Brush Up, Don’t Bang Out
Written by Sage Burgener
In our sport, there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the hips and what their exact role is in our lifts.
It is very common for people to be hip dominant lifters. They think that in order to create acceleration on the bar, they need to BANG the bar off their hips.
While there is absolutely contact of the barbell and the hips, we want to think about the contact being more of a BRUSH UP rather than a BANG OUT.
If our focus is on brushing the bar UP off the hips, that will help to create more of a VERTICAL acceleration on the bar rather than a horizontal one, which is generally the path the bar will travel when we think “bang”.
In addition to a more vertical bar path, thinking “brush” rather than “bang” naturally forces lifters to turn to their legs as their source of power. And when we’re using our legs as our source of power, we’re pushing STRAIGHT down through the floor with a ton of force. That straight down push creates an increase in elevation on the barbell, making the pull under and turnover SIGNIFICANTLY easier.
So, the next time you think about banging the bar aggressively off your hips…don’t.
Instead, pay respect to your legs, and the amount of work you’ve put into making them as strong as possible, and let THEM do the work! And, as a result, watch your elevation and acceleration of the barbell (in a vertical fashion) increase as brush the barbell up off your hips.
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