Set it and forget it - do these 3 things every time you lift!
Weightlifting technique can be complex and there can be a lot to work on or improve as you learn the basics. To make the process as simple as possible there are a few things you can take as certain, that shouldn’t change during a lift. By making these 3 things a constant effort, we hopefully then never have to think about them, allowing us to focus on finer points and more precise details.
Back position
If you’ve been coached before you may have heard the term ‘neutral’ in reference to your spine. What this means in practice is that your lower back (lumbar spine) is in slight but natural extension, your mid and upper back are fairly straight and your neck and head aren’t excessively pulled down or up - more just facing forwards.* I actually think we should be trying to extend our upper back (thoracic) which is not it’s natural state and requires some muscular effort. I don’t think I’m alone with this.
This shouldn’t really change throughout the whole lift even though the orientation of the body does. Any motion through the spine is wasted energy.
Bracing
Keeping the muscles of the torso rigid is known as ‘bracing’. Not the abs alone although they are important. We can achieve this by imagining we are about to get punch in the stomach - that tight reflexive stiffening of your whole trunk is bracing.
It’s important to note that for both male and female lifters the pelvic floor is an important contributor to the abdominal brace. If you think about drawing up from that area it can add stability to aid the spine but also protect against mishaps like incontinence or worse.
Bracing goes hand in hand with a good back position. Both should be pretty much constant the whole time you lift in the snatch, clean and jerk.
Tension
We know that some tension is good and some is bad. For example, tense arms slow a turn-over in the clean and snatch but tensed abs help a strong jerk.
One area I find I have to coach the most change is the muscles of the mid and upper back.
The lats (latissimus dorsi) span almost the entire length and breadth of your back, from the hip all the way up into your arm pits. As such they can really contribute to; keeping the back tight and in slight extension, keeping the bar close by not allow the upper arm to move away from the body during the pull, and even to help stabilise the torso in the dip and drive.
Other muscles near and/or attaching to the shoulder blades (eg mid and lower regions of the traps, rhomboids and the thoracic extensors of the spine) all play a part in keeping this area stiff to effectively transmit the force produced by the powerful legs and hips. If relaxed much of it will be wasted.
A muscle can only contract and relax. However, there are different contraction types; concentric (shortening), isometric (static), and eccentric (producing force while lengthening). In a relaxed state a muscle will go where gravity and momentum dictates. The others we have some degree of control over.
When you set up for a lift we want to get as much of the back as we can into a strong isometric contraction so that the shape we create can be held throughout the rep. Once it’s tight it’s much easier to just keep it all ‘on’ that to try and use it half way up the pull where time is against us. Contracting the lats after the hip contact is too late - the bar has already swung away…
The contradiction:
People too often cannot disassociate between tensing one muscle instead of another. Practice and training can hugely improve this - what became known as the mind-muscle connection in some circles. We need fairly relaxed arms to lift well so sometimes people relax everything. I’ve found a little body building type training helps a lifter to feel a muscles true location and the sensation of it contracting under fatigue is more obvious. If you don’t already I highly recommend performing a wider variety of rows, reverse flies or band pull-a-parts, exercises like I’s, Y’s and T’s and my personal favourite ‘bent over straight arm snatch grip row to hip’.
Get these 3 basics down in your early lifting career and you shouldn’t ever have the problem of having to think about them again!