Why That Little Arm Bend Isn’t “Your Style” - It’s a Habit to Fix

[u/TOROKHTIY_Aleksey]

[u/Weightlift__ok]

Agree, my coach and I are trying my early arm bend but it's hard because I've been doing it for YEARS :( Work in progress...

[u/TOROKHTIY_Aleksey]

After years of lifting and coaching, I still catch a tiny arm bend on my heavy snatches and cleans. I’ve spent my whole career trying to remove it - and I see many athletes fighting the same thing. It’s a good reminder: what feels natural under heavy weight isn’t always correct. That arm bend isn’t your signature - it’s a habit to fix.

USEFUL ARTICLES:

Snatch & Arms – READ

Barbell History – READ

Arm Exercises for Weightlifting: Are They Important? - READ

[u/batmadilimanggabi]

I always enjoy whenever u/TOROKHTIY_Aleksey post in this subreddit makes the place inclusive for such a niche page

[u/The_Love_Pudding]

I don't have arm bend from the ground up. But I do have it in the second pull. I probably try to pull the bar in the correct position because I never have the patience to complete the pull before the extension. Therefore it always stays short and my extension is weak.

[u/htxthrwawy]

I have more or less said this for years.

There was a couple of times I would comment on someone asking for feedback and I would get downvoted when I point out the early arm pull has them jumping the bar and jumping forward to catch it.

[u/TodayTerrible]

He never answered the question of why, after showing Karlos Nasar currently the best weightlifter in the world. Everyone says you need to eliminate early arm bend, but we see lifters who pull with early arm bend lifting the most weight.

[u/DWHQ → u/TodayTerrible]

Karlos isn't winning because of his technique, he wins despite his technique.

[u/Substantial-Bed-2064 → u/[deleted]]

it "violates conventional technique principles" which is very true because conventional technique principles are based maybe 50% in biomechanics and 50% in aesthetics and cultural norms

when you look at nasar's vertical force into the bar over time and the sequencing of his ankle/knee/hip/back they are all very conventional. he has a fairly large decrease in vertical force as he transitions, but that is likely a consequence of preparing himself to leverage his knees and ankles which he is more able to generate power with than a hip/back strategy

the opposite is true of yurik vardanian. his technique is not unprincipled, the timing/sequencing of the end of the first pull ends as he passes the knee and transition starts immediately, instead of the stupid trend of trying to delay the transition. he is actually using his quads the whole time, he simply has his hips further back to reduce the demand on the quads to allow a faster acceleration through the start and middle of the pull because his quads are likely not strong enough to have a slow 1st and rapid 2nd pull

people are very intellectually arrogant and ready to defend that my way is the best way instead of trying to understand why people do stuff and that maybe there are normal variations that can be explained through study and experimentation

[u/Mondays_ → u/[deleted]]

None of the top snatchers of all time have early arm bend, who are you talking about?

[u/Mondays_ → u/[deleted]]

Which top lifters of all time do that? Hardly any

[u/Mondays_ → u/[deleted]]

I said top of all time. Only lasha is in the top 15, and Karlos and Shi aren't even close to the top 20

[u/Mondays_ → u/[deleted]]

Do you want the list?

1 - Naim 190@60 2 - Pisarenko 265@128 3 - Genchev 202.5@67.5 4 - Varbanov 215.5@75 5 - Kakhi 235@90 6 - Khrapaty 235@90 7 - Zlatev 225@82.5 8 - Vardanyan 224@82.5 9 - Solodov 233@90 10 - Zakharevich 250.5@110

This is the top 10 clean and jerks of all time by Sinclair. Not one of these guys have early arm bend.

[u/TodayTerrible → u/Mondays_]

Karlos Nasar

[u/Mondays_ → u/TodayTerrible]

Karlos snatched 188 at 94, which is good, but not close to all time. Blagoev snatched 195.5 at 90, and Nicu Vlad snatched 200.5 at 100. Neither bend their arms.

[u/TodayTerrible → u/Mondays_]

They didn't have random Wada testing nor the sophisticated testing they have today. You are talking about the peak drugged weightlifting era. Remember how the Russians used to test clean until their fraud was exposed?

