How to Jerk

The Correct grip for the Jerk, Push Press, and Strict Press

When setting up in the front rack overhead movements like jerks, push presses and strict presses, we do this in the same way as in the clean. However, two considerations differ:

1. The hierarchy from full palms on the bar to losing fingers is far stronger in jerks - the majority of people will want as much of their hand on the bar as possible to make the transition from the bar being on the shoulders to being locked out overhead as smooth as possible. Doing the jerk from the fingertips is still possible, much like holding a front squat, however, people will have more success and an easier time with the mobility due to the:

2. The elbows can sit lower than in the clean, just high enough to have the bar resting against the neck and resting primarily on the body rather than on the arms and hands.

The Strict Press (What the upper body does in the jerk)

The strict press is important in understanding what the upper body does when first learning the jerk, and most importantly where the bar ends up in the locked-out position above the head.

Training the strict press itself isn’t directly specific to the jerk, in the training programme it should typically be seen as a general hypetrophy or strength exercise. The reason for this is that the initial motion of the strict press - pressing it from the shoulders - doesn’t exist in the push press, power jerk, squat jerk or split jerk, due to the legs explosively sending the bar past this point. This motion is the biggest limiting factor in the weight that can be used in the strict press.

The Overhead Position

The bar should be held overhead with 3 main principles in play:

1. The bar should be stacked in a balanced position over the body, ideally, if you were to view the lifter and bar from a direct side view, you could draw a line from the middle of the bar down through the middle of their foot from standing To achieve this, we should aim to have the bar sitting just behind the ears, or you could say right behind the base of the skull.

2. This position should be active (apply vertical force) and locked out, meaning you are actively pushing through the main joints of your arms, and shoulders in a strong flexion, elbows into full extension, and actively pushing through the wrists and hands.

3. The head can drop forward a little, but the eyes should remain staring at a focal point straight ahead.

These 3 steps should occur in the receiving positions of strict presses, push presses, and jerk variations

A new lifter should practice pressing into this position with the bar resting in front of the neck. They should set their fundamental posture (ribs and hips together + chest open) stand straight through their lower body, make a ‘double chin’ position with their head and press the bar as close as possible to the face into the above position for 3-5 reps, emphasising steps 1., 2 and 3.

An important note with the strict press is the action of pressing the bar off the shoulders with the arms should be avoided in push presses and jerks, this is because the initial action of the bar being thrown from the shoulders should be done by the legs alone. Attempting to combine the full strict press with the action of the legs will result in an error in timing, resulting in the legs not being used to their full potential and often projecting the bar away with the arms.

The Push Press

Push presses are a great exercise for practicing the most important components of the jerk (without the added complexity of receiving the bar in a squat or split) and developing explosiveness in the dip/drive while also developing lockout strength in the shoulders and triceps.

The feet should start in a jumping stance, similar to that in the snatch, where we take a stance to start about half a foot width from a typical squatting stance.

The Dip and Drive [the Extension (how the lower body throws the bar in the jerk)]

To produce a maximally powerful vertical force with the body requires a rapid contraction of the muscles that control the joints of the lower limbs, this is known as a “triple extension” of the hips, knees, and ankles (dorsiflexion). The movement this is most like in natural terms outside of the sport is a vertical jump - a vertical jump with the bar in the hands.

Because push presses and jerks start from straight legs the lifter must do a lowering phase (dip) before this extension (drive). This dip and drive should stay balanced through midfoot, the dip should be less than a quarter squat and the torso should stay vertical, the dip should be short and fast and the proceeding drive or extension of the legs should be as explosive as possible.

So, to perform a push press the lifter should set their fundamental posture (ribs and hips together + chest open) stand straight through their lower body, open their hands and relax their arms. Then, perform a short and fast dip of the knees and hips followed by an explosive vertical extension of the lower body, after the legs have fully extended, they stay extended and arms lock the bar out behind the ears.

To simplify:

Setup (posture locked in + hands/arms relaxed) + Dip + Drive (Jump) → Lockout behind the ears.

When practicing the push presses before learning the jerk, a new lifter could perform sets of 3-5reps.

The Power/Squat Jerk

Now the lifter must understand how to transition from throwing (or pulling or jumping the bar) into receiving the bar in a receiving position (the quarter/half/full squat).

The power and squat jerks are viable methods of performing the jerk, both in training and competition. However, lifters rarely find this more reliable than a well-performed split jerk. The majority of lifters will perform power/squat jerks as a variation in training, to target the same technique cues relevant to all forms of a jerk - the dip and drive, the timing between lower and upper body, and the lockout but without having to worry about the footwork of the split jerk. It can be tempting to ‘switch’ to the power jerk as the main lift in the first couple of years of training, often when the split jerk is going poorly, part of this temptation is the power jerk feeling strong and reliable - but usually, this is at lighter weights only and doesn't quite translate into maximum attempts suitable for competition. The lifter should persevere with improving their split jerk in most cases.

A good way to learn or teach this is to stand in your fundamental squat position, then from here shift the foot stance narrower by half a foot width (maintain the same toe angle). This is now the pulling or jumping stance, and the lifter's job after the extension is to shift the feet down and out into their normal squatting stance.

To perform a Power/Squat Jerk, the lifter performs the same steps as the push press but now combines the lockout portion with the squatting position, effectively receiving a narrower-grip version of the overhead squat. When learning how to do this, it is often useful to aim for a lower squat than you think you need to (e.g. half squat) and to pause in this receiving position before standing up.

To simplify

Setup (posture + relax arms) - > Jump - > Drop + Lockout

The Split Position

The split position in the split jerk should occupy the same concept as dropping into a squat for the other lifts. A good method (not set in stone) way of figuring out which leg to have in front is to choose your dominant leg as the front leg, a way to explain this is the one that if you had to best kick a ball. The features of a well-performed split are as follows:

The front shin should be vertical or pointing slightly back towards the body.

The back knee should be slightly bent and the back foot should have its pressure on the ball + toes and the heel should be slightly off the floor.

Both feet should be pointing straight ahead or slightly inwards and the weight distribution should be about 50/50.

In this position it is easy to compromise fundamental posture, the back leg can drag the pelvis with it, so it's important to keep the pelvis tucked into a level position with the abs remaining tensed (also having the back leg not too far back and having the balance correct will help).

Torso should remain as vertical as possible after the dip and drive while remaining balanced.

It's important when splitting to move the feet quickly and low to the floor, there's no need to ‘pick the feet up after the drive.

The Split Jerk

Now all that remains is to combine the splitting position with the dip and drive and lockout.

Setup (posture + arms relaxed) - > Jump - > Split + Lockout behind ears.