Quit Scraping Your Shins in the Snatch & Clean

No, having bloody shins doesn’t mean you’re doing a good job keeping the bar close in the pull—it means you’re doing something wrong, and putting the rest of us at risk for communicable diseases while you’re at it.

There are 3 primary reasons for the bar scraping your shins.

First is starting the lift with your shoulders behind the bar. The bar wants to hang directly below the shoulders. If your shoulders are behind the bar, the bar tries to move backward to get under them—but your shins are blocking its path, so it scrapes its way up. Related, be sure you’re not starting the bar too far back over the foot. Fix your starting position so your shoulders are above or very slightly in front of the bar, and the bar is over the balls of the foot.

Second, you need to settle down with your lats. If your posture in the first pull is what it should be, your shoulders will be right above the bar or very close to it, which means it will require very little effort to keep the bar close to the legs below the knees. Don’t grind it into yourself because you just learned about lats.

Finally, even if your starting position and initial pulling posture are good and you’re not freaking out about the lats, you’re still going to snag your shins with the bar if you start opening your hips too soon in the pull, which brings the shoulders behind the bar. Your shoulders should be above or in front of the bar until it’s around mid-thigh.

Conveniently enough, you can practice and fix all of this with a single exercise—a halting snatch or clean deadlift. Set the proper starting position, keep the shoulders above the bar until past the knee and don’t push it against your shins, and pause at mid-thigh with the shoulders in front of the bar, and yes—use your lats there to push the bar back into light contact with your legs.

Reis video by Hookgrip

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[mattcunningham-liftingchan]

Damn I feel called out 😂 At least I use my own bar.

[therealforestelf]

this one's for me - gonna save that just in case I get cocky again about "keeping the bar close"

[julianrodriguez]

that was a question that i have been asking myself, now i know the answer

[chthre]

Thx, this is one of the biggest problems I tend to see and has big benefits if people work on it 👏👏👏

[khmak]

I never scrape them on the way up. But because my (family) gym has no padded flooring, I sometimes do when lowering maximal weights 🥵

[ivanraynovski]

As usual Greg, thanks for the great video.

[greyishdun]

I often hit my knee, not shin but cause is that same so thanks for instructions.

[Laglagpaddy]

So we actually push the bar in toward the body at mid thigh! Didnt think of this and always kept arms straight and lats down. Thanks!

[chrish]

Thx Greg, I have often wandered about this. I have made this mistake in the past, usually when deadlifting, great content from you as always

[Altigue]

Hear that? Cool it with the lats, y’all.

[IainHunter]

Hi Greg - any chance of a "quit hitting your chin in the Jerk drive", please? Sure I must be setting up incorrectly, but not doing well at figuring out what needs to change.

[lockz]

Can you do a video on how to release the hook grip during a snatch

[irontaunted]

should i knees be pushed out during the first pull for long legged lifters?

[rudyrich]

Don't you think some people Wil get scrapping, long femur, long torso Short arm I have the worst anthropometry for pulling, I was thinking of trying duck stance with close heels, what do you think?? Thks

[addokittokautama]

Nice. My shins rarely bleed but there's a noticeable shin hair loss where the bar meet my shins, wkwkwk

[Scott-zhip]

Do you have a rule of thumb as to how close the bar should be in starting position? A lot of info tells you to place it where your lace meets your toes when looking down. However I have recently been told I am starting with the bar too far out. Just wondered if there is a general rule you run by?

Thanks for the great content as always.

[MRJJJarhead]

so you can engage too much lat in the first pull...got it.

[MeleDrummer]

Is it okay to scrape my shins on the deadlift?