How to Do the Clean Exercise, Olympic Weightlifters' Go-To for Explosive Power

For some onlookers, Olympic weightlifting moves like the clean exercise might seem straightforward. You load a barbell and basically throw the weight up. But powerlifters and bodybuilders know this compound exercise is far from easy. Unlike the squat or deadlift, which is slow and controlled, the clean involves lifting a barbell from the floor to your shoulders in one swift motion.

Try your hand at this Olympic lift and you'll quickly learn it's the ultimate test of strength, coordination, and power. When combined with the jerk movement you’ve likely seen Olympic weightlifters perform, the clean builds brute strength and athleticism like no other.

You don’t have to compete in weightlifting competitions to reap the benefits either. Although the clean might take a little more patience and time to master, when you do, you’ll see serious improvements in total body power, coordination, and size.

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How to Do the Clean

Learning how to clean properly means getting the setup right, lifting the weight up off the floor, “flipping” your grip so your hands are under the bar, and controlling the weight once it gets to the shoulders, all without losing your balance or dropping the barbell. The version described below is for the floor barbell version.

1. Load the barbell, then stand so the bar is over the middle of your feet, to start.

2. Squat down and extend arms to grab the barbell with an overhand grip. Your hands should be slightly outside your legs.

3. Your knees will likely go over the barbell, and your shins may even touch the barbell, which is fine. Your hips should be higher than your knees and your shoulders should be over the bar.

4. Push your feet into the floor as if you're trying to push the floor down. Your knees should straighten as the barbell leaves the floor. The barbell will pass your knees and reach the quads. Your upper body should be in the same position at this point.

5. As the bar reaches your middle or upper thighs, contract your glutes to engage your hips, straighten your knees, and drive your toes into the floor. Think of this as if you're doing a jump without leaving the ground.

6. Once your legs are fully extended, drop your hips as you continue to lift the bar upward. Your goal is to meet the bar mid-lift. Flip your elbows down and catch the barbell in a front hold position. Once you have the barbell in this position, continue lowering yourself until you're in the bottom of a front squat.

7. Once you reach the bottom of the squat, stand with the weight and hold it under control.

8. Rotate your hands so the barbell can be lowered back down to the floor. If you have bumper weight plates, you can simply drop the barbell to the floor.

As you can see, there are several components to a clean rep with a clean. You should take the time to learn the form with an empty barbell and watch videos until you're very comfortable with the execution of the movement before adding weight.

Suggested Sets and Reps

As with every exercise, learning the proper form before you start adding weight is crucial to getting the most out of the movement and preventing injury down the road. If you’re just starting out, swap out the heavy weights and ego lifting that often come with squats and deadlifts for 3 reps of 4 sets with a bare minimum weight. Even if you just start with the barbell on its own, the time invested now will serve you very well later on.

Once you feel comfortable enough with your form, you need to decide what your goals are. If you want to develop power and strength, you’ll need to keep the sets high and reps low. Go with 2 to 4 reps of 4 to 6 sets with 2 to 4 minutes of rest between working sets as a starting point. If you want to build muscle and improve endurance, then the weight should go down slightly. Try 6 to 8 reps of 2 to 4 reps with around 2 minutes rest between sets.

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Muscles Worked by the Clean

The clean exercise is one of the best full-body exercises around. Taking a loaded barbell from the floor to your shoulders in one fluid motion requires explosive power, coordination, and the use of tons of muscles. Here are the biggest contributors:

Glutes

For a clean to be performed correctly the hips must move with serious intensity and velocity to complete the first half of the clean, and that’s only made possible when the glutes work in tandem with them. In the second half of the movement, when the barbell is thrust out and up, your hips and glutes are the muscles working to promote the move's explosive nature.

Quadriceps

Do the quads work as hard during a clean as they would in a regular squat? Absolutely not, but they do play a major role. To some degree the quads work throughout the entirety of the movement—when you straighten your knees and complete the stand, go down into the front squat position, and absorb the force of the barbell during the catch portion.

Core

The abs, obliques, and lower back must be strong if you plan on loading a barbell up for heavy cleans. The chain will only be as strong as its weakest link, and if the core is weak, that will spell disaster when you attempt to max out on this exercise.

Back

Many trainers think of the shoulders with the clean, but the back may be more important because of its role in stability, as well as pulling the barbell up. The lats, rhomboids, and traps must all work together to not only control the weight, but keep the spine stable. During the latter half of the pull, the traps also flex, which is why you see many athletes who perform the clean also have thick traps.

Shoulders

The muscles of your shoulders, especially your rotator cuffs and deltoids, play a crucial role throughout the clean by keeping the bar stable and assisting the pulling motion.

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Benefits of the Clean

Stronger Lower Body

There is a reason that cleans are used in training programs for so many different sports—they help build stronger legs. The power gained in the lower body will transfer over to lifts like the squat and deadlift and to the field in a variety of sports, including football, soccer, and even track.

Better Pull Strength

There are not many lifters that have a good clean and a bad deadlift. Many who devote time to cleans can also knock out a decent set of pulls. Plus, when done correctly for a long time, cleans can strengthen your entire posterior chain.

