Quick Lifts Are Key for Crafting
a Stronger, Broader Back
by Bill Starr • Photography by Michael Neveux
ne of the things I’ve
always liked about
training the back
is that there are so
many useful exercises
to choose from. In addition, the
back responds very favorably
to explosive movements, which
is not the case for the shoulder
girdle or hips and legs. While
it’s true that push presses and
jerks can be done dynamically,
the other standard exercises
for the shoulder girdle, such as
flat- and incline-benches, need
to be performed in a controlled
fashion. That goes for exercises
that work the hips and legs as well.
Attempting to squat, lunge or leg-
Model: Justin Balik
press rapidly usually results in
dings or more serious injuries.
282 JULY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
The back, on the other hand, thrives on vigorous
movements, and you can do quite a few with very
little equipment and in a small area. I believe every
strength program should include at least one quick
lift. That’s not because you can use more weight on
those exercises—for in most cases you’ll handle less
weight than you can on deadlifts or bent-over rows—
but rather because the explosive movements activate
muscles and corresponding attachments differently.
The greatest benefit of doing a quick lift is that it
forces the nervous system to become more involved,
which produces faster gains.
The quick lifts I use include power cleans; power
snatches; snatch-, or wide-grip, high pulls; and clean
high pulls. I start my athletes on the power clean. It’s
the ideal pulling exercise to learn first. Once trainees
learn how to power-clean correctly, they can do all
the other exercises I’ve mentioned, plus a host of
others, much more easily. And as they’re honing their
form on the power clean, they’re building a solid
strength base that will help them move on to the
other quick lifts, especially the two variations of the
high pull.
The power clean is known as the “athlete’s exer-
cise” for a couple of reasons. Good athletes excel at
it, and performing it enhances athletic attributes
such as coordination, timing and quickness. I used
to tell the coaches of various sports at the University
of Hawaii and Johns Hopkins who their best athletes
were just by observing them at their first power clean
session. I was always right. When I taught the Big
Three to the newly drafted players of the Baltimore
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Dynamic exercises like power cleans can help build back size
and etch in detail. The greatest benefit of a quick lift is that it
forces the nervous system to become more involved.
Colts, I told the coaches and general
manager that I could list them from
best to worst in terms of athleticism.
They didn’t believe me until I wrote
down the names. I ranked the rook-
ies in the exact order in which they’d
been drafted, and I’d never seen the
draft report. I just put them through
a workout. My gauge was the power
clean.
Once athletes have perfected
their technique and are handling
heavier weights, the power clean
has a great carryover value to any
sport. It has been shown that after
swimmers become proficient in
the power clean, their move off the
starting block is faster. The same
happens with sprinters. Rowers
respond very favorably to this quick
lift. Not only does it improve overall
back strength, but it enhances tim-
ing and coordination, critical factors
for success in their sport, as well.
When done correctly, the power
clean works nearly every muscle in
your body from your feet to your
head. The better your form, the
284 JULY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
Model: Chris Cormier
more muscles you activate, so you
must spend time practicing tech-
nique. Don’t overcomplicate the
mechanics of the lift, however—a
common mistake. During the first
hectic days of an off-season pro-
gram the football coaches would
help me with the beginners. Unlike
most collegiate strength coaches, I
never had an assistant. Invariably,
my helpers would turn the simple
movement of power-cleaning a
weight into a highly complex ma-
neuver that left the players dazed
and confused. The coaches would
break the lift down into several seg-
ments: how to bring the bar from
the floor to your knees, then how
to bring it from your knees to your
waist and, finally, how to flip the
bar into the racked position at the
shoulders.
The athletes weren’t able to get
the feel of the movement because
there were too many factors to think
about. When I’d see that happen
with an athlete, after the coach
moved on to bewilder another
player, I’d have the athlete assume
the proper starting position and tell
him, “Now pull the bar up close to
your body in one fast motion and
rack it on your shoulders.” And he
would do just that without any hesi-
tation or difficulty.
As with any other high-skill
athletic movement, improvement
comes with diligent practice and at-
tention to the smallest form points.
The better your technique, the more
weight you’ll be able to handle,
which means greater strength gains.
Perfecting your form also lowers
your risk of injuries. During the
learning phase, stay with lighter
weights so you can concentrate
fully on doing each rep correctly.
Once you have the form down pat,
the numbers will take care of them-
selves.
Step up close to the bar so that
your shins are touching it. Your feet
should be shoulder-width apart
with toes pointed forward. To find
your ideal foot placement, shut your
eyes and set your feet as if you were
about to do a standing broad jump.
