Alignment & Execution

A few weeks ago I started rebuilding my fitness at a local gym. One of my first goals was to start power cleaning again. I quickly discovered that the months in which I hadn’t been to the gym my fitness had faded. Long flights plus long illnesses had put cracks in the foundation of my fitness. My first attempts at power cleaning told me I was lacking stability & flexibility while much of my endurance and strength was gone. I had pain on the inside of my right knee, shifted my weight to the left side of my body and had a difficult time keeping proper upper body posture throughout the exercise. In other words I had a lot to work on, primarily my alignment needed a serious tune up. That’s where I started. As I bought my body back into proper alignment, I focused on proper execution. How hard is it to rebuild a power clean? Hard, but totally worth it.

Power cleaning is one of the best ways to build total body strength. It develops flexibility, balance, stability and works multiple muscle groups all at the same time. Despite the power clean’s versatility, it is not a widely practiced exercise. It has great benefits but its technical nature makes it dangerous for the untrained participant. The danger comes from the functional expertise required to properly execute the movement. Proper form requires strength and stability from the feet and ankles, to the knees and hips, around the abdominals and lower back, and finally from the shoulders down to the wrists. There is a lot to think about and plenty of room for misalignment; adding weight only adds to the difficulty of the movement. From a personal training perspective, there are few participants for whom a power clean is an appropriate exercise. As an athlete, the power clean saves a lot of time and energy, accomplishing in a few moves what would take much longer working individual muscles. As a group exercise instructor, I’ve observed the power clean motion in everything from Tai Chi and Yoga, down to the functional fitness favorite: burpees. I’ve also seen it performed in classes at light weights to reduce the risks of injury. What is it about the movement of a power clean that is so functional, yet dangerous? Alignment. When the body is properly aligned the movement becomes safe and functional. There are at least three factors to consider effecting alignment: speed at which the motion is executed, how much weight is used during execution, and whether or not the entire motion is executed or repeated.

Before we begin a technical breakdown of alignment, let’s examine a simple description of the movement. The power clean starts and ends with the bar on the ground. Walk up to the middle of the bar, and take an even stance. Hands and feet should be equidistant from the center of the bar. Bend into a squatting position and grab the bar, palms facing the body. Explode upwards, rotating the bar up to your shoulders, palms facing up. Catch the bar lightly in the hands and rest it on your shoulders. Squat to the ground and come back up. Press the bar off your shoulders and lower it gently back to the ground. Congratulations, you’ve successfully completed one power clean! The motion is relatively simple. It has a lift, a catch, a squat and a return to the starting position. Below is a breakdown of each of the major joints and how to properly align them for a power clean.

Every functional fitness exercise begins and ends in one place: the feet. Weight distribution in the feet will make or break any exercise. Proper form requires pressing 60/40 in the heels and ball of the foot. I say 60/40 because we want more weight focused downwards than we do forwards. The feet need to be firmly planted on the ground. We don’t want to shift weight to the inner arch or to the outer blade of the foot; pressing into the heel, ball and then toes of the foot will keep our feet in proper alignment. We want our feet shoulder width apart, feet pointing forward. Our feet should form parallel lines pointing forward while being perpendicular to the rest of the body. Your stance should look like a U from a bird’s eye view. This foundation helps keep the rest of the lower body in alignment, and allows us to move up the kinetic chain.

Next comes the knees. While executing the squat motion of the power clean, the knees need to be behind the toes. If we were to hang a string from our knees, it should never go past our toes. This keeps the knee from over extending during the squat. Over extended knees are prone to injury. The knees need to stay in the same vertical plane as the ankles, not turning in our out. If they turn in, we need to bring our feet in. If they turn out, we need to widen our stance. When the knees are stacked over the ankles, they are safe and sound, working all the muscles in the leg in a very satisfying and proportional way. A proper stance feels powerful and makes squatting easy.

Properly aligned knees make it easy to properly align hips. Misalignment in our hips will cause tension and discomfort in either our low back or abdominals. Correcting proper hip position is simple. Stand as tall as you can, puff out your chest and suck your abs in slightly. Then cross your arms, posing like everyone’s favorite kitchen cleaner celebrity: Mr. Clean. Maintain that posture, then sit on an imaginary chair. From a technical standpoint, the hips need to maintain their balance during a squat. They shouldn’t tip forward, causing an exaggerated curve in the spine, nor should they be tucked too far in, straightening the spine, disengaging the abs and limiting your ability to breathe deeply. Core muscles should be compressing inwards. Imagine wearing a corset, or that your abs are fingers grabbing hold of a bottle. This keeps the spine safe, engages the abs and lower back while squatting, and by itself almost brings the rest of the upper body into proper alignment.

