Rack Position for Cleans, Jerks, and Push Presses

150-lb Liao Hui clean-and-jerking 435 pounds

We spent a lot of time (some might say too much time) in group classes today hammering home the point about proper rack positioning for the clean, jerk, and push press.  They're all racked in a remarkably similar way, with the only real difference being that in the clean the elbows are pointing forward and just the fingertips are in contact with the bar, and in the jerk and push press, the elbows are pointing down more than forward, and the bar more toward the base of the palm rather than the fingertips.

In both cases, the bar is racked on the shoulders, the elbows are angled straight ahead (elbows are not angled inward), and the hands are well outside of the shoulders (not even close, really).

Liao Hui, the lifter in the video above, demonstrates the rack position for the clean and the jerk perfectly.

Skip ahead to the 25-second mark in the video if you don't want to hear the preamble from the CNN news reporter.  And then simply replay the video, making a mental note of the relationship between shoulders, elbows, hands, wrists, and barbell.