Is there a feat of strength more visually striking than taking a heavy chunk of metal from the bottom, heaving it into the air, and locking it overhead? The image alone, sometimes seen in silhouette, is iconic.
The clean & jerk, together with the snatch, make up the Olympic lifts — the one strength sport currently competed within the Olympics. The “C&J” is a whole movement which might develop strength, power, coordination, speed, and muscle throughout your whole body in case you can master it.
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No wonder it’s utilized in many strength and conditioning programs to supply high-performance athletes, or that the exercise made its way into CrossFit training, which emphasizes difficult your entire body as often as possible.
The clean & jerk consists of two distinct movements: the clean and the jerk (yes, it’s that straightforward). Each of those lifts is complex enough by itself, and mixing each during a single repetition is a difficult task. But don’t worry, you’re about to find an in depth breakdown on how one can master this beast of a lift.
Clean & Jerk
The right way to Do the Clean & Jerk Step by Step
The clean & jerk is an explosive movement that requires (and builds) strength, coordination, and speed. You can not perform an accurate clean & jerk slowly. That is considered one of the explanation why it’s so demanding. The technique requires timing, mobility, and total-body coordination.
Ideally, you’ll load the bar with specialized, rubber-coated bumper plates which permit a safer and more efficient strategy to perform the ultimate phase of every repetition, however the clean & jerk will be performed (fastidiously) with any metal plates.
Step 1 — Get Into the Starting Position
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Stand in front of a barbell on the bottom with a hips-wide stance. Angle your toes and knees barely outward. Bend at your hips and hinge forward to grab the bar with a rather wider than shoulder-width grip, using a pronated (palm down) grip.
Squat down until your shoulders are barely above the barbell. Your hips needs to be lower than your shoulders but higher than your knees. Keep your back flat, your chest high, and look forward.
Form tip: Keep the bar close touching, or almost touching, your shins through the setup. This can ensure a correct bar path with less lower back strain.
Step 2 — Initiate the “First Pull”
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The primary pull is the term for the beginning of the clean. It’s the moment you break the barbell from the bottom and produce it to your knees. Brace your core, flex your lats, and drive along with your legs by pushing your feet through the bottom. Your hips and shoulders should raise at the identical speed, while the barbell stays very near your body. The primary pull isn’t unlike the initial start of an ordinary deadlift.
Form tip: Since the clean & jerk is an explosive movement, you is likely to be tempted to blow up off the ground to generate force as quickly as possible. Don’t. Concentrate on being in charge of the barbell along with your whole body braced. Especially in case you’re unsure about your technique, decelerate your first pull.
Step 3 — Explode Into the “Second Pull”
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On this phase, you’ll achieve triple extension — full extension of your hips, knees, and ankles. The second pull occurs because the bar passes your knees. Now you’ll be able to explode up with as much force as possible by extending your whole lower body.
While keeping your arms straight, extend your hips and knees forcefully. As you extend, push through the balls of your feet as hard as you’ll be able to. Your heels should raise off the bottom. For those who’ve performed a whole triple extension, your body in a whole straight line, with only your toes and the balls of your feet on the ground.
Form tip: Consider jumping as high as you’ll be able to to transfer maximum power into the bar, but don’t actually lose contact with the bottom. Since the movement is a hip hinge, you might be tempted to blow up your hips forward like a kettlebell swing to attempt to generate force, but it can lead to an inefficient bar path. When you pass your knees, think “up, up, up.”
Step 4 — Transition Into the “Third Pull”
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Now that you simply’ve transferred force out of your lower body to boost the bar, the third pull is definitely pulling yourself “under” the barbell to catch it. As you finish the triple extension and rise onto your toes, shrug as hard as you’ll be able to to present much more energy to the bar while “pulling” yourself under it.
Find yourself along with your knees barely bent and your chest proud, able to receive the bar in a front rack position.
Form tip: “Attack” the bottom with force. Imagine you’re attempting to hit the ground as fast as you’ll be able to when you stand in your toes.
Step 5 — Catch the Bar and Stand Up
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Let your arms bend and squat all the way down to catch the bar between the front of your shoulders and your clavicles, keeping your elbows as high as you’ll be able to. Perform a robust front squat until you stand tall.
Form tip: How low you “should” squat to catch the bar is determined by the burden relative to your strength, and the way much force you applied to the bar. The harder and heavier it’s, the deeper you’ll likely need to squat. If you could have to squat to parallel or below, the movement is taken into account a “full clean.” For those who receive the bar in a better squat position, it’s called a “power clean.”
