Clean
Also works: Calves · Forearms · Glutes · Lower Back · Quadriceps · Shoulders · Traps
Taking a barbell from the floor to the front rack in one movement, catching it in a full front squat and standing up. It is three distinct pulls stitched into roughly a second, and the position you receive it in is what separates a clean from a power clean.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Set the bar over the middle of your feet, close enough that your shins nearly touch it.
- Feet roughly hip-width with toes turned out slightly — a pulling stance, narrower than your squat stance.
- Take a hook grip just outside your legs: thumb against the bar, index and middle fingers over the thumb. It hurts for two weeks and then it does not.
- Squat down so your shoulders sit just in front of the bar, chest up, spine locked in extension, weight over mid-foot.
- Take your breath and brace before the bar moves, and keep the arms completely straight and relaxed.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — One breath per rep, taken and held at the bottom of the setup and kept through the whole pull and catch. Exhale once you are standing with the bar racked. There is no tempo prescription beyond slow off the floor and maximally fast from mid-thigh.
Before you load it
- Learn to bail: if the catch fails, push the bar forward and step back. Practise it light once so the reaction is automatic.
- Use bumper plates and a platform. Dropping a missed clean is the correct outcome, and iron plates on a hard floor take that option away.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Start with a technique bar or an empty 20 kg bar and spend several sessions on position before loading anything. Add weight only when every rep is caught in the same place with the elbows already up. A clean equal to bodyweight is a solid intermediate marker for a non-competitor; most people's clean sits around 60-70 percent of their back squat, and if the gap is far wider than that your problem is technique, not legs.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Make the first pull deliberately slow and the second pull violent. Practise with 40-50 percent for triples and count the two speeds out loud so the contrast becomes automatic.
Think of your arms as ropes attached to the bar until your hips are fully open. Do clean pulls with straps for a few sets so you cannot cheat with the biceps.
Drill front-rack mobility and practise the turnover with an empty bar, aiming to punch the elbows through fast enough that they are up before the bar lands.
Keep the bar brushing your thighs and think about pulling it back into your hips at the extension, not up in front of your chest.
Cap the weight at whatever load still lets you catch the bar in a full front squat with elbows up. Skill first, load second — a heavier miss teaches nothing.
Why bother
The clean is the only common barbell lift where the bar is briefly weightless and you have to move faster than it falls. Extending the hips, knees and ankles launches the bar; then you pull yourself down under it and catch it on your shoulders. That reversal — from pulling up to pulling down — is a skill, and it is why loading a broken clean produces nothing but a bad habit and a bruised collarbone.
The catch depth is the definition. Receiving the bar with your hips above parallel is a power clean; riding it down into the bottom of a front squat is a full clean, and it lets you catch weights you could never pull high enough to power clean. That is the whole argument for learning the squat catch.
Where it fits
First movement of the session, after a thorough warm-up, on a day where nothing has fatigued your legs or grip. Two to three sessions a week works if the volume stays low: 4-6 singles, doubles or triples at moderate weight beats one grinding heavy set. Never program it for reps beyond three — bar speed and position decay long before your legs do.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
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When this gets easy
Asked and answered
What is the difference between a clean and a power clean?
Only the catch height. A power clean is received with the hips above parallel; a full clean is received in the bottom of a front squat. Because you do not have to pull the bar as high, most lifters can full clean 10-15 percent more than they power clean once the squat catch is comfortable.
Do I need the hook grip?
Yes, if you intend to go heavy. A normal overhand grip fails long before your pull does, and straps are unusable because you have to release the bar into the rack. The hook grip is painful for the first couple of weeks and then stops being a topic.
Can I learn the clean from videos alone?
You can learn a serviceable one, but expect it to take far longer and to embed at least one habit you will have to unlearn. Film every session from the side at hip height, compare the bar path against your own best rep, and get a coach's eyes on it at least once if you can.
Will cleans make me more explosive for sport?
They train rapid triple extension against a meaningful load, which transfers reasonably to sprinting and jumping. But the skill cost is real — several months before the loads are high enough to matter. If you have one season to prepare, jumps and heavy squats buy the same quality faster.
How high should the bar go?
Only just high enough to get under. Trying to pull it to chest height is a common beginner error that wastes the extension and delays the turnover. Aim to meet the bar, not to lift it to your shoulders.