One of my most hated exercises is the push jerk. I literally would rather do 20 rep max backsquat before push jerks. I hate that I can’t do very much weight. I hate that it’s much harder to lock out the weight overhead. I hate that the push jerk has a much less room for error. I hate that the push requires so much more leg drive and power output to achieve the same result as a split jerk. I hate that my overhead mobility often is the biggest limiter. I hate the push jerk mainly because I suck at it.
However, all of those reason I listed are exactly the reason why I need to be doing them and why you should too. Once or twice a week adding push jerks into your training will develop all of those areas of the jerk so that your split jerk becomes better.
The push jerk is a great developer for:n
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- Overhead lockout
- Leg drive
- Stable midline in the dip and drive
- Use of the arms to push your body down into the lockout
- Overhead mobility and support when the shoulder is externally rotated
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nBottomline if you clean the house but miss the jerk everytime it is likely time to add some push jerks into your training. While these will do nothing for your footwork, the push jerk is a great developer for everything else. As much as you may hate it. The suck is worth the reward.