By Dr. Greg Shepard
Disgraceful Ken Mannie, Michigan State Strength Coach, claims Power Cleans, Snatches, Push Jerks and Olympic Lift Movements are dangerous and unnecessary. BY DR. GREG SHEPARD I am not going to get involved in name calling. I will attempt to accuthis article. Mannie states, “The (Power tled “Ballistic Weight Training: our BFS Clinic Coaches.
Jerk, Push Jerks and Speed Squats. some towards this article. of doing (Power Cleans). “(Power Clean) proponents conthat because high school kids, according to a 1979 “scientific article”, hurt their lower backs on the now defunct Leaper Machine, that Power Cleans, Snatches, and Olympic Lifts are dan- | gerous and carry a inconclusive. weight room. from India had lumbar lordosis. weight lifters was never defined. structure.” clusions: and ‘explosive’ type training should be worked on in the proper setting - performed at the appropriate taskspecific speed with the proper form.” (It is Shepard’s understand- REFERENCE #1 Two M.D.’s from India and one cle”
proves that if you do Power Cleans correctly that this carries a high risk of danger. subjects were 25 “weight lifters” do Power Cleans.) Mannie believes, “That even with The high school athlete on the right has his back in good position and won’t get hurt, but if he does it with a bad position (shown on left) he probably will get hurt on the Leaper.
ANY EXERCISE DONE WRONG IS RISKY! research, about 2 pages out of 18 year-olds occurred in the home.” avoided by prepubertal athletes. over primates in lifting weights. vision. agree more. than an ape. loading sports, which tend to compress the spine include weightlifting, bowling, horseback riding, motor biking and jogging on a hard surface. Rotation activities which twist the spine are squash, tennis, baseball and golf. Back arching causes problems with sports like skiing, volleyball, badminton, rowing, female athletes have more lower back problems than men. Kotani of the kids were hospitalized. is POWER CLEAN RESEARCH MY COMMENTS: You, the reader, it is time to maximize the effort.
laminectomy.
Power Cleans are dangerous. that the M.D.’s can’t spell Power Clean but the salient point here is the coach. You don’t do Power Cleans tired, let alone go for a maxiextending down the left leg.” The previous day this boy did a Bench quite modest 160 pound Power Clean was done with technique problems. Was the Power Clean the problem or was it the coach?
REFERENCE #7 Ten subjects from Oregon State none had a medical history of low back pain. The average age was 24. It was found that stress was highest at the earliest part of the lift. The author, Susan Hall, admits that interpretation was complicated.
MY COMMENTS: Is this kind of like an oxymoron? If the Clean is so dangerous, how could you find ten 24-year olds with Clean and Jerk experience with no back problems in REFERENCE #6 Couldn’t find. a small place like Corvallis, Oregon? The study? Nothing new. Most In the April 1995 issue of Scholastic Coach, an article was written by Ken Mannie entitled “Ballistic Weight g Training Dangerous and Unnecessary”. I was asked by Coach Kreis to look into Mr. Mannie’s story and his references to check on the validity of his statements. The first thing I noticed was that Mr. Mannie only listed the year of publication for his sources even though they are issued monthly.
Therefore, I could not go directly to the sources. Using a database to look up his references, | found that Mr. Mannie listed the wrong year for one of his sources (#8 Hoshina), he misspelled the last name of one of the authors (#5 Browne, T.D.), and he used the wrong initial for another author (#13 Kulund, D.N.). One article did not show up at all on the database (#6 Duda, M.), so I went through all the issues for that journal (Phys. & Sp. Med.) for the entire year. I never found the article. Also, in his article Mr. Mannie cites work done by Dr. Kevin Speer from the Duke Medical Center but never references any work done by Dr. Speer. In his article Mr.
