Why does the front rack position hurt my wrists, and what can I do about it?

Question

I used to do my front sqauts holding the bar on my shoulders while crossing my arms over it to hold it in place. I then wanted to learn how to do a power clean, but noticed that I must first master the front squat to carry over to the clean.

The problem is that the way to hold the bar in the front sqaut that has carryover to the clean hurts my wrists.

As I understand it the bar rests on your shoulders mainly and your hands are there to ensure that it doesn't fall. Now when the bar is resting in my finger tips in this manor, as needed for the clean, it really hurts my wrists.

I don't have any issues with my wrists that I know of since no other exercise ever hurts my wrists.

Perhaps I have a lack of flexibility in my lower arms needed to hold the bar in this way. If that is the case, what can I do to properly hold the bar without any pain?

Answer 1

Make sure your forearm is not stacked on top of your humerus. It should be off to the side.

You can do this stretch to help improve your flexibility for the catch position.

What is most important is elbows up, not the finger position in the catch. If you lack flexibility, there are alternative catching grips you can use:

Answer 2

When switching to power cleans and/or front squats for the first time you will start to notice that many areas of your body are not very flexible. This will adjust over time, however I would recommend that you do supplementary stretching.

I am a big fan of Glenn Pendlay's videos when it comes to Olympic lifting, and this one is most appropriate for you.