8-Week Axle Clean and Press
The continental clean is a necessary evil of Strongman.
Over the last century, we developed a lot of technology that enables us to load our bodies in a safer and more efficient manner. The barbell is one such technology, coming about with its fancy knurling and revolving collars to allow us to more easily put heavy things above our heads.
Strongman is dragging us back to our archaic roots all too frequently by challenging athletes to clean and press an axle bar. I believe it to be a novelty, with little transfer to any other functional aspects of fitness. It’s dangerous, requiring the bicep-shearing mixed grip and back-breaking hyperextension.
All of that said, the stupidest thing about the continental is how much fun it is.
And that is why we keep doing it.
Your typical axle bar is roughly 2” in diameter and has no knurling. You might get lucky with a little bit of a powder coat, but for the most part, getting your hands around this thing is damn near impossible.
In addition, it is one solid piece of metal with no spinning collars on either end. That means if you want the barbell to roll and turn in space, you’re going to have to roll and turn all of the plate weight on either side along with it.
These two unique attributes make the classic clean we’re all used to seeing from Olympic Weightlifting useless. You’re going to have to use a mixed grip on the bar, and use one of a variety of techniques to get the bar climbing up your body.
You might be thinking that this all sounds ridiculous. Why bother??
Because Strongman. That’s why.
What to Expect From This Article
This article is not going to be a how-to on the axle clean and press. There is plenty of great content out there on the topic already from seasoned Strongman Athletes for you to reference. Just pop continental clean into YouTube and watch Brian Alsruhe, Alan Thrall, and Alex Bromley tell you everything you need to know.
This post is to accompany my Continental Clean and Press program that I built to help people address a very specific weakness in their Strongman game. The program follows the same template as my Odin’s Boys Team Programming, and so you should feel free to overlap them.
The Triphasic Approach
Cal Dietz has been a major influence in the way that I program and train athletes. I’ve had his book for years, but have recently been really digging into it to find applications to Strongman.
The book is riddled with nuggets of knowledge and insight, but the overarching theme is that muscle action is always triphasic and must be trained that way. There is always an eccentric phase, an isometric phase, and a concentric phase.
He went looking at his athletes, trying to figure out what could make one better than another on the field despite similar numbers in the weight room. He specifically talks about two throwers who had very different personal bests in the shotput, but the exact same bench press.
The difference that he found to be the difference-maker was the speed at which the athlete performed the eccentric phase before the concentric. They both lifted the same weight, but the more successful thrower absorb a faster eccentric.
He found that the ability to generate a lot of power in the concentric phase of a lift was the direct result of how much the athlete could first absorb in the eccentric phase and then redirect in the isometric phase. He created some of the strongest and most explosive athletes concentrically, by taking a step back and training the other two phases with as much intent.
This 8-Week Program utilizes these principles to attack specific weak points in the press that will have a direct carry over to your ability to send a heavy axle into space.
Targeting Weakness in the Axle Clean
The big thing that makes that axle clean and press so difficult is the transition in the middle of the clean. Getting the bar directly from the ground to the shoulders is impossible at heavy intensities, so we have to stop halfway through by pinning the bar to the torso.
Belt cleans are becoming more and more acceptable in the sport, and that is making this aspect of the lift more manageable for smaller athletes. I still think that this part of the lift is the most difficult.
The biggest concern is that poorly executing this portion of the lift will cause you to miss the clean entirely.
The thing that I think gets forgotten is that even if we get the bar to the front rack with a poorly executed transition at the midsection, you run the risk of losing time wrestling the axle into a good pressing position. In a max lift scenario, it will cost you precious energy. In a max reps scenario, it will cost you time.
Targeting Weakness in the Axle Press
At lighter bodyweights, it’s pretty common to see athletes whose pressing capacity exceeds their ability to clean the bar. I think this is becoming less and less common as belt cleans are becoming more and more acceptable, but I think the phenomenon still exists. These are the athletes that simply must improve their clean.
I happen to compete at SHW myself, fully equipped with a power belly superpower that enables me to handle the clean without a ton of trouble. The result is that my 1RM axle clean and press and my 1RM axle push jerk out of the rack are about the same.
