The Continental Clean

c. 1880 – 1920s · Two-hands lift to the shoulders

The continental clean brings a barbell from the floor to the shoulders by any means short of a single clean pull: typically lifting it to the belt, resting it there, and then hitching or rolling it up the body to the chest. It was the usual style of the German and Austrian strongmen before the First World War, was ruled out of international weightlifting in the 1920s, and survives in modern strongman.

Description

The lifter pulls the bar to about the height of the belt and rests it against the body, often leaning back to hold it there. From that position it is brought up to the chest in one or more further movements — a hitch, a dip and pop with the legs, or a roll up the stomach. Once the bar is at the shoulders and the lifter stands erect, the clean is complete; in the old continental "clean and jerk" a jerk overhead followed.

Breaking the lift into stages allowed very heavy bars — and thick, awkward bars that cannot be cleaned in one pull — to reach the shoulders. It placed more emphasis on back and grip strength and less on speed under the bar.

Rules in competition

Before the First World War there were two broad schools of lifting: the continental style of Germany, Austria and Central Europe, and the stricter French style, in which the bar had to come to the shoulders in one movement. When the international federation was organised in 1920 it adopted the French approach, and in international competition during the 1920s the clean came to be made in a single pull, without the bar resting on the body on the way up. The continental remained common in professional and some national lifting for a time afterwards.

In modern strongman

In strongman the continental is a standard technique rather than a separate event. In axle, log and other overhead medleys, athletes are often allowed to "continental" the implement to the shoulders — lifting it to the belt or hips and rolling it up — before pressing or jerking it. Contest rules state whether a continental is permitted for a given event.

Records

No clean record progression can be drawn for the continental style. Early reports of "clean and jerk" figures often do not say how the bar reached the shoulders, and they were made with different bars under different rules. Among the leading continental lifters, Karl Swoboda of Vienna is credited with two-hands jerks in the region of 185–195 kg (about 410–430 lb) around 1911, the figure varying between sources.

Disputed and unresolved

The changeover was gradual: national bodies tightened their rules at different dates through the 1920s, and continental figures and one-movement figures from the same years are not directly comparable.