Clean & Jerk

The clean and jerk is a two-part Olympic weightlifting movement. You lift a barbell from the floor to your shoulders, then drive it overhead. It trains full-body power, coordination, strength, and timing.

Set your feet about hip-width apart with your toes under the bar. Grip the bar just outside your legs with your palms facing you. Flatten your back, lift your chest, and set your shoulders over or slightly in front of the bar.

Pull the bar from the floor, keeping it close to your shins and thighs. Once it passes your knees, explosively extend your hips and shrug your shoulders. Pull yourself under the bar into a front squat, catch it on your shoulders with your elbows high, and stand up. Then dip straight down by bending only your knees, drive hard through your legs, and push your body under the bar to lock it overhead. Catch with your feet split or in a squat stance, then stand tall with the bar stable overhead.

Take a big breath and brace your core before you pull. Keep that brace until the bar is locked out overhead, then breathe normally. To make it easier, practice the clean and jerk as two separate movements, or catch higher in a power position. To make it harder, catch the clean in a deeper squat and drive more aggressively under the jerk.

Fault: The bar swings away from your body on the way up. Fix: Pull the bar back into your thighs and hips, keeping your elbows turned out and the bar close all the way through the pull.

Fault: You catch the clean with low elbows and the bar sliding down your chest. Fix: Rotate your elbows up quickly and get your shoulders underneath the bar so it rests on the front of your shoulders.

Fault: Your jerk dip sends your hips back or your chest falls forward. Fix: Stay tall, bend only at the knees, and drive straight down and up through your whole foot.

Fault: You try to muscle the bar overhead with your arms instead of using your legs. Fix: Make the dip and drive aggressive, then punch your body under the bar and lock your arms out as you receive it.