Power Clean Exercise Guide: How to Master Power Cleans

The power clean is a strength-training exercise that works muscles throughout your body. Practice power cleans by standing in front of a weighted barbell with your feet hip-width apart. Bend your hips and knees to lower yourself closer to the barbell. Grab the barbell with a hook grip (thumbs tucked under the rest of your fingers).

While keeping your chest up, perform the first pull with a deadlift movement pattern by lifting the bar off the floor. Once the bar passes your knees, explosively push your feet into the floor to perform the second pull, standing tall. Keep the bar close to your body as you go through the range of motion of the third pull, lifting the bar to shoulder height and catching it in a front rack position against your clavicles and shoulders.

For power cleans, begin by using a weight that you can control for 3–5 sets of 3–5 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 the barbell. 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 your weight and grip the floor with your feet to create a stable position. Your arms should remain long by your sides with a slight bend in your elbows. Pre-tension your shoulders, hips, and core with a good inhale and exhale before lowering toward the barbell.
3. 3. Hinge from your hips and begin to bend your knees to lower your body toward the barbell. Your shins should be close to the barbell while remaining in a vertical position.
4. 4. Grab the barbell with your hands spaced slightly wider than your hips and a double overhand grip, or hook grip, with your fingers wrapped over your thumbs. Rotate your shoulders outward to engage your back muscles. Your chest should be higher than your hips and your hips should be higher than your knees. Your shoulders should be slightly ahead of the barbell. All repetitions should begin from this starting position.
5. 5. While keeping your shoulders over the bar and the barbell close to your body, start your upward movement by pushing your feet through the floor to stand up. Your chest and hips should rise at the same time while maintaining your back angle.
6. 6. As the barbell passes your knees and your upper body becomes upright, explosively push your legs into the ground as if you were jumping. While straightening your hips, knees, and ankles, aggressively shrug your shoulders. Your arms should still be long, with your elbows pointed outward.
7. 7. As your shoulders reach their highest point, quickly pull your body under the barbell while rotating your hands around and under the barbell.
8. 8. Quickly punch your elbows forward and rotate your wrists under the barbell to catch the barbell on your upper chest and shoulders. Your legs should finish in a quarter squat position as you catch the barbell.
9. 9. Stand tall as if you were finishing a front squat repetition.
10. 10. Lower the barbell to the floor under control and set up for another repetition.

Regularly practicing power cleans can have several benefits.

1. 1. Power cleans enhance your full-body strength. Power cleans build muscle throughout your upper and lower body, including in your quadriceps, deltoids, core, and triceps—as well as posterior chain muscles like the hamstrings, glutes, lower back muscles, and the trapezius in your upper back.
2. 2. Power cleans increase your explosive power. With practice, the power clean can improve your explosiveness and vertical jump ability, allowing you to build explosive strength for lifting heavy weights and cardio exercises.
3. 3. Power cleans improve your clean technique. By learning proper power clean form, you can improve other clean exercises, including variations that use a full squat movement.

Once you’ve mastered the basic power clean, try some of these other power clean variations.

1. 1. Hang power clean: Perform the hang clean variation by beginning with the weighted barbell in a hang position around your mid-thigh level.
2. 2. Dumbbell power clean: If you want to highlight muscle asymmetries that you may have developed using a single piece of equipment, try the dumbbell power clean variation.
3. 3. Power clean and jerk: For a more challenging variation, add a jerk movement at the top of the exercise to move the barbell overhead.

If you have a previous or pre-existing health condition, consult your physician before beginning an exercise program. Proper exercise technique is essential to ensure the safety and effectiveness of an exercise program, but you may need to modify each exercise to attain optimal results based on your individual needs. Always select a weight that allows you to have full control of your body throughout the movement. When performing any exercise, pay close attention to your body, and stop immediately if you note pain or discomfort.

To see continual progress and build body strength, incorporate proper warm-ups, rest, and nutrition into your exercise program. Your results will ultimately be based on your ability to adequately recover from your workouts. Rest for 24 to 48 hours before training the same muscle groups to allow sufficient recovery.

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