For the rest of the upper body to be in alignment, we need to consider shoulder position. Shoulders need to be back and trapezoids need to be relaxed. To attain this position, lift your arms horizontally, forming a T with your upper body. Make sure your arms form a straight line, palms facing down. Pinch your shoulder blades together, slightly extending the chest, then drop your arms to your sides maintaining your alignment. This gives your chest room to expand while performing the exercise and it will strengthen the shoulders and upper back.

Finally, we need to consider the arms. When grabbing the bar arms need to be shoulder width apart. When exploding up/lifting the bar from the ground to the shoulders, the wrists will bend at about ninety degrees. The weight of the bar will move from your palms to the underside of your knuckles and the first digits of your fingers. To attain this position the elbows will bend during the lift until they are up and out, slightly less than ninety degrees to the body. The wrists will directly over the deltoids. Any grip wider than the deltoid compromises the shoulder, elbows and wrists. Any closer to each other will make holding the bar much more difficult and very uncomfortable.

My suggestion to utilizing these alignment cues is simple. Focus on one thing at a time, and start from the ground up. Don’t try and do everything at once. Remember, proper alignment is an art form. It makes motions smooth, requires less energy, builds more strength and leaves a lasting feeling of goodness. Within the above descriptions is room to find what works best for you. The fundamentals of the exercise remain the same, but each person has to figure out how to move for themselves. Once alignment has been established, the exercise opens up and allows participants to challenge themselves. Alignment has to be established first. It’s the foundation for growth.

If you don’t feel comfortable giving the power clean a go just yet, you can do other exercises to build a foundation. To build a great foundation I suggest squatting, deadlifting and hang cleaning. I would start with a solid squat and work until you have full range of motion. This means you can squat below ninety degrees and come back up without trouble. A solid squat evenly distributes weight through the legs; it doesn’t favor one side over the other. There shouldn’t be any pain in knees: the interior, exterior, backside or front side. Knee pain means the feet are out of alignment. As the squat forms the core of a power clean, you need to be comfortable squatting before moving on to the next exercise. Deadlifting is next. The deadlift is the start of the power clean. It’s a very simple motion. By bending at the knees, pick the weighted bar up and set it back down. Like I said, simple. It too should be completed without any pain, especially in the lower back. To avoid pain in the low back, bend at the knees, keeping the shoulders aligned and maintaining proper core and hip position. When you press up, don’t let your abs cave in. Stay tall and let your legs do the work. Finally, I would work a hang clean. A hang clean practices the ‘clean’ motion. While holding a bar and slightly bending your knees, powerfully straighten your legs while pulling up on the bar. The bar will move up towards your shoulders. Rotate your wrists and bring the bar above your palms, bending at the elbow. As you catch the bar to rest it on your shoulders, you should bend at the knees again. Bending your knees helps you catch the weight and is essential to heavier cleans. Once you’ve caught the bar, stand up.  Then you can press the bar off your shoulders and return to your starting position. Cleaning is the most technical part of power clean and takes the most practice. Once you get used to catching the bar on your shoulders with bent knees you’re ready to power clean.

As we’ve looked at the motion itself, alignment issues and a few exercises that will help us build up to the power clean, we can now look at our three area of focus: speed, weight, and motion execution. A proper power clean is a quick deadlift, clean, catch, squat, and then putting the weight down to start again. High speed repetitions with light weights is considered safe, as is slow speed with light-to-no weights. Form should be consistent no matter what speed a power clean is executed. If the entire motion can’t be executed by keeping form, it’s not safe and weight will need to be reduced. Be mindful that heavier weights encourage proper form, but too heavy a weight breaks form down. Only do what you can do properly. Picking the right amount of weight is up to you. Proper training at light weights corrects form and strengthens weak muscles in the kinetic chain. Consider, a slow light weight power clean can be exhausting. By slowly building up to heavier weights, the speed and number of the power clean repetitions can be increased. This reveals the strength of your body’s alignment during the exercise. If your alignment isn’t stable, don’t increase the weight. Keep training with light weights at varying speeds.

As we’ve considered speed and weight, we need to talk about motion execution. The power clean utilizes almost every area of the body; there are bound to be weak points in your power clean. To target those areas, do partial reps. Partial reps practice one aspect of the lift. Example: squat for foot, knee and hip position; deadlift for back and shoulder position; bent over row for strengthening shoulders, arms and lower back; hang clean, for the last bit of explosion and catching the bar. Sometimes you’ll need to focus on one aspect of your execution before you can move forward. By strengthening the weakest parts of your lift you’ll advance much faster than just practicing the entire power clean motion. It’s just like preparing your body for the power clean. You’ll need to go back to basics to help yourself advance.

