more of an "athletic" lift. You have to be very upright and exhibit head to toe mobility and strength to do a decent one. Back squats aren't exactly easy, but it's a lot easier to lean forward and round your back to put up big numbers.

I also think front squats are a good way to self regulate. By their nature you can’t push as much weight in a front squat and that probably helps athletes from sinking too many of their resources into the lifts, leaving them more able to properly perform the event specific work (running/sprinting)

Have your lifting changed with the switch, or mostly your running work?

Less miles definitely means a bit more time for lifting. I was already doing cleans. But I learned to snatch and jerk relatively recently. I'm willing to spend a bit longer in the gym. I also dedicate more time to things like drills and strides.

The answer is that anything from the floor takes more technique, and bad technique leads more easily, and inevitably, to injury.

I do from the ground high-catch cleans at 2 plates, they are great.

Front squats are bs for sprinters, again the technique thing, squatting between the knees, etc. I do back squats at 3-4 plates.

I also do squats after the jerk, weight high as in the 2nd half of snatch. Excellent for balance. I do those with only 1-1.5 plates.

Also with only 1 plate, I do behind-the-neck power torso twists. I never recommend them, but they have worked for me.

Excellent are sit squats, to hit that back-side. I do them at 2 plates.

It’s all good. Go to the floor if you can, work on technique. Speed comes from high power over small time intervals (explosiveness); strength comes from more weight over longer time intervals. I mix up these two regimes because they are both important.

And always, weighted back extensions!

Flo’da man, how’s it going? I am in the mountains right now, doing 60m uphills, up a 40-degree slope. BRUTAL! Good to see you still around👍💪