Weightlifting movements have been shown to provide a superior training stimulus for force and power development. Among these, Weightlifting pulling derivatives (WPDs) without the catch phase may generate superior kinetic stimulation compared to the full weightlifting movements. Previous studies have confirmed that the starting position significantly affects the peak vertical ground reaction forces (Fz), peak rate of force development (RFD), and peak power of the weightlifting derivatives with the catch phase. However, the influence of starting position on WPDs is still unclear. Therefore, this study aims to compare the kinetic performance differences of WPDs with different starting positions to optimize training programs. Eighteen men (age: 21.44±1.76 years; height: 1.78±0.06 m; mass: 75.56±6.61 kg; power clean 1RM: 104.03±11.41 kg) were recruited. This study employed a within-subject design, whereby peak Fz, peak RFD, and peak power were determined during the clean pull (CP), clean pull from the knee (CPK), and midthigh clean pull (MCP). Participants were tested in a balanced sequence using a standardized load (60% of power clean 1RM). All lifts were performed with the subjects standing on a force plate (Kunwei, KWF6040-10K), sampling at 1,000 Hz. A repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted to compare the three variants, a significance level of 0.05. Bonferroni-corrected post-hoc tests identified significant mean differences. Result: Significant differences were among the WPDs with different starting positions for peak Fz (p < 0.001), peak instantaneous RFD (p < 0.001), and peak power (p < 0.001). Subsequent post-hoc tests indicated that: The MCP had significantly higher peak Fz than CPK (p < 0.001), which in turn had higher values than the CP (p < 0.001). The MCP had significantly higher peak RFD than the CP (p < 0.001), which in turn had higher values than the CPK (p < 0.001). The CPK significantly higher peak power than the MCP (p = 0.010), which was higher than the CP (p = 0.004). This study demonstrates that when the objective is to maximize force development, the midthigh-starting position for WPD is optimal. When the goal shifts to maximizing power development, unlike the clean variations, where the mid-thigh-starting position is the optimal choice, the knee-starting position for WPD is superior. This difference may be attributed to the initial velocity provided by the transition phase and the increased bar speed achievable with WPD. Since WPDs with different starting positions commonly use different loads in practice, future research should consider this aspect.
Chen et al. (Thu,) studied this question.