There will always be a temptation to use heavier weights and compromise your weakest muscle group. Don’t do it! Take the time to develop and strengthen those muscles. Be patient with your body as it adapts to new exercises. Consider how quickly or slowly you’re performing the exercise, how much weight are you using and whether or not you need to focus on one muscle group for a while before pressing forward. A little bit of intentional development pays dividends in the end. The dividend we’re looking for? A strong and stable power clean with proper alignment and precise execution. It takes a lot of work to develop a power clean, but being able to properly execute the lift will keep you safe, and will help you strengthen your entire body in one exercise.

I love the power clean because it’s challenging. It requires flexibility, power, strength, endurance and stability. It’s a relatively simple exercise with great benefits, so long as it’s executed properly. When I think of exercises that test the fitness of the participant, the power clean comes first to my mind. Watching someone power clean tells me a lot about their fitness, what their goals are, what kind of shape they are in, and how well they’ve aligned their body. When I consider the spiritual life, we may not have a power clean type exercise, but focusing on our alignment and execution pays dividends just as it does with the power clean.

Too often the spiritual life shrouds itself in mystery. How do I improve my attitude? How do I get more satisfaction out of work, life, my relationships and my vacations? Like the power clean, there are many components that make up a great spiritual life, but until we get our foundations right we will struggle to grow.

What is the foundation of a great spiritual life?

My first answer would be practice.

If we never practice the beliefs that guide us through life, then our beliefs are weak. Weak beliefs stem from three areas: either there is not enough to practice, we never practice or the practice requirements are too difficult to utilize on a daily basis. A spiritual practice that is vague and leaves no impact on the practitioner isn’t worth doing. It’s a sign that the foundations of that spiritual path might lead to nowhere. Just as our physical practices have goals, so should our spiritual practices. Goals should be established by both practitioner and inherent within the path. These goals should have a tangible impact on devotees. We should be able to look back and see tangible differences in ourselves. These differences should be for our benefit and the benefit of our communities. Any spiritual path that does not balance the individual and the communal is fundamentally flawed. The self and the other should both be considered valuable.

It is entirely the fault of a practitioner if they never practice what they believe. It’s an instructor’s duty to preach something practicable, but it’s the practitioner’s responsibility for making it happen. If an instructor isn’t preaching something practicable, that’s the fault of the instructor, and they should be held accountable. That system of accountability should also be inherent within the spiritual path. Both instructor and practitioner should be held accountable. What do I mean? Spiritual practices are not just moral codes, they are physical demonstrations and ways of life that make the world a healthier place. It is one thing to sing the praises of a moral and upright God, but if that God does none of the moral and upright things he’s lauded for, and has no expectations that his followers will do likewise, then that God is a fake and a liar. That God would be a false god, and that god isn’t worth practicing. Practitioners should be wary of the God they serve, if that god doesn’t do anything in the world and doesn’t expect them to practice because he hasn’t shown them how, then that might just be an instructor preaching his own values for his own glory. Such a person should not be followed.

Some spiritual paths load practitioners down with unnecessary rules, to the point that practitioners are afraid of doing anything lest they incur the wrath of their God. I don’t practice fitness out of fear, I practice it out of love. I genuinely love what I do! The same should be true of spiritual paths, practitioners should be encouraged through love, not through fear and they should be able to take up practicable things without fear of being crushed by their God. A God who rules by fear alone is not worth following. If I wouldn’t want to be employed by such a person, why would I worship him? If I wouldn’t want to work for an employer who was constantly telling me I wasn’t good enough and giving me more than I could handle, why would I worship a God who does the same? Why would I want to direct my life by those values?

Following a spiritual path should have easy usable standards. They should be obvious, practicable, demonstrated and we should be held accountable. We should be encouraged and motivated by love, not fear.

My second answer would be following an inclusive, but decisive God.

There are many religions that are exclusive. You must do x,y and z actions in order to accrue favor with your god who will then determine whether or not you were good enough. Whether or not your deeds were good enough will be determined later; you have no way of knowing now. This is a spiritual path based on control. You will do what I say or else you won’t make it to bliss. Just as there is a right and wrong way to power clean, we know when we’re living a great spiritual life. It’s not a secret. We know when we know, because we’ve been told when we’ll know and that standard is attainable. By everyone.

