Power Clean
An explosive barbell pull from the floor to a front rack catch on the shoulders, finishing without any overhead press.
How to do it
- Set a loaded barbell on the floor about an inch in front of your shins with your feet hip-width apart.
- Squat down and grip the bar just outside your knees with your hips below your shoulders and your chest up.
- Extend your hips and knees to lift the bar while keeping your torso angle and the bar close to your legs.
- As the bar passes your knees, drive your hips forward and explosively extend hips, knees and ankles.
- Shrug and pull your elbows high, then whip them under the bar to catch it on your front deltoids in a quarter squat.
- Stand tall to finish the rep, then lower the bar back to the floor under control.
Key technique cue
Push with the legs first, arms late; keep the bar close and whip the elbows under it.
Common mistakes
- ✕ Pulling with the arms early, which spends the leg drive that should be moving the bar.
- ✕ Letting the bar drift away from the body, which throws the catch forward and out of position.
- ✕ Catching with the elbows low, so the bar rolls onto the wrists instead of resting on the shoulders.
- ✕ Loading it before the sequence is grooved, which turns an explosive lift into a slow bent-over row.
Benefits
- ✓ Trains triple extension of the hips, knees and ankles against a heavy external load.
- ✓ The whole-body timing demand makes it a coordination lift as much as a strength lift.
- ✓ It ends at the shoulders rather than overhead, so the shoulder demand stays low.
Progression: from easier to harder
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Step 1 -
Step 2 You are here - Power Clean
- Hang Clean
About the exercise
The power clean moves a barbell from the floor to the shoulders in one explosive sequence. It breaks into a first pull that lifts the bar while the torso angle holds, a transition as the bar passes the knees, a second pull that extends hips, knees and ankles before a high shrug, and a catch where the elbows whip under the bar and receive it on the front deltoids. The lower body and hips generate most of the force, and the full sequence can take years to master. Muscle activity starts in the back and the posterior lower limb, then the hips and quadriceps, with the arms joining last.
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