Step 6 — Dip Down
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The clean phase of the lift is now complete. It’s time to tackle the jerk. From the front rack position, bend your knees and dip down a couple of inches to build up energy in your lower body. Only bend at your knees, not your hips, to make sure a vertical bar path and whole-body stability.
Form tip: Before initiating the dip, you’ll be able to barely lower your elbows, so that they’re between a front squat (facing forward) and a push press (facing the bottom) position. This can assist you to use a bit more shoulder power to lift the burden. Depending in your upper body mobility, chances are you’ll also feel comfortable adjusting to a rather wider hand position.
Step 7 — Jerk the Weight Up
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Push as hard as you’ll be able to through your legs to drive the bar up. Use the identical triple extension as through the clean to generate as much force as you’ll be able to — completely extend your hips, knees, and ankles — after which push the burden along with your arms.
Form tip: Don’t bend forward. That may sacrifice power, increase strain in your lower back, and shift the bar right into a less efficient path that’s more more likely to fail the lift. Keep a very vertical bar path.
Step 8 — Split and Catch the Barbell
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From this position, transition as fast as possible into your catch position by splitting right into a half-lunge. Quickly position one leg in front of you, along with your foot flat and your knee vertical, and one behind you, barely bent and along with your weight in your toes. Assume a shoulder-wide stance. Straighten your arms forcefully and keep them straight the remainder of the exercise.
Form tip: The bar should find yourself directly over your upper back, in a roundabout way above your head. At lockout, your arms needs to be vertical and never angled to the front or back.
Step 9 — Get well and Finish the Lift
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Bring your front foot back in half of the best way, after which bring it directly under you. Now, bring your rear leg forward and hold the position with the bar overhead briefly. That’s it, you’ve accomplished a clean & jerk.
From there, in case you’re on a weightlifting platform and using bumper plates, gently guide the bar back to the bottom with control — don’t let it free fall wildly. For those who’re lifting with metal plates, lower the bar to the front rack position across the front of your shoulders, after which lower it to your hip crease before “deadlifting” it all the way down to the bottom.
Form tip: That entire sequence was one single repetition. When the bar is returned to the bottom, take a breath and refocus before performing additional reps.
Clean & Jerk Mistakes to Avoid
This exercise may be very technical, so minor mistakes are certain to occur until you actually nail it. Attempt to avoid these blunders though, as they’ll hinder your progress and will potentially result in injury.
Using Too Much Weight
Technique should all the time come before weight with any exercise, but it surely rings much more true with the Olympic lifts. Using an excessive amount of weight will force your body to make use of the trail of least resistance, as an alternative of proper technique and efficient bar path.
This ends in “muscling” the burden up and grinding a lift that needs to be performed easily. You’ll never learn the correct technique that way and also you’ll only risk injury, especially on the shoulder complex.
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Avoid it: Ensure that you employ appropriate weight and feel confident in your technique before increasing the load. For those who change the burden and your movement is different, you could have to spend more time at a lower weight. It’s not unusual for starting lifters to learn the clean & jerk with a broomstick before even using a 45-pound barbell.
Not Staying Over The Bar
In the course of the clean & jerk, your shoulders need to stay barely in front of the bar until you finish the second pull and completely extend your body. This can allow you to maximize bar height and path. In case your body doesn’t stay in good alignment, you’ll be able to’t effectively transfer force into the bar and the bar path is less more likely to be vertical.
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Avoid it: Keep your weight balanced over the center of your feet. Don’t put an excessive amount of weight in your toes (unless you’re purported to be in full extension) or in your heels. Don’t rush the primary pull. Control the bar until the moment you explode up.
Not Keeping the Bar Near You
Keeping the bar near you is paramount for optimal bar path, to optimize bar height and power, in addition to minimizing low back strain and upper-body involvement.
If the bar drifts away from you, you’ll most certainly find yourself performing a “muscle clean,” a technically easier variation involving way more shoulders and upper back muscle than lower body. While it might be a superb exercise, it’s not a clean. You’ll never find a way to make use of as much weight or develop total-body power.
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Avoid it: Keep the bar near you at absolutely all times. Decelerate the beginning of the lift in order that the bar is grazing you until you completely extend your hips. With some people, there’s even contact on the hips.
Squatting the Dip
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Whenever you dip and create the leg drive, you is likely to be tempted to squat deep. However the dip isn’t meant to be a squat. For those who bend at your hips, you risk losing your upright position and send the bar forward as an alternative of in a straight line within the air.
The dip needs to be short and fast. You shouldn’t go too low or actually squat the burden down. You’ll simply lose strength and the catch will change into that much harder.
