Clean

The clean is an explosive barbell lift where you pull the bar from the floor and catch it on your shoulders in a front rack position. It trains full-body power, especially your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and upper traps, while your back, core, and forearms work hard to stay tight and control the bar.

Set up with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes under the bar. Grip the bar just outside your legs with a hook grip or overhand grip. Drop your hips so your shoulders are slightly above the bar, chest up, back flat, and arms straight like ropes.

Push the floor away and sweep the bar back toward your body, keeping it close through the knee. Once the bar passes your thighs, violently extend your hips and knees, then pull yourself under the bar fast, spinning your elbows around and up. Meet the bar in the front rack with your elbows high, absorb the catch in a squat, then stand up out of the hole with speed.

Take a big breath and brace your core before you pull. Hold that brace until you are standing tall at the top. If you are learning the movement, start with a hang clean or power clean to shorten the range of motion and catch higher. If you want more challenge, catch in a full squat clean from the floor and lower slowly.

Fault: The bar swings out around the knees instead of staying close. Fix: Think about sweeping the bar back into your thighs; keep it close through the knee and finish tall with your hips.

Fault: The elbows are slow to rotate under the bar, so the catch lands on your chest or wrists. Fix: Pull under aggressively and spin your elbows around fast so you meet the bar in the front rack with a high elbow shelf.

Fault: Catching the bar with feet too narrow or knees collapsing inward under load. Fix: Jump and land in a stable squat stance, feet shoulder-width or slightly wider, and drive your knees out as you stand up out of the hole with speed.

Fault: Lower back rounds during the setup or pull. Fix: Brace your core tight, chest up, shoulders above the bar, and keep your back set from start to finish.