Power Jerk

How to do it

1. Take a barbell on the front of your shoulders, elbows in front, feet under your hips.
2. Dip a few inches with the torso upright.
3. Drive up hard through the legs and send the bar off the shoulders.
4. Drop under it by pushing the feet out to squat width and bending the knees.
5. Catch the bar locked out overhead with the hips above parallel and both feet level.
6. Stand tall, then lower the bar to the shoulders under control.

Common mistakes

• Pressing the bar out. The arms lock before the bar arrives; a press-out means the leg drive did not send it high enough.
• Dipping deep. A few inches is the dip — going lower turns the drive into a slow squat the bar never picks up speed from.
• Landing with the feet in different places each repetition. The catch width is chosen and rehearsed; a different stance every time means a different position to stabilise.
• Choosing it over a split jerk to avoid learning the split. The power version needs more overhead range because you catch with the feet level — it is not the easier one, just the simpler footwork.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Quads

Secondary

• Abs
• Calves
• Glutes
• Hamstrings
• Shoulders
• Triceps