Hip Position for Weightlifting
Written by Jared Enderton
Finding the proper hip position for weightlifting can been tricky until you get the proper mobility and feel lined up. Ever been told that your hips are rising too fast in the pull of your Snatch or Clean? Or that you need to keep your chest up more? Often times athletes START with their shoulders too far in front of the bar – which causes most of their bodyweight to be forward. So once the bar is lifted, both our bodyweight is pulled forward and the bar is in front of us. AKA too much weight is FORWARD – which causes our hips to rise faster than the shoulders.
Here’s how to fix it!
Correcting Your Hip Position for Weightlifting with Your Set-Up
Step 1 is to make sure you are starting with your shoulders as close to on top of the bar as possible. This is a huge step in ensuring that the balance of weight between your bodyweight and the barbell weight is more even off the ground, rather than shifted forward.
“Pushing off The Ground” to Correct Your Hip Position for Weightlifting
Step 2 can be such a game changer for those athletes who are already set in a good position from the start, but still have an issue with their hips rising too soon off the ground in a Snatch or a Clean. Instead of thinking of the initial lift off the ground like a pull, think of it like a push. If athletes deadlift form isn’t great, their hips tend to lead the way already on deadlifts. So to say, “Keep your chest up more when you’re pulling”, sometimes doesn’t click with athletes.
I think it can be very useful to think of the initial lift off the ground as a PUSH. Why? The back angle should be staying almost the exact same all the way until about low thigh. Just like in a back squat or front squat, we don’t want the back angle changing. Why do front squats and back squats have so much carryover to the olympic lifts? The back angle shouldn’t change in either one when done correctly! So thinking of it like a push may be the cue you need to help keep your chest up more instead of your hips rising too fast right away. Thinking of pushing the ground away from you may be a totally different feel than you’ve had before. If your hips are rising too soon, eliminate the word “pull” from your thoughts and only think of PUSHING (like a squat) off the ground!
The Most Common Mistake Athletes Make with Their Hip PositionÂ
After coaching weightlifting for over a decade, I would say that most athletes tend to be too far forward (shoulders too far in front of the bar) rather than too far backwards in the start. I would recommend filming your lifts from a side angle to see where your shoulders are in relation to the barbell. Changing this one little thing can change the entire feel of the lift (in a good way) – because the combined center of mass between you and the barbell will be more shifted in your favor from the start!