That’s your strongest thrusting posi-
tion. The grip will vary slightly due
to different shoulder widths, but for
most this guideline works. Extend
your thumbs until they barely touch
the smooth center of an Olympic
bar. Or grip the bar just outside your
legs. A bit of trial and error may be
necessary. If your grip is too nar-
row, you’ll have trouble racking the
bar properly, and if it’s too wide, the
rack will hurt your shoulders.
Flatten your back, lower your
hips, and look straight ahead—but
don’t lower your hips too much.
Higher is better because it gives
you a longer pulling lever, but only
if you’re able to hold that starting
position when you break the bar off
the floor.
Before you commence the pull,
make sure your front deltoids are
slightly in front of the bar and the
bar is against your shins. Instead
of thinking about pulling the bar
off the floor, push down through
the floor with your feet. That helps
you establish a solid base. The start
needs to be a controlled move. Don’t
attempt to jerk the bar upward. The
bar will always try to run forward,
so you have to guide it in the correct
line close to your legs. Remember, a
bar doesn’t have a brain. It only goes
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 weight. As that happens, bend your
knees to help absorb the shock of
the descending bar. That should be
a short dip and not an exaggerated
one. Since the purpose of doing the
power clean is to develop as many
muscles as possible, the longer the
pull, the better. The dip should not
resemble a half squat but, rather, a
short, coordinated move that’s just
enough to cushion the shock of the
bar striking your body.
When the bar is racked, your
upper body must remain erect or a
bit forward, or you’re inviting lower-
back problems. Some athletes are
unable to correct that form fault,
so I have them make adjustments
to the way they rack. I have them
take a short step to the side or back
with one foot or skip to the side with
both, which enables them to main-
tain a straight torso and eliminates
jamming the lumbars.

Model: Derik Farnsworth

After the bar is racked firmly on
your shoulders, stand up and get
ready to lower the weight to the
floor. The important thing to re-
member is that you need to do that
with a flat back, not a rounded one.
You can do high pulls with a narrow grip, but to improve That’s best accomplished by flipping
your quick-lift abilities in the snatch, you need a wider grip. the bar over and stopping it at your
waist, then deliberately lowering it
to the floor.
Reset and make sure your grip,
where you lead it. lift your shoulder girdle up to create feet and back are where they should
Once the bar passes your knees, a ledge of muscle on which to fix the be; tuck the bar in against your
it should start picking up speed.
Drive your hips forward in a fast,
powerful move, extend high on your
toes, and contract your traps. All the
while your arms are still straight.
Hips, calves, traps and then arms
is the sequence you want. If you
bend your arms before activating
your traps, you won’t be able to use
those very strong muscles nearly as
efficiently, and it will have a nega-
tive influence on the finish. As soon
as the traps elevate the bar, follow
through with your arms to give it
that final snap so you can rack it
more easily.
When the coordinated efforts of
your traps, arms and calves have
put a jolt in the bar, it will float
momentarily, and that’s when you
drive your elbows under it and rack
it across your front delts, not your
collarbones. Banging the bar against
your clavicles repeatedly is not After a swimmer becomes proficient in the power clean, his
only painful, but it can damage the move off the starting block is faster.
bones as well. As you rack the bar,

286 JULY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com

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shins; extend your deltoids out in
front of the bar; and do your next
rep. Do your breathing prior to
the initial pull and after the bar is
racked. Hold your breath during the
execution of the lift.
As you’re pulling the bar upward,
think of the movement in terms of a
whip cracking; relatively slow com-
ing off the floor, picking up speed
through the middle and turning
into a blur at the finish. Once you
learn to blend all three segments
into one smooth movement, the
bar will float upward almost effort-
lessly.
A further word on racking the
bar. Many who try power cleans
for the first time find that they’re
very tight in the shoulders and have
difficulty racking the weight. That’s
particularly true for those who’ve
been doing lots of bench presses
or extensive arm work. Also older
athletes who haven’t bothered to
keep their shoulders flexible. Those
who have this problem must spend
time stretching their shoulders and
elbows before doing power cleans.
The best way to accomplish that
is to put a bar in a power rack at
shoulder height and lock it in place.
Grip the bar at your shoulders, lift
one elbow as high as you can while
keeping your body straight, and
hold that position for a count of
eight to 10. Then do the other arm.
Quick lifts like the power clean improve overall back strength
and enhance timing and coordination, critical factors for
success in sports.
If you’re quite tight, repeat for sev-
eral sets.
