The Jerk | StoneAgeFuel Barbell Club | Olympic Weightlifting

The Jerk is the second part of the Clean and Jerk and can be the most difficult movement to learn. It is incredibly important to work on proper movement patterns before attempting heavy weight on the jerk. To perform the jerk do the following:

-Start with the bar in the front rack position across your shoulders with your elbows slightly in front of the bar. Highly mobile people can get away with elbows up higher, but for most the elbows slightly in front of the bar will be a great starting position

-When you initiate the drive on the jerk keep your weight on the whole foot. When we first learn this we will focus on keeping our weight in the rear of the foot to encourage good positions when it gets heavy. As you drive keep your chest up. If you drop your chest the bar will shoot our front and you will miss out front or chase the lift

-On the lowering phase of the drive keep it in a controlled pace on the way down and then speed it up on the way up all the while keeping your chest up

-Extend your hips as if you are jumping and then reach your front foot forward and rear foot back

-Push yourself under the bar and catch while pushing up and spreading the bar to keep it tight overhead.

-Make sure the back leg is bent on the catch and the front knee should be in line with the heel. If it’s in front of it or over the toe it will put undue stress on the knee

-As you recover bring your front foot in half a step and then bring your back foot in half a step. After this bring both feet to the center and wait 1-2sec to show control then bring it down

As always if you need additional help please stop by the club, shoot us an email at [email protected] or call 775-827-2533