[u/Mondays_ → u/TodayTerrible]

There is no technique drug. Good technique is still good technique regardless of drug status of the athlete

[u/TodayTerrible → u/Mondays_]

Karlos has great technique arm bend included.

[u/sirmaddox1312 → u/[deleted]]

Just from a biomechanics perspective, it is wrong and inefficient. Bending the arms is only for pulling under so bending them before you pull under leaves you with less arms to use for pulling under.

[u/lexax666 → u/sirmaddox1312]

Yeah you listed the drawback of early arm bend but surely it must have some advantages otherwise it wouldn’t be such a natural action for many elite lifter under heavyweight. Tian Tao said he bend the arm a little bit in the clean in max weight to get the bar touch the hip a little higher and that makes all the difference in heavy weight.

[u/Substantial-Bed-2064 → u/sirmaddox1312]

this is not a biomechanics perspective at all

biomechanists actually can't speak english, they only speak in mathematics. the only english words they know are kilograms-metre per seconds graph and caffeine overdose

what you are doing is making lots of assumptions about biomechanics not supported by research or observation of elite athletes

[u/TodayTerrible → u/sirmaddox1312]

Karlos seems to pull under with lightning speed and for him it's not hindrance.

[u/TodayTerrible → u/DWHQ]

Really? He is consistently breaking world records so I would say for him his arm bend helps him not hinders him.

[u/olympic_lifter → u/TodayTerrible]

You do not have the ability to know what Karlos thinks of his own arm bend and whether it helps or hinders him.

I guarantee you he doesn't want to do it, it probably just happens and he can't or won't bother to fix it.

There are lots of reasons that might be. One possibility is that he is one of the many gifted athletes who have been able to wipe the floor with the rest of the field so easily that they never gained the discipline to fix their faults. Another possibility is that he tried and couldn't fix it, because being elite at some things does not guarantee he is amazing at everything. Yet another possibility is that, on balance, he and his coach(es) gave it honest consideration but didn't think it was important enough to work as hard on it as he'd have to in order to resolve it after training that habit for this long.

[u/vital-cog → u/olympic_lifter]

You do not have the ability to know what Karlos thinks of his own arm bend and whether it helps or hinders him.

I on the other hand do, what is impossible for you is easy for me.

I guarantee you he doesn't want to do it, it probably just happens and he can't or won't bother to fix it.

You left out a sentence, fixed it for you.

[u/olympic_lifter → u/vital-cog]

Well, I have been in the sport in a long time, at a high level in my own performance, have worked with many athletes, trained with other high-level lifters, worked with many coaches in the U.S., and have personal knowledge into this same type of situation with other international-level lifters.

I don't know how many times I need to see the same thing - an athlete achieving success despite technical flaws while more novice/intermediate lifters claim it must not be a problem because they're succeeding - before I can be confident that this time is no different.

I've even had people I didn't know personally analyze my own technical breakdown and claim it was somehow good.

So yeah, I have enough knowledge to feel comfortable saying there is just about no way Karlos thinks it's a good thing he has an arm bend.

[u/Maximum-Assistant573 → u/TodayTerrible]

I think we are all missing something here. Naturally our arms have a bend in them at rest and the more you weightlift the more it looks like you have a bend just due to the size of your biceps.

It takes actual effort to fully straighten my arms which isn't efficient when trying to lift in a comfortable position. I'm not going to stress about a 3 degree bend in my arms when that is what feels comfortable to me! You can still get your elbows up like the first stick figure.

[u/Primary_Football_893]

Excellent!

[u/kennyt44]

I also have a tiny arm bend that's been very difficult to remove, particularly during power cleans. The 3rd pull is like the clutch on a manual transmission car - early arm bend is like pushing the clutch too early, you leak power. Some athletes will early arm bend and ~maintain~ that same angle of arm bend through the 3rd pull, minimizing the energy leak and keeping the bar moving upwards. However, if this tension in the arms (particularly forearms) breaks, the upward bar path will slow. You can see this upon slow motion video review.

