Anyone who knows me also knows that my greatest weakness is the sport of weightlifting is and always has been my jerk. People ask me all the time what my max clean is and I have no idea because I never fail cleans. I always fail the jerk first. For some reason the concept of stepping through and underneath a really heavy weight has been elusive. I miss more jerks than I care to count because I don’t step through the jerk or I kick my hips and back foot way behind me. It’s deathly apparent in competition videos from the past.
USAW/CF Competition 2011
Nationals 2011: 150kg CJ
I know this is a huge weakness and sadly I know the solution but the solutions are often not very fun and are extremely monotonous. However, the work I put in over the past 6 months was deathly apparent at Nationals last weekend as the clean was clearly the hardest part. One of the exercises that help me the most and the exercise that I could do often because it’s not heavy or over-loading my body is the “On Toe Split Jerk”
Basically I get on my toes, pause for a second with my eyes up and shoulders shrugged, then drop (with no dip) into a good split jerk position. At best you can work these at 40%-50%. Even that is extreme. If you struggle with the jerk the same way I do then give these a shot. Here’s a demo video for you.
On Toe Split Jerk Demo