Avoid it: Only dip down a couple of inches while staying as upright as possible. Remind yourself, “quick dip, not a deep squat.”
The right way to Progress the Clean & Jerk
This lift being very technical, it is likely to be useful to include several of those progressions in your training to learn and strengthen key positions of the movement. You possibly can incorporate the technique piece by piece. You could possibly dedicate full workouts to the lift or you’ll be able to add clean progressions to your lower body days, and jerk progressions to an upper body workout.
Clean Pull
Weightlifting is all about generating power, and the clean pull is amazing at that. This progression only consists of the primary and second pull of the clean, followed by a robust shrug and upright row.
Get into your clean position, raise the barbell to your knee with control, then violently explode up by extending your hips, knees, and ankles. Then shrug and let your elbows bend to boost the barbell to no less than chest level, up until your chin. Keep the barbell near your body in any respect times. This progression is great to learn how one can generate power and the primary a part of the clean.
Hang Clean
Where a lot of the mistakes occur through the clean is definitely initially: through the set-up and the primary pull. For those who fail to execute this portion perfectly, the remainder of the lift is certain to be subpar.
The hang clean avoids this by having you begin the lift “from the hang”, with the barbell at around knee level — you simply need to do the second and third pull and the catch. You possibly can practice the top of the movement more easily this fashion.
Power Clean
The facility clean is the other, you perform a clean with a lighter weight and also you catch it only along with your knees barely bent over parallel. Not having to squat all the best way down makes the movement easier especially in case you’re not essentially the most mobile lifter.
You possibly can make the exercise even simpler and perform it from “the hang”, combining each of the perfect worlds for developing raw power and ease.
Muscle Clean and Press
Here we bypass essentially the most technical elements of the lifts to rely more on our muscles to perform it. You won’t find a way to make use of as much weight, but that is an ideal exercise so as to add size to your frame.
To perform the muscle clean, get into your clean position, pull the bar up and explode like an everyday clean. But, as an alternative of positioning yourself right into a squat after the full-body extension, keep your legs and torso straight and pull the burden up along with your elbows as high as you’ll be able to. Once they’re at maximal height, quickly bring them across the bar into the front rack position to catch the bar while standing tall. From there, press the burden up by extending the arms until the bar is locked out overhead, then lower it with control to your collarbone.
Push Press
This hybrid between a press and a jerk teaches you to dip and use your legs to help your upper body in lifting more weight. Grab a barbell with a full grip and assume a front rack position, with the barbell sitting between your anterior deltoids (front of your shoulder) and your clavicles.
Shrug your shoulders up and forward to create a form of “muscle nest” for the bar. Lower your elbows a bit so that you simply’ll find a way to make use of more arms. Dip down by bending on the knees for a couple of inches, then explode up as hard as you’ll be able to. When your legs are completely prolonged, press the bar up as much as you’ll be able to by attempting to punch the ceiling. Then, lower it with control to the initial position.
Power Jerk
This variation is such as the ability clean, but with the jerk. Begin with the barbell in a front racked position, either from a rack or after having cleaned it. Dip down, then explode up and forcefully extend your arms, like a standard jerk.
But as an alternative of splitting your feet and catching the bar in a deep squat, you attack the bottom with each feet in a standard squat stance and receive it along with your knees barely bent. This manner, you bypass the technical split catch position and concentrate on the primary a part of the jerk.
Advantages of the Clean & Jerk
If this exercise is so complicated, why achieve this many athletes need to learn it? It’s easy: it offers advantages no other can reciprocate (apart, perhaps, from the snatch, which is even harder). Here’s what this exercise has to supply.
Increases Explosive Power
Power is the capability to maneuver weights as fast as possible. It’s a combination of speed and strength, and increasing your power means you’ll most certainly improve your strength and speed as well! Indeed, this exercise will teach your brain to raised recruit your muscles in order that they reach a better peak force and to succeed in it faster.
It’s also very relevant for athletes who need to move their very own bodies or implements fast: they aren’t weightless. It signifies that this exercise will help them run faster, jump higher, throw farther, and tackle harder. For those who’re an athlete, that is some of the efficient and effective exercises to make you higher at your sport. (1)
Total-Body Strength
To grab a weighted barbell and balance it over your head requires tremendous strength from head to toe (or, more accurately, from traps to calves). With the clean & jerk, you’ll be able to load relatively more weight than with the snatch, so it’s an explosive movement that tends toward constructing pure strength and power. This exercise recruits just about the entire muscles in your body and puts them to the test. Indeed, it alternates between pulling and pushing phases for the whole-body.
