You can also listen to the article in podcast form by clicking play below!

As an athlete trying to build muscle, strength, and power, you want to get the most out of your time in the gym.

Many tools can be useful in this pursuit.

One set of tools is the Olympic lifts. That is, the Clean & Jerk, and the Snatch.

Completing these movements requires high force production and speeds, making them useful tools for improving power output and rate of force development. These are 2 key predictors of athletic performance.

They also involve high eccentric loading (the benefits of which I'll explore in a future article) as you catch the barbell.

As a bonus, there's no gym movement that looks better than a perfectly executed Olympic lift.

But if you tried them yourself, you've probably realised they're not as easy as they look.

Lots of practice is needed before you can perform them safely and effectively.

I want to help you get started on that, looking at the Clean as a starting point.

Learning the Clean, Backwards

The clean is usually taught from the ground up.

That is, you start by learning to lift the bar from the ground to above the knees.

Then you learn to move the bar from above the knees to your chest height.

Then you learn how to catch the bar in the finish position, with intermediate steps along the way.

If this method works for you, great.

But in my experience, most issues occur in the catch position, and the transition into it.

For that reason, I prefer to coach people to start with the end in mind, perfecting that aspect first.

This not only leads to safer lifts, but also confidence in knowing that you can catch the bar safely when you get it up. Ultimately, it also means you'll be able to use higher weights over time.

Step 1: The Catch

Learning the most important part of the clean is often left until last, and unsurprisingly, it's where most people experience issues.

Often people end up catching the bar (win), but in a weak position, leaning backwards, with their back arched.

In this position, you're relying on smaller muscles in the upper body (in the abdomen and lower back) to absorb the force of the bar.

As the weights increase, these muscles will be less able to withstand the force of the bar. This will potentially increase injury risk and definitely decrease the amount of weight you're able to lift.

Instead, you should aim to finish in a position like a quarter front squat, with your butt back, your knees bent, and head facing forward.

This is known as the 'power' position.

You can try this now. Stand up, and lean backwards. How confident would you be if someone gave you something heavy to hold at your chest in this position?

This time, go into a quarter squat position. How much more confident would you be if someone gave you a heavy load to hold now?

In this position, the large leg muscles of the quads, glutes, and hamstrings are engaged and ready to absorb the high eccentric loads involved in catching the barbell.

So here's how to practice it.

Start by ensuring the bar is resting on the front of your shoulders, with your elbows high in front of you, all four fingers under the bar, and the thumb on the top of the bar.

Gaining enough mobility to get your elbows and grip right alone could take a few weeks.

Once you've got that, you can now begin practising maintaining it as you drop into that quarter squat, 'power' position. Again, depending on where you're at, you might need to practice this for a few sessions or weeks.

When you're comfortable, you can now start to emulate the catching of the bar, by rapidly dropping into the power position from standing.

Step 2: Add Upright Row

Once you feel comfortable and strong in the catch position, you can start to address the transition into that position.

The first element of this is to perform an upright row, followed by a quick turnover into the catch position.

You won't actually perform an upright row in the full movement, but practising it in this way will help you avoid the common mistake of 'curling' the barbell into position.

Step 3: Add Shrug

Once you've mastered the upright row to catch position transition, you can start to work on speeding that up.

This starts with adding a shrug before the upright row. That is, shrug, upright row, drop in to catch position.

With practice, this should become one flowing movement.

Click this image to view more infographics and other content on Instagram @knowyourselfperformance

Step 4: Add Thigh Contact (Hang Power Clean)

We've pretty much nailed the transition of the bar from hanging to the catch. Now it's time to add some extra force by using the legs.

This will allow for more force and speed, and will be required as the weights you're using increase.

First, start in a position where the bar is hanging around mid-thigh, a few inches out in front of the thighs.

From here, practice bringing the bar towards the thighs (contacting them) and starting the shrug/upright-row/catch process at the same time.

As you increase the speed of this movement, you'll find yourself using your legs more, even getting up on your toes momentarily as you forcefully extend your knees and hips to get the bar moving.

As the weights get heavier, the transition to the catch becomes more of a case of 'getting under’ the bar at its highest point.

Congratulations, you are now able to perform a Hang Power Clean. The 'hang' refers to the starting position of the bar at thigh level, and the 'power' refers to the catch position being in the quarter squat position.

Step 5: From Ground (Power Clean)

Once you've gotten the hang power clean technique on point, you can practice starting start the movement from the ground, rather than mid-thigh.

One crucial step here is to keep your eyes facing straight ahead, as you should throughout the movement. This will allow you to pick a visual spot to focus on through the movement, which will help with balance more than anything.

Also, you should resist the temptation to rip the barbell off the ground as quickly and powerfully as possible.

Instead, smoothly lift from the ground to mid-thigh, and get aggressive at the mid-thigh point.

Congrats. You can now do a Power Clean.

Step 6: Add Squat (Full/Squat Clean)

So now you've nailed the power clean.

But as the weights get heavier, you may find that it's not as easy to get the bar up as high as you once could.

In this case, you should now work on improving your ability to 'get under' the bar as part of the transition to the catch.

This inevitably leads to a lower catch position than before, ultimately ending up in a full front squat position at near maximal weights.

So this step is as simple as aiming to catch the bar lower than the power position and allowing yourself to go into a full front squat, before standing up to complete the movement.

Congrats. You can now perform a full clean.

As you can now see, there are many elements to learning the clean, and it could take months or years, depending on your current experience.

But bear in mind that you will likely experience benefits along the way without needing to do the full movement. For example, hang clean high pulls have been shown to increase rate of force development. (This is where you simply perform the thigh contact, shrug, and high pull elements, even without the catch.)

That's not to mention the fun of learning a new skill, and the strength and power adaptations you’re likely to experience as you expose your body to novel stimuli in the form of new movements.

This is a video that I shared with my clients, summarising how to learn the clean, in a similar way to that which I’ve described in this article. I’ve decided to share it here as it will really help illustrate what I’ve gone through here. Check it out!

Conor O’Neill, Know Yourself Performance

To find out more about how you can work with me, click the image above or go to knowyourselfperformance.com/coaching

// knowyourselfperformance.com // Podcast // Facebook // Instagram // Twitter //