Time-Saver in the Gym

Want to get a lot of work done in a short amount of time? Performing sets of cleans will help you train several parts of the body at once and will push you to your limits. You can pick two or three accessory exercises to perform afterward and call it a day.

Clean Mistakes to Avoid

Like any other exercise, knowing what not to do is as important as learning what you should do properly. Avoiding these pitfalls minimizes the risk of injury and can help you get the most out of the exercise.

Trying to Use Too Much Weight

The first rule of cleans? Form over weight, every single time. If you have to break form to get the weight up, it’s not worth the rep. Trying to row it up, reverse curling it, or simply trying to sling the weight up so you don’t have to drop down to receive it are all counterproductive at best and can lead to serious injuries at worst.

Not Warming Up Properly

Even if you are in a hurry to get the workout done, skipping out on warming up will not help you perform cleans effectively. Commit a few extra minutes to a total-body warmup and perform light sets before loading up the barbell. Your body will thank you later on.

Not Using a Proper Barbell

There are many commercial weight rooms that have barbells that are made specifically for Olympic lifting. They have bearings inside the sleeves that spin so you can perform smoother reps. If you don’t have access to a barbell like this, then do what you can with the barbells you have on hand.

Alternative Momentum

Some lifters who want a little extra assistance will try to use their quads to bump the barbell up. More often than not, this backfires. You may have to lean forward to catch it, or the bar may not come up high enough and you have to drop it. This brings us back to the first tip—master your form before trying heavier weights.

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Clean Exercise Variations

There are a few variations that you can use in your routine to make your workouts more interesting or simply find new ways to get better. Aside from the barbell version, try these variations to build power and explosiveness.

Hang Clean

The hang clean exercise calls for you to start with the weight in your hands at a standing position. All you do is slightly bend over by hinging the hips until the barbell is near your knees, then perform the clean. It is more upper-body specific but will still require lower-body and core stability to master.

How to Do It

1. Stand with feet hip-width apart and hold the bar at shoulder width in front of your thighs, to start.

2. Bend your hips and knees so the bar lowers to just above your knees.

3. Now explosively extend your hips as if jumping while at the same time shrugging your shoulders and pulling the bar straight up in front of your torso.

4. As the bar reaches chest level, bend your elbows so your palms face the ceiling and catch the bar at shoulder level with your upper arms parallel to the floor.

5. That's 1 rep.

Muscle Clean

This is an advanced version that requires more use of the arms. In this version, you use your arms to pull the weight up to the shoulders as your body is straightening. Advanced athletes use this as a method to help themselves learn to pull their body down to the weight, but this can be done as a warm-up with lighter weight as well.

How to Do It

1. To start, place a barbell on the ground and over the middle of your foot.

2. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart, your toes pointed slightly outward, and your hands slightly wider than your feet.

3. Drop your hips back, drive your chest up, and begin to push your feet into the floor while shifting your kneed back.

4. As the bar passes your knees,  keep your torso upright and shift your knees forward.

5. Jump straight up in a fluid motion as you shrug the bar.

6. As the bar passes your shoulders, rotate your elbows around the bar until they are facing forward.

7. Catch the bar on your shoulders with your hands outside of your shoulders as if you were about to do an overhead press.

8. That's 1 rep.

Clean Exercise Alternatives

If you don’t feel comfortable with the barbell clean just yet, or you want to perform accessory movements to help you get stronger, add these to your training routine.

Clean Pull

Imagine doing the bottom third of the clean but shrugging the weight instead of cleaning it. That is essentially what the clean pull is. You pull the barbell off the floor in a cleaning fashion, and once it reaches your thighs, you pull it straight up like a barbell shrug. It is beneficial for mobility and power.

How to Do It

1. Stand with feet hip-width apart and bend down to grasp the bar at shoulder width, to start.

2. Keep your lower back flat, chest up, and eyes looking forward.

3. Begin extending your hips to pull the bar off the floor—keep your weight on your heels and your shoulders directly over the bar as it rises.

4. When the bar reaches the top of your thighs, explosively extend your hips, shrug the bar, and come up onto your toes.

5. Control the bar back to the floor.

6. That's 1 rep.

Pendlay Row

If you want an exercise to help with the pulling portion of the clean, or if you are just looking for a posterior chain builder, then the Pendlay Row is a must. This floor version of a barbell row is named after famed Olympic coach Glenn Pendlay. The explosion of the pull with limited attention to the negative helps increase power and will also help with density in the upper back.

How to Do It

1. To start, place a barbell don't he floor in front of you with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width.

2. Place your hands on the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, brace your core, and use your lats to pull the barbell to your chest.

3. That's 1 rep.

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Clean Exercise FAQs

What's the Difference Between the Clean and Power Clean?

The power clean is a more advanced version of the clean because you are catching the weight at a higher point. You don’t catch the weight in a front squat position. Instead, you are pulling it up to the shoulders and rolling your arms underneath it at the top position. You won’t be able to use as much weight, but it will help you get stronger for the full version.

Is the Clean Bad for My Wrists?

If you already have bad wrists, then you may want to talk to your doctor before trying cleans. If you are healthy and have no preexisting wrist issues, then these are safe for you to do. If you catch the weight properly, then there is minimal toll on the wrists because the weight will be more on the shoulders and torso, while your hands are there for support.