Improves Balance, Posture, and Coordination
Holding weight within the front rack position, then throwing it within the air and balancing it overheard requires a core and a back of steel and can construct strong and stable shoulders. This can lead to a greater posture and a more resilient back.
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Then, you wish an ideal deal of coordination to maneuver with precision, speed, and strength each upper-body and lower-body limbs at the identical time. Finally, it takes a complete lot of balance to take care of the split position and catch a heavy weight that way. This exercise builds strength and speed, but for that you furthermore may need to construct higher body mechanics and athletic qualities. (2)
Higher Cardiovascular Health
As this exercise recruits just about the entire muscles within the body, the demand placed on the cardiovascular system is tremendous because your heart has to pump blood in every single place. Studies have found that weightlifting improves resting heart rate, VO2 max, and blood pressure. (3)
Even with an empty barbell, properly done clean & jerks can leave you breathless. No wonder relatively high reps of those are ceaselessly utilized in CrossFit to gauge the endurance capacities of athletes.
Muscles Worked by the Clean & Jerk
There’s no muscles spared by the clean & jerk. Out of your forearms to grip the barbell all the best way all the way down to the calves to project it within the air. Let’s cover the important movers of this exercise.
Quadriceps
The quadriceps are the largest leg muscles, and are among the many body’s strongest. They go from the femur or hip bone to the tibia within the lower leg. Their important function is to increase the knee. As such, they can be liable for a lot of the power generated through the exercise.
They’re extensively recruited through the triple extension to project the barbell within the air, and much more through the deep front squat that follows the catch. Then, they can even be mainly liable for propulsing the barbell upwards through the jerk, just after the dip, and to stand up from the lunge required to catch it through the split.
Pressing Muscles
In the course of the jerk, these upper body muscles can be tremendously recruited to assist pressing the bar overhead and hold it there with the arms locked out. They’re your deltoids (shoulder muscles), pectoralis major (chest), and your triceps (the posterior arm muscles).
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The deltoid goes from the clavicle and scapula (shoulder blade) to the humerus — the arm bone. This muscle will raise the arm upwards. The front delts can be essentially the most recruited, but all of them take part in the movement. The chest can also be attached to the humerus, then to the sternum and ribs. Only its upper fibers can be recruited here, assisting the deltoids. Finally the triceps goes from the scapula and humerus to the ulna (forearm bone). Its function here is to increase the arm to press the burden up and keep the arms locked out.
Posterior Chain
The posterior chain, as a complete, will contribute to the movement. Within the lower body, the hamstrings and glutes will extend the hips and be mainly liable for the deadlift portion and cleansing the burden, while the calves will contribute to the explosive portion of each the clean and the jerk through ankle extension.
Within the upper body, the erector spinae will help with hip extension in addition to back extension within the clean, and the trapezius for the ultimate pull upward. The entire of your back can be recruited to take care of posture in addition to arm and scapular stability.
The right way to Program the Clean & Jerk
Due to its technical component, this movement needs to be done in a selected way. Generally you would like to avoid an excessive amount of fatigue for it’d lead to technical breakdown that can reduce neural efficiency and increase the time to master the lift, in addition to risking injury.
Medium to Heavy Weight, Low Repetitions
How heavy you’ll be able to go will rely upon your technical proficiency, but three to 5 sets of 1 to 5 reps needs to be the majority of your programming. You wish perfect technique on all repetitions, and that is why we avoid doing longer sets, as fatigue will generate form breakdown.
For those who cannot move the bar fast, you can not use good technique, and also you’ll find yourself hurt. Staying in that one to 5 rep range ensures you’re performing mostly “neural” work, so muscular fatigue shouldn’t change into a problem. Ensure that to make use of ample rest periods of no less than two minutes.
EMOM
The every minute on the minute format is a wonderful strategy to learn the Olympic lift and practice technique, because the short breaks allow for quality work and increased density — meaning quite a lot of work in a short while. (4)
Set a timer that can ring every minute, or every 90 seconds if you would like to go heavier. Each time the alarm rings, perform one to 3 repetitions and rest for the remaining time, for a complete duration of ten to twenty minutes. You possibly can get creative and use different weight and repetitions schemes through the period. You could possibly also incorporate exercise progressions. Just make sure to all the time use perfect form.
As an example, you might do five minutes of three reps with the muscle clean and press, then five minutes of two reps using the ability clean and push press, and at last five minutes of a one-rep clean & jerk.
Clean & Jerk Variations
For those who don’t have access to a barbell, need to spice things up, or try a less difficult variation, don’t worry. There are several clean & jerk variations in stock.