For the next step you’ll need a
partner. Grip the bar with both
hands and fix it on your shoulders
just as you would when you rack
the power clean. Have your partner
slowly elevate your arms by pushing
up against your elbows. In order for
this to be effective, you must main-
tain an upright torso. If you lean
back, you’re defeating the purpose
of the exercise. When your elbows
are as high as you can stand, hold
them there for an eight to 10 count,
take a break, then do it again. Each
time you do this isometric hold,
you’ll find that your elbows are a
tad higher than on the previous
set. It’s also useful for anyone who
wants to do front squats but is hav-
ing trouble racking the bar properly.
Five sets of five reps works well
for power cleans. Start with a rela-
tively light weight and add to each
set just as long as your form is good.
Should your form break down, take
off some weight and correct your
mistake—or mistakes. Doing 155x5
in perfect form will yield more
benefits than banging around with
185x5 using sloppy technique.
I’m aware that many older ath-
letes, no matter how hard they
try, cannot achieve the flexibility
to rack the bar on their shoulders
without a great deal of pain. They
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If your shoulders hurt when you rack the bar on power cleans,
try power snatches. They aren’t a high-skill exercise like power
cleans, but they’re not stressful to the shoulders.
should forget the power clean and
try the power snatch. It, too, is a
high-skill exercise that requires all
the same athletic attributes as the
power clean, yet it’s not stressful to
the shoulders.
The main differences between
the two quick lifts are that you grip
the bar wider for the power snatch
than for the power clean and that
you have to pull the power snatch
much higher. All the other me-
chanics are the same, except for
the rack, of course. On the power
snatch, instead of fixing the bar
at your shoulders, you lock it out
overhead. The longer pulling mo-
tion requires closer attention to all
those form points I mentioned for
the power clean. The bar has to stay
even tighter to your body during the
power snatch; the sequence of hips,
traps and arms is more critical; and
body extension is absolutely es-
sential. Also, the analogy to a whip
cracking is extra important for the
power snatch because you’re seek-
ing greater height.
288 JULY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
Model: Greg Blount
Observant readers will have
noticed that I overlooked a signifi-
cant technical aspect of the power
clean—the elbows must be up and
out at the finish. I didn’t forget. I
just wanted to save it for the power
snatch discussion, since it’s so criti-
cal for success in the longer pulling
movement.
Although it’s possible to cut
your pull and still make a power
clean, that doesn’t work for the
power snatch. The bar has to move
smoothly, accelerating up your body
and over your head high enough
that you can dip under it and lock
out your arms. That requires a pow-
erful finish—based on a strong start
and middle—and can only be ac-
complished if you keep your elbows
up and out to your sides until the
bar is at your nipples.
Once your elbows turn back, you
no longer have any upward thrust.
At that point you’re totally depen-
dent on the momentum you’ve
created. So the longer you keep your
elbows up and out, the longer you’ll
be able to climb the bar upward
and be in a position at the finish to
put a jolt into it just before you dip
and lock it out overhead. You must
have sufficient floating time with
heavy weights. Otherwise, the bar
will stall too low to lock out cor-
rectly.
Another form point that’s criti-
cal to success when the weights get
heavy is body extension. At the very
top of the pull you must be high
on your toes with your traps con-
tracted, elbows bent while they’re
up and out. Should you not be fully
extended and leaning forward,
even a bit, you’re going to have dif-
ficulty finishing strongly and lock-
ing the weight out. Seeking height
and stretching out your body helps
you achieve that objective.
More about the lockout in a mo-
ment. First I want to go over where
to grip the bar for a power snatch.
It depends on: 1) how broad your
shoulders are and 2) how flexible
you are in your shoulder girdle. Dr.
John Gourgott, as a 198-pounder,
could power-snatch using a clean
grip. He was, of course, the excep-
tion. There are scores on most
Olympic bars located six inches
in from the collars on both sides.
I have athletes grip the bar so that
their ring fingers are around the
scores. That works well for the
majority of them. The factors de-
termining where to grip the bar
are whether you can pull the bar
correctly and smoothly through the
full range of motion and whether
it’s not stressful to your shoulders
when you lock it out. If it does hurt
your shoulders, change it slightly
until you find the grip that fits you.
