Bruised Colar bones from cleans??

[Patrick McGuffin]

Lately I have been hitting the olympic lifts alot more in order to focus on technique and explosion. My form has also improved alot and I am actualy catching the bar in a racked posistion but I keep hitting my collar bones every now and then, mostly just the right one. It is starting to annoy me because it gets bruised and then swells up alot. So I end up hitting it on my next session of cleans because it is poking out about a centimeter more than it should. It also feels like the bone is bent while the other colar bone that doesnt get hit is pretty much straight. Can anyone help me out here? I dont know if I should treat this as a serious problem because it doesnt neccissarily hurt, its just that I dont think bones should be able to swell up and get out of shape like that.

[Jay O'Neill]

Patrick... you may fractured your Clavicle (collarbone). How hard did you hit it?
If so the treatment is... STOP HITTING IT! lay off the cleans or place a pad on you bar. Ice the hell out of it.
We don't do much for fractured clavicles... we used to use a figure 8 splint but not anymore.

[Patrick McGuffin]

Not verry... I dont think, then again I dont think when I lift so you never know.. I have hit it with a couple doozies I remember one where the bar had 245lbs on it which hurt pretty bad the next day but other than that just with 205 or so making direct contact to it. I think it was actualy the 245 that did it innitialy and now it sticks up just enough to get hit. I will focus on being more carefull from now on (ie: not hitting it) and see if the swelling goes down.

[Corey DuCharme]

I don't think you broke it Pat. I'm pretty sure you would have felt some serious pain during your 500lb DL if it was broken.

Where along the clavicle are you making contact with the bar? The sternum end of my clavicles are quite "knobby" and I end up hitting the right side too.

Like Jay said, ice is good, and try using a pad. I would try to find something thinner than the usual squat pad, because that would probably screw you up when you catch the bar.

[Matt Brouse]

I have the same issue...mine aren't real bad though.

[jonboy]

i get bruises from cleans but they normally go away in a day or two. I think you should be alright

[Tim Myrick]

Mine usually last a couple days. Once your form is good, you tend only to hit it on your max cleans. Coincindentally, these are the cleans that are gonna hurt the most when they collide with yo collar-bone. :D

[Ben Booker]

I would rest or see a doctor if i tthought it was broken.

[Ryan Bakke]

this typically happends when the elbows are low during the rack. elbows tend to drop a bit during a catch with maximal weights, so if need be, lighten up. if the weight isnt a limit weight, then focus on that flexability so them there elbows are to the roof! i used to hit mine all the time and that was the cure.