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Power Clean

Also see Clean and Press.

"Cleaning" a weight simply means lifting it from the ground to shoulder height in a single movement. The power clean is a straightforward kind of barbell clean -- in Dan John's words, "simple, but not easy". Making the power clean a fundamental part of your workouts will give you a wicked strong posterior chain -- the set of muscles that runs up your back, from your ankles to the base of your skull -- and make you explosive, fast, and powerful to boot. It will also work the daylights out of your grip.

The short version: Grab a loaded barbell on the floor a little bit wider than shoulder width -- about the way you'd grab it to press it overhead. Squat down slightly, keeping your back straight and shoulders up. Now snap upright, shrugging your shoulders hard, and fling the bar to shoulder level.

The longer version: Set up with a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip. Your shoulders, thumbs, the bar, and the base knuckles of your big toes should all sit on a vertical line. Keep your hips relatively high and your back flat, like you would to begin a deadlift.

Start the pull by rising with your hips and knees, keeping your shoulders over the bar and the bar close to your shins. This is the "first pull" -- you're building momentum. Your back should stay at the same angle as it started relative to the floor. Your head's up, looking forward or slightly up.

When the bar passes your knees, jump straight up and snap your shoulders up to your ears. This is the "second pull", also known as "triple extension" since you're extending (the opposite of flexing) your ankles, knees, and hips. Basically, what you're doing is violently straightening your body from toes to skull, which drives the bar up.

When the bar rises high enough, shoot your elbows underneath it, in front of you. You want to catch the bar on your shoulders, hands, and clavicle, and the farther out in front you can get your elbows the easier it will be to catch it on your shoulders. Don't worry if it seems awkward at first -- you'll build up flexibility over several workouts. Doing front squats with the bar in the "clean catch" position (as opposed to crossed arms) is another good way to build the necessary flexibility in your arms, wrists, and shoulders.

Depending on the weight of the bar, you may have to dip slightly after your second pull to catch it at shoulder level. If you dip into a full front squat, you haven't power cleaned the bar -- you've squat cleaned it; congratulations, that's the first half of the Olympic clean and jerk. You're unlikely to have to dip that low to catch the bar, though -- just be aware that you may need to dip slightly with the knees and hips to receive the bar.

• Having trouble with too much arm pulling? Here are suggestions from Kit and Byron:

From Kit:
Hard to diagnose without actually seeing you lift but it sounds like a case of "arming" the weight instead of driving the floor away with the feet/legs/hips/back/etc.

From the floor, the clean starts with the barbell over the arch of the feet and the shoulders are forward of the bar.

From the hang, the starting position isn't a whole lot different.

The arms should be like ropes or chains in that they are fastened to the bar while you're pushing the floor away but don't really exert any force on their own. They simply transfer to the barbell what everything else is doing.

The barbell should be flying toward the ceiling as you "jump down" to catch the bar. The bend in the knees is a flexible shock absorber type motion rather than a fixed "I'm gonna brace myself as tightly as I can to receive the weight".

In a full clean, the barbell needs only climb as high as you can safely receive it (waist high or a little more). In a snatch, the barbell needs to climb higher (shoulder high or so) to permit you to receive it in the overhead squat position. In the power versions of these lifts (power clean, power snatch) you should be using a weight that's light enough to allow you do them with only minimal knee bend.

I rarely exceed five reps in these types of lifts because as you tire your form breaks downs.

Here's the link to a videoclip of someone doing power cleans from the hang. Needless to say, I don't particularly approve of the apparatus the lifter is using but the technique is acceptable and the video is clear.

And from Byron:
Pulls may help, but they may not. It's easy to keep the arms straight if you're not bending them at all, the difficult thing is learning to wait until the right moment to bend them and pull under. It's not an easy thing to learn.

This drill may be helpful. Deadlift the bar with a clean grip to get in position, then do a clean from the high hang (above the knees), then one from a lower hang (below the knees), then one from the floor. Go light but not too light - you need enough weight to make sure you to extend properly on the first rep. Then you extend the same way with the second and third reps, which will be easier. Noodle arms.

Chalk up and use a hook grip even if you don't need to. Less tension in the grip will make it easier to keep the arms loose.

The main thing is to just stop doing it wrong, you know what you're doing wrong so practice, pay attention, and you'll learn to do it right. Going real heavy is not conducive to fixing form problems so don't try setting any records until you get this right.