Wwell, actually, the clean does not include a bicep curl.

You explosively jump the bar up with the hips/legs adding a trap shrug and pulling the elbows up high so that the bar moves upward without any bicep tension.  When the bar reaches it's apex - the very top - imagine a cartoon image of the bar just momentarily floating in the air; you then very quickly pull yourself underneath into a squat while swinging your elbows underneath and in front to catch the bar on top of your delts - just in front of your throat - elbows high in front.

There are different versions of the clean:

clean (or squat clean or full clean): start from the ground, explosive pull/jump upward, catch in a squat then stand

power clean:  start from the ground, explosive pull/jump , catch while standing or near full stance (slight dip allowed)

hang clean: start with the bar around the knees or lower thigh area, explode, catch in a squat, then stand

hang power clean: start bar around knees, explode, catch near full standing

if it starts near the knees: hang
if caught nearly standing: power

easiest to start with may be hang power clean but practice all types

most metabolic is the clean (start from ground, catch in squat, then stand)

more weight can be caught in the squat version because you don't have to launch the bar as high

Once you get the bar to the top, then you can do a shoulder press (no knee bend), push press (knee bend to get extra jump, allows for more weight), or jerk (knee bend to get extra jump, then dip again to get your body a little lower than the bar, allowing for max weight)

Most metabolic combination is clean & jerk; highly explosive and alows for the greatest weight moved, should improve just about all other lifts as well as vertical jump.  Also, this will get you ready to learn the more explosive snatch and it's similar combinations with  hang and power.

You can find videos of these on crossfit.com faq area.

Thanks. My description sucked. Trying to be too brief. Even when I went on-line and tried to find descriptions of the movement, they weren't very good. Yours is better.

Today was a so-so day. I wanted to incorporate cleans, so I moved up the lunges so that the bicep aspect of cleans wouldn't interfere with my pull-ups (I'm working towards doing muscle-ups). I didn't feel really energetic today, for some reason, so I chickened out of the cleans and did squats instead. I might be coming down with a cold, which isn't too great considering I'm going to Colorado today. My workout looked like this:

Back workout
Pull-ups: Sets of 9, 6, 5, 5  and 5
Pull-ups with closed grips: Sets of 4, 4, 5 and 5


Leg workout
4 sets of lunges with 22.5 lb dumbells. (I took it easy, cause I'm not used to this exercise yet)
Squats with 135 lbs: 5 Sets of 10 (nice call ChadmanX *1).


Shoulder workout:
Lateral raises with 22.5 lb dumbells: Sets of 10, 10, 10, 10 and 10
Frontal raises with 22.5 lb dumbelss: Sets of 10, 9, 8 and 8
Military Press, with 95 lbs: 4 Sets of 10

Thanks, BTay

So far everything has been hectic. Running from one place to another without time to look for a place to eat. I've been stopping at gas stations to eat stuff that has been giving me headaches, and haven't had time to buy aspirin... GRRRR!

Colorado really did a number on me. I realized that today after going to the gym and feeling immediate loss of stamina after my second round of pull-ups/squats/laterals

I did 5 sets of each and just went on the elliptical for the remainder of my workout. I was however glad to see I could do 10 pull-ups on my first round. Today's workout went like this

5 rounds of:
Pull-ups, sets of 10, 8, 6, 5 and 4
Squats with 135 lbs, sets of 10
Laterals with 22.5 lb dumbells, sets of 12.

Alas, it seems like I'm not fully recovered yet. I was sweating profusively for the small amount of exercise I had done. Hopefully, it won't take too long to fully recover

Thanks, BTay

As the day progresses, I'm starting to realize that with the exception of some minor shoulder issues, I'm feeling fine.

I hope in tomorrow's gym trip, I'll have more energy. If so, I'll call my problems over.

I'm even going to practice some vaults tonight. That's gotta be an indication of something.

BTW... I'm planning on furthering my transition to crossfit. It just seems more intense and less time consuming, which is what I really need (more time to do parkour)

I tried some lazies on the barrier I built tonight.

I have been overly anxious to get my PK into gear, to the extent that I have been reluctant to make the modifications deep down inside, I know have to be made.

Today I learned the hard way that a barrier that's too high is good for practicing vault on, not for learning. The barrier is in essence too high, about a foot over my waist. To make matters worse, I am following Ozzi's tutorial on Lazy vaults. I still think his method is the best, but the barrier is not suited for it without modifications.

In essence, learning the Lazy Vault consists of kicking your leading leg over the barrier, while sostaining your body weight on one arm until the trailing leg follows. Because for starters you'll probably have difficulty getting the trailing leg over, the tutorial calls for leaning the trailing leg and gradually moving it higher until you eventually make it over.

My barrier only has a low base you can lean the trailing foot on, so, you will eventually have to go all the way, so when I tried, the trailing leg didn't make it and swung below the border I was holding on do. In essence I fell back.

I am glad I have been working so hard on my shoulders, because my right shoulder landed on the 6'' high barrier foundation (as I fell I actually thought 'not the neck, please'), and the rest of my body on the floor. I contribute the fact that I didn't really hurt myself because by contracting the shoulder, I was able to absorb the impact. I feel no pain whatsoever, but there will probably be some bruising

I'm probably going to keep my current barrier for when I'm more skilled and build another one that's lower, has no gaps so it's more like a wall structure, and make it wider. I might even go for a full 8 foot width.

After the fall, I tried another couple of times, mostly out of frustration, realizing it's only monday, I've already gone a week without training, and will have to wait until saturday until I'm able to build the other barrier. Bleh!

I went to training on the paralettes I built, trying to transition into a handstand. That'll take a while, but it was to be expected. That was also cut short: time to unpack the suitcase

Exciting night for me!

Since my fall on the obstacle I built, I have been keeping away from it as I thought it needed some modifications to make it safer. So I spent some time working on my parallettes, trying to transition into a handstand.

Although I did make some progress, this was by no means the highlite of the evening. At one point, a light bulb turned on. I thought of placing one paralette in front of the other, rather than side by side. If it could sustain my weight, I might be able to learn to cat balance. It did, and I did. After about 4 or 5 tries, I began separating the parallettes further and further, and began to feel comfortable enough to begin lifting my center of gravity.

I'll practice this for a week, then I'll actually do some cat balance walking on a real rale!