Hang Clean Weightlifting Guide: How to Perform the Hang Clean

A hang clean is a weightlifting exercise that activates muscle groups throughout your body. Perform the hang clean exercise by holding a weighted barbell against your mid-thighs in a standing position. While holding the bar close to your body, use an explosive movement to lift the bar into a front rack position in front of your shoulders. Rotate your wrists and catch the barbell as you lower your body into a front squat position.

For the hang clean, begin by using a weight that you can control for 3–5 sets of 3–6 repetitions. Choose a weight that allows you to maintain good technique throughout all sets and repetitions.

1. 1. Stand directly in front of the barbell with your toes underneath it. Your posture should be tall, with your feet shoulder-width apart and a slight bend in your knees. Your shoulders should be directly over your hips with a neutral head and neck position. Your chin should remain tucked throughout the movement as if you were holding an egg under your chin.
2. 2. Evenly distribute the weight on your feet along the entire foot. Grip the floor with your feet to create a stable foot position.
3. 3. Keep your arms long by your sides with a slight bend in your elbows.
4. 4. Pre-tension your shoulders, hips, and core with an inhale and exhale before lowering toward the barbell.
5. 5. Hinge from your hips and begin to bend your hips and knees to lower your body toward the barbell. Your shins should be close to the barbell while remaining upright.
6. 6. Grab the barbell with an overhand grip just outside of your hips. Rotate your shoulders outward to engage your back muscles.
   
7. 7. Your chest should be higher than your hips, and your hips should be higher than your knees.
8. 8. Push your feet into the ground to stand tall.
9. 9. While maintaining a neutral spine, hinge your hips back. Your shins should be vertical and your shoulders should be over the barbell. The barbell should be at the middle of your thighs.
10. 10. While keeping your shoulders over the bar, keep the barbell close to your body and start your upward movement by pushing your feet through the floor.
11. 11. As you begin to stand, maintain your back position and keep your shoulders over the barbell.
12. 12. Your chest and hips should rise at the same time while maintaining your back position.
13. 13. As the barbell passes your knees and your upper body becomes upright, explosively push your legs into the ground as if you were jumping. Your shoulders should still be over the barbell.
14. 14. Once your hips, knees, and ankles are straight, explosively shrug your shoulders.
15. 15. Your arms should still be extended, with your elbows pointed outward. As your shoulders reach their highest point, quickly pull your body under the barbell while rotating your hands around and under the barbell.
16. 16. Quickly punch your elbows forward and rotate your wrist under the barbell to catch the barbell on your upper chest and shoulders, then lower into a front squat position.
17. 17. Your legs should finish in a parallel squat position or slightly lower than parallel. Only lower as far as you can maintain a level pelvis and a strong squatting position.
18. 18. Stand tall, as if you were finishing a front squat repetition.

Including hang cleans in your strength training program can have several benefits:

1. 1. Hang cleans are a total-body exercise. The hang clean can help build muscles across your body, including in your glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, biceps, and core.
2. 2. Hang cleans improve your explosive power. With proper hang clean form, the hang clean can increase your power output during other weightlifting exercises.
3. 3. Hang cleans prepare you for other Olympic lifts. Practicing the hang clean is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for more challenging Olympic lifts, like the clean and jerk.

The hang clean and the power clean are both variations of clean weightlifting exercises, but there are a few distinctions between the two:

• Starting position: When performing the power clean, the barbell begins on the floor. In contrast, the barbell rests against your mid-thigh in the hang position at the start of the hang clean.
• Movement pattern: Power cleans use a lifting form similar to a deadlift as you lift the barbell off the floor. When catching the barbell during a power clean, only lower yourself into a quarter squat position. Hang cleans use an entire squat movement as you catch the barbell.
• Difficulty level: The momentum used in a power clean generally makes it an easier lift than a hang clean. For novice lifters, consider starting with the hang power clean, which combines a hang starting position with a quarter squat movement.

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