Dumbbell Clean & Jerk
Changing the equipment will make the exercise technically easier while involving more muscles at the identical time, especially within the shoulders and traps. Grab a pair of dumbbells and perform much like the barbell clean & jerk.
To avoid having to go extra deep, have only considered one of the heads of the dumbbells touch the bottom on each repetition. Because this variation is less technical and dangerous, you’ll be able to actually use it for longer sets and luxuriate in muscular fatigue to construct more muscle or endurance very easily. You too can do it with a pair of kettlebells.
Clean & Squat Jerk
Only the jerk portion of the lift is different with this movement. As an alternative of assuming a half-lunge position to catch the barbell in a split, catch it in a deep squat. After dipping down and exploding upwards, “attack” the bottom forcefully along with your feet in a shoulder-width stance and squat down on the required depth.
This variation requires extra mobility and balance, but has the advantage of not needing to raise the barbell as much through the jerk with a view to lift more weight because you’ll be able to drop deeper within the squat position than within the lunge.
Continental Clean & Jerk
This brutal exercise typically requires an axle or fat bar. This specialized bar is utilized in many strongman or strongwoman contests because its two to three-inch thick grip will eventually make grip strength the limiting consider any exercise.
To perform the continental clean, you employ a mixed grip with one hand is flipped under the axle (palm up) and the opposite hand in a palm-down grip. Perform a standard clean, and don’t forget to shrug hard at the highest, then the bar needs to be guided and set at around lower sternum-level. It may possibly help if you could have a “power belly” to rest it on. Without that, a weightlifting belt will be used as a makeshift ledge.
Because the bar rests, switch your underhand bar to a palm-down position, and use your hips to dip down and pop the bar as much as the front rack position. From there, you’ll be able to either press, push press, or jerk the burden overhead. This variation will construct a bulletproof core and upper back, mainly since the continental phase is so difficult.
FAQs
When should I do the clean & jerk?
This lift is best performed in a fresh start, at the start of the session. Indeed, you would like to avoid muscular and neural fatigue with a view to perform best with flawless technique. And since of its neural and power component, this exercise may function activation to prime you for the following exercises. As an example, doing it before heavy squats might allow you to lift heavier.
For those who’re an experienced lifter and also you’ve mastered the technique, you might also try the other though, and reserve it for last. Because your muscles are drained, your body could have no alternative but to depend on technique to execute the lift.
How often should I clean & jerk?
The reply will depend on your fitness goals and experience level, but you’ll be able to actually practice this lift somewhat often, since it’s essential to avoid accumulating an excessive amount of fatigue through the sessions.
Actually, doing it more often may allow you to progress faster. Doing it twice every week at first will yield quite a lot of advantages, but you might even bump it to 3 or 4 times every week. Just do not forget that the more you include clean & jerk sessions, the simpler they needs to be.
A Big Lift for Big Gains
The clean & jerk is seen worldwide every 4 years through the Summer Olympics, however the exercise isn’t exclusive to the perfect weightlifters on this planet. Whether you’re an athlete on the lookout for top performance on the sector or within the ring, a strength sport competitor trying to carry over strength and power, or a physique-focused lifter trying to pack on full-body muscle, adding the clean & jerk to your training menu will deliver world-class results.
References
- Huyghe, T., Goriss, B., DeLosAngeles, E., & Bird, S. P. (2021). Exploring The Power Clean. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.47206/ijsc.v1i1.95
- Santos PDG, Vaz JR, Correia PF, Valamatos MJ, Veloso AP, Pezarat-Correia P. Intermuscular Coordination within the Power Clean Exercise: Comparison between Olympic Weightlifters and Untrained Individuals-A Preliminary Study. Sensors (Basel). 2021 Mar 9;21(5):1904. doi: 10.3390/s21051904. PMID: 33803182; PMCID: PMC7963197.
- Stone MH, Wilson GD, Blessing D, Rozenek R. Cardiovascular responses to short-term olympic style weight-training in young men. Can J Appl Sport Sci. 1983 Sep;8(3):134-9. PMID: 6640815.
- de-Oliveira LA, Heredia-Elvar JR, Maté-Muñoz JL, García-Manso JM, Aragão-Santos JC, Da Silva-Grigoletto ME. Evaluation of Pacing Strategies in AMRAP, EMOM, and FOR TIME Training Models during “Cross” Modalities. Sports (Basel). 2021 Oct 20;9(11):144. doi: 10.3390/sports9110144. PMID: 34822344; PMCID: PMC8624389.
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