Athletes like me have to get their pressing up, so identifying and attacking weaknesses related specifically to the second portion of the competition movement is going to yield the biggest results.
In this 8-Week Program we focus on the sticky spot in the standing strict press right at the forehead, and ownership of the dip in the push press.
In the standing strict press we can usually pop the bar off the shoulders, but when we fail it’s because we can’t get the bar back over our midline. This is where the weight has all the leverage and all of the muscles have to work their hardest.
In addition, failure to hold your position into and out of the dip can wreak havoc on your press. It can cause your brain to down-regulate your force production, and send the bar out of the rack with a poor trajectory.
We really zoom in on these issues to try and make the biggest impact we can with a relatively short program.
Training the Lower Body
The lower days of this program are still focused on fast-tracking your axle clean and press gains. I’ve used max-effort variations that are specifically designed to help you develop the correct positioning and explosiveness you need for a great pull off the ground.
The primary squat variation I utilize is the Zercher, and that is for a couple of reasons:
No matter who you are, the Zercher highly encourages an upright torso in the squat pattern. This is the environment your legs are going to find themselves in when you go to hit a big dip for your press.
The torque on the torso and the stress on the upper back is very similar to what you’re going to experience in transitioning through the axle clean.
Lastly, it translates well to the general demands of Strongman like the other presses and implement loading.
Your dynamic effort works on developing pulling power off the floor, and then attacks the weakest positions of the typical axle clean and press. I employ the use of accommodative resistance and complexes to make sure that your technique is explosive and precise.
The success of your lift is not going to be dependent on the weakness of the strongest portion of your technique. It is going to be dependent on the strength of the weakest portion.
We think of the Axle Clean and Press as an upper-body exercise, but if our ability to deliver the axle to the front rack before the press is inadequate, then it will compromise our ability to then send the axle on its way up overhead.
Program Organization
The Triphasic Protocol calls for mini blocks within the mesocycle, each focusing on a different phase of muscle contraction.
This program uses the first 2 weeks for the eccentrics, the second 2 weeks for the isometrics, and the third 2 weeks for concentrics.
Week 7 serves as a sort of overreach while also initiating a deload. This deload will take us to the last day of week 8, where you’ll hit your new personal best in the Continental Clean and Press.
I’m using the Westside Conjugate template that we all know and love with a few tweaks. Two max effort days and two dynamic effort days. Each individual mini block is broken down further in the sections that follow.
I don’t utilize the Triphasic concepts for the Lower days. The reason is simple: the axle clean is a concentric only lift. I definitely use pauses, tempos, and complexes, but I’ve found that for the deadlift and other concentric-only exercises that training the other phases don’t really offer a solid return considering what we spend in fatigue and training time.
As you roll through the rest of the post, keep this in mind: talking training and programming is my passion. If you have any questions, objections, outright disagreements, etc. compile them into a list and email them to me. Let’s get this party started.
Max Effort Upper Day
Each 2-week mini-block has unique elements within its ME Upper Day, but for the most part they follow a similar template.
Your actual ME Exercises will focus on attacking weak points in the strict press and push press individually using eccentric, isometric, and concentric means.
Bench Press variations are incorporated at maintenance level volumes, also utilizing the Triphasic approach to both compliment the adaptation we’re trying to achieve in the overhead work and maintain any pressing strength that the athlete brought with them into the program.
Accessory work is built in to address the needs of the rest of the torso, with exercises and protocols that support the underlying triphasic adaptation that we’re trying to generate. The ME day specifically targets the upper back, the side delts, and the arms.
I use anti-movement core exercises throughout the 8-Week program, exposing the body to a variety of torque angles and positions. No matter how good you get with the clean, you might have situations in a competition that force you to wrestle the axle. You want your torso to be ready to stay organized through the chaos.
Dynamic Effort Upper Day
The DE Upper days of the program attack the weaknesses in the dip of the push press and the overhead press each and every weak. Each mini-block varies up the exercises to reflect the Triphasic Approach, with the last two weeks priming the body for a big personal best at the end of week 8.