The opposite of an exclusive god is a totally inclusive one. This god takes everyone in and has no standards of living. This god has decided that everyone is currently living as they should and we don’t need to change or practice anything. This god is often put together in the image of peace and acceptance, but has no accountability for his followers. This god would say that everyone is currently power cleaning and doing it correctly, when we can visibly see that some people are not power cleaning at all. Its lukewarm garbage that’s supposed to make us feel good by glazing over the things we need to correct. This kind of god is attractive, but promises no change. Because nothing needs to change. One need only look at a few world governments to know that change is necessary.

Let’s consider my answer. It means following a God that seeks to bring everyone in, has standards and practices that are plainly observable with simple but impacting results. Like a power clean. This kind of God points out that there are wrong ways of living, but encourages us towards the right by his example. He recognizes that not everyone will choose to follow him, and thus there are those who will be left out. He encourages his practitioners to right practices, even though they make mistakes.

What does all of this mean? Why is a demonstrable God important?

Every moral code is based on something. Those codes were devised by someone. Those codes could be devised by men, or by men who create false gods, or by a very real God who knows what is right because he is right. The test at the end of the day is whether or not the moral codes are livable and practicable, impacting the individual and the community in a healthy way.

In my studies of spiritual paths, every path claims to promote health. Every path claims to be right. How then, do we know whether or not a path IS right? Anyone can claim truth, but real truth is evident; it’s not something hidden away in secret, when we see it in action its plain to see and we know it is right. Just like the power clean. We know when someone is doing it right, we also know when someone is doing it wrong. We can feel the difference between a good healthy power clean and one out of alignment that isn’t properly executed. Isn’t it true that no one practices spiritual paths rightly? This is a persuasive lie. It’s a lie because I can rightly practice a power clean, even if it takes me a while to figure it out. It would be like saying I will never have proper alignment and I should give up trying, letting my body practice risky and injurious moves because I will never be able to execute them rightly. What total garbage! Many people give up on fitness because they don’t learn how to practice it properly, the same is true of the spiritual life. Too many people give up, accepting something that’s not entirely right because they get tired from seeking the truth. Just like I may find a few bad trainers at a gym, so we also find bad leaders of the spiritual life. This doesn’t mean the spiritual life isn’t worth living, it means we need to find better trainers and practice what they preach. If their preaching isn’t practicable keep moving. There is such a thing as truth and there are people who seek to live by it.

In Paul’s letter to Timothy he encouraged him, “train yourself to be godly”. He meant that Timothy had learned what he needed from Paul, and that he needed to practice those things on his own. Paul wasn’t perfect, but he based his teaching and his life on Jesus. Paul was convicted of the errors of his spiritual path when Jesus appeared to him in a vision. Paul was on his way to imprison and kill followers of Jesus. Jesus not only stopped him, but Paul became one of the greatest preachers of Jesus teaching; there was something different about Jesus that Paul had not found in his previous spiritual path.

Part of that difference came from what Jesus claimed about himself. He claimed he was God, not that he received his teaching from God. Claiming to be God is spiritual and physical suicide, especially when a society’s penalty for claiming to be God is death. Claiming to be a prophet of God is much safer. Yet if God became a man, to show us how to practice life by demonstrating it himself, there should be tangible evidence alongside our own ability to recognize whether or not Jesus was God. The story I’m about to tell comes from the ninth chapter of John, the fourth book of the New Testament in the Bible.

Jesus is walking along the road, when his disciples point out a man who has been blind from birth. They want to know: “what moral failings made this man blind? Was it his or his parents?” Jesus states that neither is the case, and uses the opportunity to show his disciples that he is the light of the world. So Jesus spits on the ground, makes some mud, puts it on the blind man’s eyes and then sends the man to the pool named “Sent”. The man comes back seeing, much to the amazement of everyone who knows him. People who casually know him get really confused, it’s not possible for a man born blind to see (it’s still not medically possible). The teachers of the Law investigate by asking the man questions: “What day did this healing occur? The Sabbath!? Preposterous! We know that there are six days for healing, and that God would not want someone healed on his holy day. Who did this? Jesus? He must be a sinner, because God doesn’t heal on his holy day.” Some of the teachers disagreed, they knew that only God could heal such a condition, even though it conflicted with their spiritual rules.

