The Continental Clean

The Continental Clean is a technique for pulling a bar from the ground to the shoulder while utilizing the belly or belt for assistance. The “Continental” is very different from the Olympic Clean.

The term “Clean” from the Olympic Lifts is used because the original lift was performed without allowing the barbell to touch the body at all. These days, brushing the bar against the body is permitted, but to use the belly or belt for assistance is expressly disallowed.

The “Continental” is most often used in Strongman Competitions with the Axle, and is generally used prior to Pressing, Push-Pressing, or Jerking the Axle Overhead to finish off the repetition. With the level of weights that are able to be lifted overhead on the axle, the Continental becomes a necessity, since the Grip limits how much one can lift in the initial phase of the movement, pulling the Axle to the Shoulder for the “Clean.”

How to Improve the Continental Clean

The Continental Clean is a highly technical lift, so here are 6 tips that you use use to improve your technique and make your Continental more efficient.

1. Wrist Wrap Awareness

Wrist Wraps are important on this event because when catching the Axle at the shoulder, there is a chance that the wrist can get bent back. Also, with wrist wraps on, your grip will be stabilized for the overhead portion of the lift. However, one mistake that people often make is they leave the thumb/finger loops on their thumb. The thumb is very important in getting a solid grip on the Axle, and having the loops still on the thumbs will cause interference in gripping the bar.

2. Drive with the Lower Body

Once you have the bar on your belly, you must propel it up to the shoulders using your legs and hips. The harder and faster you can pop the barbell or axle the better. You will save time on each repetition and you will conserve strength and energy for the duration of the set/event.

3. Make Faster Transitions

If you analyze the movement, there are at least 4 individual parts:

• Pull to Belly
• Stretch Reflex (Lowering the Body)
• Popping Bar off Belly (Propelling Upwards)
• Catch at Shoulder

The quicker you can move through each phase and transition, the better. For instance, once it hits your belly, your aim should be to pop it up with your lower body to the shoulder, which requires a quick drop of the body, a rapid ammortization phase, and then the thrust to pop the bar up. If you need a breath between the catch and the press that is fine, but try to limit it to one. Standing there holding the bar on the belly is far too much of an energy leak and waste of time.

4. Alternate Hands on the First Pull

It is fastest to pull the bar from the ground with the hands both overhand, but this will be limited by your grip strength. If you find you can’t pull the weight you need to with a double overhand grip, feel free to alternate them. This will enable you to pull faster and with more strength, plus it might even allow you to pull the bar up to the perfect spot on your belly. Either way, the higher you can pull like this the better, because it will help you save energy. Energy leaks are the worst thing in strongman. If you can reduce them, you can become that much more efficient. Once you get the bar to your belly or shoulder, then transition to double pronated.

5. Keep the Bar Close

It is more efficient to have the bar stay close to your body at all times than to let it drift away. Pull it outwards only as far as you need to in order to pass your belt, and keep the transition from belly to shoulder nice and close to the chest as well. If it loops outward away from the body, it will be harder to control and you will have to move your body too much to catch and re-direct it.

6. Isolate, Train and Strengthen Each Phase

After doing your primary work, (and even including the press) go back and work each phase of the lift with heavier weight to strengthen each phase. In other words, if you max out with 200 on the full lift to the shoulder, you can perform the following drills:

• Full Pull to Shoulder: With light weight, practice pulling straight to the shoulder from the floor (like an actual clean)
• Belly to Shoulder: With heavier weight, practice popping the bar from belly to shoulder. Don’t return it to the floor every time. Just let it roll down to the chest and re-grip it. It should feel really good on the chest bones.
• Floor to Belly: Do some sets with double overhand and alternating grips. Put on heavier weight and just get the bar to your belly as fast as you can then go right back to the floor.

These are just a few bullet points you can start working on to improve your Continental Clean. If you take a video to the weight room with you, I can pretty much guarantee you will improve even more, because you will be able to iron out your technical bumps that much more quickly.

Improving the Continental Clean – Videos

Here’s a quick video showing some cues I was able to catch in my own training for instant improvement.

Just a couple of weeks later, I was able to improve even further on my Continental Clean.

Get More Information on Improving Your Strongman Lifts

If you are interested in more information regarding the Strongman Overhead Lifts, be sure to sign up for email updates using the form below. Steve Slater and I will be shooting a new DVD that covers the Overhead Strongman Lifts in November, including the Log Press, the Axle Press, The Monster Dumbbell (One Arm Overhead Lift), the Viking Press, and more.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Axle Clean and Press for Max Weight

In any strongman competition there is going to be an overhead event of some kind. This event could be in the form of Maximum Log Press, Log Press for Reps, Max Axle, Axle for Reps, or it could involve the Viking Press, or the Circus Dumbbell, etc.

When most strongman contests involve 5 events with one of them being overhead, if you suck at overhead press, can you afford to give away 20% (one out of 5 events) of the points?

If you can afford to give that much of the score away to your competitors, then you’d better be heads and shoulders above the rest of them in all four other events in order to negate all of the points you’re handing over to them in the overhead.