Bench press variations are incorporated in a similar way to the ME Upper day, keeping the volumes at maintenance levels with protocols that complement the focus of the mini-block.
Accessory movements target the lats, rhomboids, traps, and arms starting the program with a lot of volume with lower impact exercises, and ending it with heavy high-impact exercises. The protocols and variations are always built to support the focus of the mini-block.
The core work involves performing awkward or off-balance movements while keeping the torsos organized and under a lot of control. Exercises like Waiter’s Walks or Suitcase Carries force the body to control the spine and hips while performing regular athletic movements.
Combined with the anti-movement core training of the ME Upper days, if there is a weakness in your core keeping you from a personal record in the axle clean and press, this program will hammer it out.
Max Effort Lower Day
Even though the Axle Clean and Press is typically thought of as an upper movement because it is an overhead press, that doesn’t mean that aren’t things that we can do with our lower body days to build it.
Your Max Effort Tester at the end of the block will be the Axle Bar Deadlift, but for Max Effort work in the rest of the block, you’re hitting builders that translates directly to the axle clean.
That means lots of snatch grip work to build strength from a deficit and force you to pack your lats, plus accommodative resistance to encourage explosiveness from the start to the end of every rep.
The rest of the focus will be on exercises that develop the lower body in a way that broadly applies to Strongman. Squats, unilateral work, explosive work, etc.
Dynamic Effort Lower Day
I use the dynamic effort lower day to build your ability to tear the bar off the floor. Building an abundance of power in the clean will ensure that you get to the front rack in a great position with enough energy to deliver a big press.
You’ll hit high pulls from different elevations and complexes that develop the specific skills needed for an effective clean. I attack the points in the clean that are the most difficult and most often lead to failure.
The rest of your DE Lower days will consist of exercises and protocols that attack movement patterns that are oftentimes missed and neglected in Strongman programs. These are the movements that will bulletproof you against injury.
Deloading the Mini-Blocks with Pivots
The program is 8 weeks long, with 4 mini-blocks that are 2 weeks long. That does not include any programmed deloads.
You can wait until the end of the 8 weeks to deload, but if you find that you’re feeling banged up at some point before that, I recommend that you go ahead and pull back and give yourself a chance to recover.
At the end of each mini-block is a perfect opportunity to take a deload week. You can do so in one of two ways:
Take the entire week to pull back.
Take both ME days to an RPE of 7.5-8 instead of 10, and remove the triphasic elements from your week. No eccentrics and no isometrics.
Pick your favorite variations for ME work, but take it to a triple.
Go to standard variations for Dynamic Effort work and try to reduce volume by 20-40%.
The rest of the movements of the week should be taken to 2-3+ RIR.
Go this route if you’re carrying a ton of fatigue, or if you know that you’re sensitive to a lot of volume.
Take half the week to pull back.
Take your ME Lower day to an RPE 7.5-8 instead of 10, and remove the triphasic elements from the week. No eccentrics and no isometrics.
Replace your lower variation with your favorite lower body variation but take it to a triple instead of a single.
The rest of the work on your lower days should be taken to 2-3+ RIR.
On your ME Upper days, take a different overhead press variation to an RPE 10 max. Make it a barbell or log variation and perform it out of the rack. Keep the rest of the exercises the same from the week before the deload.
On your DE Upper days, maintain the RPE and volume but remove the Triphasic Elements. No eccentrics or isometrics. Keep the rest of the exercises the same from the week before the deload.
Go this route if you’re starting to notice fatigue, or if you’re cautious and want to stay ahead of it.
Conclusion
The continental clean and press is as obnoxious as it is fun, and it is a staple in Strongman.
I’ve built a program designed specifically for this event, helping you to reach a new personal best in 8 weeks.
The program takes elements of the Triphasic system and combines them with a Conjugate Template to target common weaknesses and develop all aspects of the event.
If you have more than 8 weeks, you can incorporate deloads into the program between the triphasic phases.
The program is purchased and facilitated through TrainHeroic. You’ll have guidance regarding tempos, rest times, and even video demonstrations on the exercises prescribed.
For more information check out the programs page on their marketplace.