“Who do you say this Jesus is?” The man replies, “He is a prophet.” Convinced the man was a fraud, the teachers of the Law questioned his parents, who refused to make any definitive statements, except that their son had been born blind and now could see. To seek closure, the teachers of the Law turned to the man a second time: “Give glory to God, we know this man (Jesus) is a sinner.” The man responds, “whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind, but now I see!” This really irritates the teachers of the Law. They hate the truth of what has physically happened, because it does not fit within their made up Laws based on Moses teaching. They get very angry, make a few nasty retorts and then issue this statement, “we know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” The man answers, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” At this point the teachers of the Law get furious and accusatory, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” Then they throw him out of their community.

Jesus goes out and finds the man, who has been disowned by his parents and his community. He asks the man a simple question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man (meaning the saving/healing one sent from God)? “I do” responds the man, “but tell me who he is?”  Jesus says, “You’re looking at him.” The man worships Jesus. Then Jesus says, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” Some of the teachers of the Law heard this and ask, “What are we blind too?” Jesus responds, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”

Touché Jesus, touché.

 What’s that whole story about? It’s clearly about two things: whether or not Jesus is from God and whether or not he’s going to follow our rules. As only God would have the power to heal someone born blind, Jesus is clearly from God. As he did it on a day that conflicted with man-made rules about God, its clear Jesus doesn’t care about our rules, even if they are based on someone who heard God. This enough to say Jesus is a holy man, but it doesn’t prove he’s God incarnate. To reach that point, we need to look at some of the important images in the story. Jesus claims to be the light of the world. The first thing God created was light. Light could only come from God, not from somewhere else. By opening the eyes of the blind man, letting him see light, Jesus shows he is God.  We could stop here, but this isn’t the only reference Jesus makes to the power of God.

Jesus makes mud out of his spit and the ground. This is significant, because God formed man out of the ground. This time Jesus is making a direct reference to having the power of God to create, or in this case, re-create man. Jesus is showing his redemptive mission; he has come for everyone, not just those of us who are perfectly together. The blind man sat on the lowest level of the social ladder, by healing him Jesus shows his concern for all people, especially those who have nothing they can give back. Jesus isn’t interested in our material stuff; he’s purely interested us. He wants us to be whole. By healing the blind man Jesus shows God cares about everyone, regardless of circumstances; that God has the power to make us whole, even if we were born imperfect.

Why else would he use dirt? By putting mud on the blind man’s eyes and sending him to the Pool of Sent, Jesus is giving the man a choice, allowing him to make a decision. Does the man believe the healer was sent from God? Does he believe God cares about him and his blindness? Does he believe God wants him to be whole? By going and washing in the Pool, the man shows he believes God cares about him, and is ready to act on that belief. He had a choice. Jesus didn’t force him to do anything, unlike the teachers of the Law.

The teachers of the Law show total blindness to the things of God. They are blind to God’s ways because they don’t believe in them or practice them. They practice their own man-made rules, this is the tragic flaw in many spiritual paths; they are based on man’s ability to reason and make rules, not God.

Through the healed man, Jesus confronts the teachers of the Law with their own spiritual blindness. And he openly says they will be held accountable for their blindness. Jesus says he came into this world for judgment: opening the eyes of those who know they are blind and letting the spiritual eyes of those who think they see close. The teacher’s with their man-made rules could not see God, even though he was demonstrably right in front of them.

What’s the most significant part of this story? Jesus found the blind man before he healed him, and he found him after he had been rejected by a spiritual community. Jesus didn’t leave it up to the blind man to be found in the first place, Jesus came to him. Jesus also didn’t leave the man alone when he had been rejected. Jesus came to him. The spiritual life can feel like stumbling around in the dark, but in that darkness Jesus comes and he brings light, even if we live in a world governed by man-made rules. When other people look down on us for the work God has done in our lives, Jesus stands by us.

The wonderful thing about living according to the teachings of Jesus? He keeps coming for us. It not about us being worthy enough or constructing enough rules to live by, he simple wants us to be whole. He wants us to be properly aligned and to properly execute his movements. It is a joy to do so! He wants us to stand up for the broken & blind people in our communities. He wants us to confront those who have closed their eyes to the nature of God and are openly abusing others. He wants us to practice truth in all our movements, so that when we need to stand physically alone, we are strong enough to do so, unafraid of what the teachers’ of the Laws of this world say. The healed man discovered this strength. He walked in its light.

My prayer is that we daily take time to let this light shine upon us and to let it shine from within us. That this light would transform us and our communities. That those who are blind would see, and that those who claim to see would be identified as blind. That we would seek truth, not giving up, even though we find ourselves in deep darkness. That when we are presented opportunities to stand up for others, we would embrace them, standing firm upon the truth, having taken up the responsibility to train and discipline ourselves in its ways.