If you have identified the overhead lift (regardless of the implement used or whether for reps or max weight) as an event that you must improve upon, there are a few ways you can go about improving your performance.

Which one you choose will depend on what your weakness is, and one of these points of attack may be something you have not thought of before.

Liability #1 – Weak Clean

If the event involves cleaning the implement to the shoulders before pressing, and you struggle with the clean, then you are going to be in trouble for the press.

When you have to labor in order to make the clean, then you will be burning energy reserves that you need for the press.

If you have to struggle in order to get the log or axle up, and it is a clean-every-rep event, then you will be in even more of a rough spot.

If you knowingly have a hard time with the clean, then you will need to dedicate time to it in your training sessions.

One way you can do this is to over-load the clean beyond the weight you can comfortably press or jerk overhead. I show you how to do this in the video below, from 2006.

Without a doubt if your difficulty is a technique flaw, then you need to fix that. Getting stronger in order to power through it will only get you so far. It is much better to hone your technique, make it efficient, and then improve your strength levels later on.

If technique is what you need work on, then you should check out our Strongman Training DVD, which is heavily technique based in order to help you solidify your foundation for strongman training. Remember, it all begins with technique.

Liability #2 – Weak Leg Drive

In most of the overhead events in strongman, you are allowed to use your legs to propel the log, axle, or viking press upwards. In some events you are even able to re-bend in order to catch the implement, similar to the Olympic Jerk.

What I suggest here is Front Squats. While many Strongman competitors include Back Squats in their routine on a regular basis, Font Squats should not be forgotten. After all, initiation of the press is done with the legs, and since the log or axle is being held at the front shoulder, the most specific movement to train is Front Squats.

In addition to doing regular Front Squats with an Olympic bar, there is also nothing wrong with including Front Squats using the Log, in order to get used to the shape of the Log, and increase the specificity of the lift (as shown below).

However, if your legs are weak and you can not drive through the log and propel it towards lockout, that will mean you will have to develop sick strong triceps in order to catch the log once its momentum ceases and then drive the arms straight to lockout.

The problem with this scenario is that after a few reps, if your legs are a weak point in the movement, then they will eventually burn out and you will not even be able to pop the implement high enough off your shoulders to involve the triceps. If that is the case, the only alternative is to try to employ a jerk-style re-bend in order to get your body further under the implement in order to catch it.

Unfortunately, while this may sound like an extraordinary plan, this technique requires more skill and to shift to this style mid-way through the event without having practiced it will probably not result in much of a benefit.

Liability #3 – Weak Triceps

As you can see, when there is a weakness somewhere in the overhead lift movement, the general objective is to build the strength and power on either side of the movement in order to fortify the previous link and next link in the overhead lifting chain.

Unfortunately, in the case of weak triceps, there is no next link in the chain to strengthen. Everything up to this point depends on your triceps and their ability to take over in the transitional phase of the “press,” continue to full lockout, and thus control the log in order to get into the finished position (feet together, head facing forward, etc).

With every other part of the overhead lift depending on your triceps to finish the job, its imperative for them to be rugged enough to get the job done, or else you will end up doing a lot of work for nothing in the form of monster cleans, big powerful attempts to push the log up with the lower body, an exhausted core from attempting stabilize the body with all of this movement going on as well as your oxygen and energy stores becoming depleted with possibly many more events to go.

Many strongman athletes realize that their tricep strength is holding them back and they begin adding extra tricep work into their training. Exercise choice in this regard is extremely important. For instance, if you start throwing in a few extra sets of tricep pushdowns or kick-backs, you are in trouble as these movements do very little to improve overhead press strength. Instead, standing overhead tricep work should be employed, such as rank lockouts, pressing against bands, and half reps.

In the video above, I show you how to add resistance bands to the log in order to strength your triceps for the lockout.

Liability #4 – Weak Shoulders

If your shoulders are your weak point in the press than you are going to be against the wall in an overhead event. This is a common scenario, especially for strongman competitors who venture into the sport after years of Powerlifting, where overhead work is not routinely done.

If your pressing power is weak due to a lack of shoulder strength, then you need to spend more time pressing, utilizing a variety of overhead lift methods.

First, you will need to build your vertical pressing using stricter movements in military press fashion. Building a foundation of strength in the vertical position will be a huge asset toward your performance in competition.

Next, you will also need to work on your speed, propelling the log upwards with the lower body in order to avoid a hang-up when the shoulders need to take over. By developing speed in the lower half you can blast the log or axle high enough where the triceps can come into play in conjunction with the shoulders and contributing to a stronger lockout.

Liability #5 – Let’s stop right there for now

I’ve already given you 4 big factors in overhead press success and how to improve upon them. Look at your training program and try to plant some of these movements in it to bring up your weaknesses in the overhead press.

Down the line, I will put up another installment in this series on how to improve overhead pressing power. And in this next one, I will show you some thing you have probably never thought of to improve your overhead lifts.

Be sure to sign up for the Strongman Training Newsletter to be sure you know when the next installment in this series comes out.

All the best in your training,

Jedd