Technically, a power snatch
should be locked out with straight
arms. No bending and pressing the
bar to lockout. Should you be plan-
ning on entering Olympic competi-
tion, you need to make sure you
lock the bar out completely on
every rep so that you don’t develop
the habit of pressing it out. If you’re
only including power snatches for
variety or perhaps to improve your
athletic skills, however, you don’t
have to completely lock out the bar
overhead. It’s okay to press it out
slightly at the finish. In fact, many
coaches encourage that, since
pressing out a weight with a wide
grip strengthens the deltoids in a
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On power clean, before you start the pull, make sure your front delts are slightly in front of the bar
and the bar is against your shins. Do not bang the bar against your clavicles at the top.
different and beneficial way.
After the bar is locked out and
you stand up under it, don’t merely
hold it passively. Rather, push up
against it forcefully, stretching your
body as high as you can, and hold
it there for a three-to-four-second
count. On your final rep hold it
even longer. Supporting a weight
overhead that way activates a host
of muscles in your back and shoul-
ders that aren’t usually worked,
including the rotator cuffs,
Flip the bar over and stop it at
your waist before returning it to the
floor, making sure your back stays
very straight all the way. Reset,
check that the bar is snug to your
shins, your feet are in the correct
position, your back is flat, your del-
toids are slightly out in front of the
bar, and then do the next rep.
During the learning stage, stay
with five sets of five, but once the
weights get demanding, switch
to this formula: two sets of five as
warmups, followed by three to five
sets of three, working to limit.
290 JULY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
In a matter of weeks you’ll feel
comfortable doing power cleans
and power snatches. Now you’re
ready to add high pulls. They’re less
complicated than the longer pulling
movements, so you’ll be able to use
good form rather quickly.
Straps are necessary. They help
you to pull longer and with more
intensity without having to worry
about maintaining a firm grip. All of
the technical points are the same for
the high pulls as they are for power
cleaning and snatching, except
for racking the weight. Plus, the
bar doesn’t travel as high once the
weights get heavy on the high pulls.
Nevertheless, the warmup sets
on both forms of high pulls often
climb up over your head. That’s
what you want because from that
very first rep you want to instill a
mental pattern of fully extending
that will carry over to the heavier
poundages. So never cut your pull,
even if the bar ends up high enough
to lock out. Higher is always better.
While the high pull is a combina-
Model: Justin Balik
tion of a deadlift and shrug, the tran-
sition from one to the other must
be continuous and fluid. Often with
heavy weights there’s a tendency to
hesitate in the middle, which results
in hitching the bar. That disrupts
the rhythm and keeps the bar from
going as high as it might.
Another form fault that occurs
frequently is that the hips come up
too fast. You must lock your back
and hips so they don’t lift up at a
faster rate than the bar. When that
happens, the bar runs forward and
out of a strong pulling position.
Rounding the back is a common
mistake on the high pull. It has an
adverse affect on the finish, so you
have to lock your back tightly. The
best way to do that is to pull your
shoulder blades together and keep
them that way throughout the exer-
cise.
So the keys to doing high pulls
correctly with either grip are main-
taining a flat back; elevating the bar
and hips at same time; using the
proper sequence of hips, traps and
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 As your poundages move up on the quick lifts, you’ll see your
overall mass start to increase as well. Your back and traps will
take on a much thicker appearance.
arms that you learned for power
cleans and snatches; keeping your
elbows up and out and extending
fully. Try to get a pop at the top on
every rep, and you’ll get greater
results.
Most lifters like to do a few power
cleans or snatches before moving
on to high pulls. That’s useful, since
the longer pulling movements en-
able you to practice the many form
points before loading up the bar. A
good workout plan would be to do
two or three sets of power cleans
or snatches with light-to-moderate
weights, followed by five to six sets
of threes on the high pulls.
I use triples rather than fives be-
cause you can handle more weight
with the lower reps, and you can
also concentrate on your technique
if you’re not as tired. Keep in mind
that the primary reason you’re
doing the high pulls is to overload
the pulling muscles and threes
serve that purpose better than fives.
Should you want to increase your
workload, just add extra sets.
How high should you go? Your
eventual goal is 100 pounds over
your best power clean on the clean
high pull and 75 pounds over your
top power snatch on the wide-grip
high pull. During the learning
stage, however, you need to stop
whenever your form breaks down.
For instance, if you’re dragging the
bar up your thighs with a rounded
back and are only able to give it a
nudge at the top, lower the weight.
Whether you decide to do
power cleans or power snatches at
the same session as high pulls or
at separate workouts or choose to
do just a couple of these exercises,
you’ll be pleasantly surprised to
discover how effective they are at
building greater size and strength
in your back.
Editor’s note: Bill Starr was a
strength and conditioning coach
at Johns Hopkins University from
1989 to 2000. He’s the author of
The Strongest Shall Survive and
Defying Gravity. IM
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