Pulls in Chinese Weightlifting

Kirk wrote a post about how the Chinese use pulls and their variations in their weightlifting training.

Why do snatch pulls (or clean pulls)?

• Teaching the body, of the most accurate angles for exerting the maximal amount of power

• Accurately moving the load from the quads to the hips once the bar hits knee level. Important so to not tilt forward

• Strengthening the entire back structure especially because a lot of Asians have long torsos

They have a ratio of about 70-78% for snatch to snatch pulls and 72%-82% of clean to clean pulls ratio.

Advantages of block pulls (jerk boxes)

Block pulls put you in a far more advantageous position thus enabling you to snatch and clean more.
The reduced distance between the “pocket” and the bar start height forces you to explode more quickly and in weightlifting, it’s all about power.

When to do block pulls

• after your heavy floor pulling

• Against all research and science, the Chinese believe after a power movement, (snatch, CNJ), you should move directly to a strength specific movement like the squats or pulls. Now what happens is, your body has already turned the maximal amount of fibers from the snatches/CNJ’s, and by training the strength movement now, your bodies will be stronger and faster.

• Now right after the strength movements, you want to do some more speed movements just to “nail” it in place, that you must move fast.

• You can use block pulls to your death. 10-20 sets, whatever. It’s up to you. Just make sure you pull it high enough and drop

• Similar to the squats, the stronger you are, the less time you need to be spending on the floor pulls. You don’t need that much strength deposits.

• Repetitions should stick between 2-4 reps most of the time.