Mannie states “I believe that even with the proper supervision and proper technique, ballistic training carries the highest risk of injury in the weight room. A large body of evidence supports my claim”. He then cites 14 of his 21 sources. Of these 14 sources several of them talk about injuries from weightlifting but never distinguish olympic weightlifting (Aggrawal, Risser, Risser, Watkins), and one does not even talk about weightlifting (Hoshina). Those articles that do talk about olympic weightlifting, as well as those that do not make a separation, conclude in contradiction to Mr. Mannie’s statement that most weightlifting injuries are prevented by following safe procedures.
One study in particular referenced by Mr. Mannie (#4 Brady, T.), compared various forms of lifting and found many back injuries associated with the leaper machine from Strength/Fitness Systems. At the end of this article, Fred L. Allman Jr., MD., who was not involved in the study, wrote a commentary equating the leaper to olympic lifting. This particular study had nothing to do with olympic lifting and Dr. Allman should know that findings from a research project can not be generalized in this manner.
The American Journal of Sports Medicine should also know generalizations like this can not be made from the results found in the study and should not have permitted the commentary to be printed on the end of that article.
Coaches reading Ken Mannie’s article may think it has to be valid and accurate with all those references backing it up. However, I found Mr. Mannie to be careless and sloppy in his referencing as well as inaccurate in his claims.
Dwight Robinson, SSC University of Colorado overseen by D.J. “Doc” Kreis: Head Strength Coach-University of Colorado POWER CLEAN RESEARCH 3 the lower back is greater at the beginning of the lift than at the end.
So what?
The Hoshina study in Japan again. He x-rayed the spines of 677 lems than football or track athletes. dead with the bar across his throat after Bench Pressing on his machine. the kind were never mentioned.
Somehow, you must figure out how Hoshina’s study relates to Power Cleans being dangerous. ple who have died doing them. There have been heads, and even ripped scalps. letes.” themselves don’t cause injuries. Incorrect technique nique shown was frightful. Two possibilities exist: the seven drawings shown top right).
BFS clinic. in, chest spread and more.
POWER CLEAN RESEARCH we’ve talked about previously in port Mannie’s side. involved 71 experienced high school power lifters. Twenty-eight athletes follow safe procedures.
39.4 percent. The injured athletes lost an average of 11.5 days per 1. Aggrawal, N.D.: Kaur, R.: Kumar, S.; Mathur, D.: “A Study of Changes in Weight Lifters and Other Athletes,”
2. Alexander, M.J.L.: Biomechanical Aspects of Lumbar Spine Injuries in Athletes: A Review, “Canadian Journal of Applied Sports Sciences, 1985 3. American Academy of Pediatrics:
“Weight Training and Weight-Lifting: Information for the Pediatrician, “The physician and Sportsmedicine, 1983 4. Brady, T.; Cahill, B.R.; Bodnar, L.M.: “Weight Training Related Injuries in the High School Athlete,”
American Journal of Sportsmedicine, 1982 5. Brown, T.; Yost, R.; McCarron, R.F.: “Lumbar Ring Apophyseal Fracture in an Adolescent certification from two of these sources; Weightlifter," The American Journal of Sportsmedicine, 1990 6. Duda, M.: 7. Hall, S.:
8.
“Elite Lifters at Risk of Spondylolysi:
Effect of Attempted Lifting Speed on Forces and Torque Exerted on the Lumbar Spine, “Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 1985 in Athletes,” The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 1979 9. Jackson, D.W.: “Low Back Pain in Young Athletes: Evaluation of Stress Reaction and Discogenic Problems,” American Journal of Sportsmedicine, 1979 10. Jackson, D.W.: Wiltse, L.L.: “Low Back Pain in Young Athletes, “Physician and 1. BFS: This journal provides a wide variety of help through books, videos and clinics.