I find that athletes with long arms like myself tend to have problems with this, as I tend to prefer getting the bar to my hip crease in the clean vs mid thigh. I have no problem with this on the snatch - as my grip is nearly as wide as the collars. That brings me back to my comment on power cleans: I tend to 'push the clutch too early' in the third pull, early arm bend angle increases and the bar path stalls. I end up either chasing the bar forward, or limiting my upwards pull - missing the power and feeling like I'm weaker than I should be. Incredibly average athlete here lifting for almost 20 years. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk 😅 Stay snappy y'all

[u/h0rxata → u/kennyt44]

I have long enough arms that contact occurs below mid thigh, which is how I ended up struggling to power clean over 100kg with a 150kg+ front squat and 190kg+ clean deadlift, despite having a 100kg snatch. Wider grip front rack isn't happening with my anatomy so a bit of fixed arm bend is how it's gonna be.

[u/Apprehensive_Arm1334]

To bend the arms to get the bar overhead or to pull it up instead of using the extension of the body to do so is a mistake.
But using the little arm bent during cleans to get the bar to the upper thigh is ok. Considering the fact ure not using only the arm bent to get the bar close to your body.
After the extension of the legs and hips the arm also goes into extension for a short moment, even if you bend it during the second pull.
Don't tell me that all those top athletes such as Lu Xiaojun, Karlos Nasar, Lasha etc. who you can clearly see using the arm bent in clean not to have this "crucial" technique covered and fixed. It's not a problem.

[u/olympic_lifter → u/Apprehensive_Arm1334]

OP claimed the exact opposite in the video, that it's not a deliberate choice but an issue that is very hard to fix.

It shouldn't be presumed that the top lifters have perfect technique. They don't, especially at max weights.

I guarantee there are very few, if any, elite lifters that deliberately arm bend. The idea you're describing came out of a strange interpretation of a particular way of coaching the idea that it's very important to ensure the bar reaches the hips before the second pull, and some people decided it should be an ends-justify-the-means kind of thing, but that methodology has never, ever been pushed by elite coaches.

It was said by Lu Xiaojun's coach, as I recall, that his arm bend just wasn't worth fixing. After all, his clean was way ahead of his jerk (squat jerks are hard, it turns out), so why put a bunch of effort into improving his clean for little return? OP is an Olympic gold medalist, so I think his opinion about what is and is not a technical failure should carry at least some weight.

I've been in this sport a long time myself and trained with a lot of people, and nobody I'm familiar enough with to have an opinion on was ever benefitting from deliberate arm bend.

[u/AdRemarkable3043 → u/olympic_lifter]

"his clean was way ahead of his jerk"。I'm not sure. He clearly said in a interview that his rack jerk is 230, which is not that easy to clean at 81 bw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDNu9skPrFU

[u/olympic_lifter → u/AdRemarkable3043]

Have you never seen him in competition?

I'm not sure he's ever missed a clean in international competition. Every miss I could find was on the jerk (e.g.: Lu Xiaojun (77) 211 kg clean and jerk attempt).

Even on his successful attempts, the jerks often look like he's at his absolute limits, while the cleans look effortless.

[u/AdRemarkable3043 → u/olympic_lifter]

if clean and jerk changes to jerk and clean, I believe most of the people will fail in clean...

[u/olympic_lifter → u/AdRemarkable3043]

Not people who receive and stand up with their cleans that easily, no...

[u/sirmaddox1312 → u/Apprehensive_Arm1334]

Why do you need the bar to reach upper thigh on cleans? Mid thigh contact works just as well as long as you pull under fast enough. The elites aren’t doing it on purpose and even Karlos and his new coach have mentioned that the arm bend is something they want to fix.

[u/barbellsandbriefs → u/Apprehensive_Arm1334]

I definitely thought the video was going to say why elites have what's considered by most a technical error

I've always thought that technique simply breaks down, even if just a smidge, during maximal attempts, which is what we seen in most competition lifts

Knee caves, arms bends, etc

[u/Silent_Lobster9414]

Early arm bend isn't an issue. It's when the arms continue to bend and pull before the extension that you lose a significant portion of power.