Coaches Association (NSCA) has much information and Sportsmedicine, 1974 11. Jesse, J.P.: “Olympic Lifting Movements Endanger Adolescents, “The Physician and provides a written multiple choice test for certification:
Sportsmedicine, 1977 12. Kotani, P.T.; Ichikawa, N.; Wakabayaski, W.; Yoshii, T., Koshimuni, M.: Studies of Spondylolysis Found Among Weightlifters,” British Journal of Sportsmedicine, 1971 13. Kulund, K.N.; Dewey, J.B.; Brubaker, C.E.; Roberts, J.: “Olympic Weightlifting Injuries, “Strength Training and Athletic Performance, “High Intensity Training Colorado Springs, CO 80905 [-719-632-NSCA 15. Leistner, K.; “Strength Training Injuries (Parts | and 2).” High Intensity Training Newsletter, Spring/Summer, 1989 16. Lesmes, G.R.; Benham, D.W.; Costill, D.L.; Fink, W.
Slow Twitch Muscle Fibers During Maximal I:
3. International Sports ‘Glycogen Utilization in Fast and netic Bxercis Annals of Sports Medicine, 1983 17. Palmieri, G.A.: “Weight Training and Repetition Speed.” Journal of Applied Sports, 1987 18. Risser, W.: Weight Training Injuries in Children and Adolescents,” American Family Sciences Association (ISSA) has a wealth of great information. Their certification is based on practical application tests. Dr. Shepard highly recommends ser, J.; Prestion, D.: “Weight Training Injuries in Adolescents,” in Journal of Diseases of Children, 1990 20. Watkins, R.G.; Dillin, W.H.: “Lumber Spine Injury in the Athlete,” Clinics in Sports Medicine, 1990 21.
Westcott, W.: Strength Fitness: Physiological Principles and Training Techniques, 2nd Edition, Allyn and Bacon, Newton, MA, 1987 their approach. Write:
POWER CLEAN RESEARCH gix. -continued from page 48injury. William Risser, the author, fashion. know HOW to teach and lift on any system. Correct technique is impor- Not found. need qualified coaches.” machines or did the HIT program. references given in Mannie’s article. spine for football and weight lifting.
Lifting, Snatches or Olympic lifting type movements were NOT mentioned in the football section of their discussion. sions. I would invite anyone to look up and peruse each entire study at refer to the graph outlining the record of our BFS coaches. This derful way to accomplish this preparation. Power Cleans, Ballistic your own leisure..........
BFS INJURY STUDY -chart is on the following page| Each one of our BFS clinic coaches in our study train athletes and non-athletes on the BFS program. Doug Ekmark, Jeff Scurran and Bob Doyle are all outstanding head football coaches at their respective high schools.
| Jim Brown is Poplar Bluff’s defensive coordinator, while Len Walencikowski is now concentrating on being the strength coach for all sports at Miami Southridge High School. All have had at least two BFS Clinics at their high school. I can testify that each of these coaches is a master teacher and an expert in teaching and coaching the Power Clean and all variations associated with this lift. The football injury portion of this study indicates the number of season ending knee and shoulder injuries during the football season for the last 5-1/2 years (1990-1995). This also includes the number of surgeries required as a result of injuries incurred in playoff games.
Coach Doyle stated, “We averaged one student a year for the last twelve years that would go to a doctor about a soreness incurred from weight training. The doctor had them take a week or two off just to be safe but none of these twelve required more than that.” I submit that our BFS study is more valid than any of the “scientific articles” referenced by Mannie from three standpoints. Number of Subjects: 10,200 high school students which were both athletes and non-athletes. Longevity: Least amount of years our BFS Coaches have been at their school is 6 years. Only Study: That claims to have proper supervision and utilize proper technique while doing Power Cleans and their variations.
Our BFS study indicates there is no danger in doing Power Cleans or ballistic-type movements and furthermore, our study indicates an incredible injury-free rate to shoulders and knees during the football season. In fact, it appears that weight training done under the above parameters is the safest activity in the high school curriculum. There are more injuries in football, basketball, volleyball, softball, tennis or golf physical education classes. A mainstream type program, when done correctly, does not cause injuries but rather prevents them.
From BFS Magazine — Winter 1995. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).
