How Much Should You Be Able To Power Clean

The power clean. An Olympic weightlifting move that looks every bit as impressive as it feels – but let's face it, you don't work out just to impress the other blokes at the gym. Luckily, executing the perfect power clean brings far more than just bragging rights.

Performed correctly, the power clean is very much a full body movement, explains Mike Lee, CEO of CrossFit London. It demands mass-muscle co-operation, building strength throughout your entire body.

"The explosive power needed during the hip extension phase uses a great deal of the lower body's powerhouse muscles – the hamstrings and the gluteal muscles in particular," Lee explains.

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Targeting multiple muscle groups will torch calories in double-quick time, fast-track your strength gains and build functional muscle. Convinced? Gents, it's time to clean up.

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10 Reasons Why Every Man Should Master the Power Clean

Improved Grip Strength

Power cleans are a volatile movement, explains Arby Keheli, head trainer at F45 Oxford Circus, that require you to shift a decent amount of weight pretty quickly. "Holding the weight through the movement requires substantial grip strength."

Full Body Workout

"Muscle groups in the posterior chain – your glutes, hamstring, back, etcetera – will be heavily involved during the initial lift, while the anterior component of the body – abdominals, quads, deltoid, and so on – become heavily tied in during the 'catch' position," says Keheli. The result? More bang for buck than a barbell glute bridge could offer, put it that way.

Improved Anaerobic Endurance

To fuel anaerobic exercise – essentially a short, explosive, high intensity movement – your body taps into what are referred to as 'ATP-PC' and 'lactic acid' energy systems. Over time, says Keheli, these energy systems will adapt and improve due to the demands placed on your body by the exercise. The better your body fuels your muscles, the better your performance.

Torch Body Fat

Putting all that muscle to work burns serious kcals. "To generate enough force to complete the movement, large muscle groups need plenty of energy," Keheli says, prompting fat metabolism that comes with "a considerable afterburn effect".

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Muscle Development

Or, to put it bluntly: gains. "The exercise will involve good amount of muscle fibre damage," says Keheli. "This damage causes a hypertrophic response, which means the muscle will become bigger and stronger."

Better Posture

Whether you're aware of it or not, those late nights in the office are bad news for your posture. The power clean dominates the muscles of the backside of the body, known as the posterior chain. "Strengthening the posterior will restore balance to your body," Keheli says.

Stronger Bones

The power clean movement involves what is known as "epiphysis loading", explains Keheli, resulting in micro-fractures down the bone shaft. "This causes the bone to get thicker through a process known as calcification, preventing degenerative disorders like osteoporosis."

Body Awareness

Or, to use the proper term, proprioception – being in tune with the position and movement of your body. Why? "The exercise involves a vast amount of muscular recruitment combined with a series of complex movement patterns," says Keheli. Improving synergy between the two means you're less likely to get injured.

Boosts Balance

In order to complete the movement and catch the barbell, you're forced to offset your "centre of mass" against the movement of the weight, says Keheli.

Unleashes Growth Hormone

"Movements such as the power clean are great for a release of growth hormone," adds Lee. A small protein made by the pituitary gland, growth hormone "has a huge number of benefits, including younger-looking skin and hair, faster recovery, increased muscle mass, and greater bone density."

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What Is a Power Clean?

Alright, so now you know why you should power clean. Here, CrossFit London's Lee will tell you how. Completely new to weightlifting? Skip this step – you've got homework to do.

Set up in a slightly more upright deadlift position. Shoulders should still be over the bar.
Take tension through the upper back and legs by keeping the arms straight.
Without changing the torso angle push the feet hard into the floor to keep tension through the lower body.
As the bar passes the knee, start to open the torso angle taking care to keep the bar close to the thighs.
Extend the hips, brushing the bar up the thighs. As full hip extension occurs, start shrugging the shoulders and pulling the elbows high.
Drop under the bar into a comfortable quarter squat position with hips set back and knees bent.
Catch the bar with elbows forwards and a full grip on the bar. Stand to extension. You've successfully performed a power clean.

Where Do Beginners Start?

You know the old adage, 'don't run before you can walk'? Well, that very much applies to technical lifts like the power clean. Before you go hell for leather and do a number on your knees, master the deadlift, box jump, and kettlebell swing first.

"Those are the three movements I need to see someone be able to perform with mastery before moving on to the more dynamic power clean," says Lee. "If those movements are not dialled in, there's a high chance the power clean will be performed incorrectly."

If you're in doubt? Seek help, he continues. "It doesn't matter how strong you are or how experienced you are in the gym, you can always benefit from a qualified eye. Also, film your lifts. Watch them back and look for mistakes."

The Most Common Power Clean Mistakes

Don't Rush off the Floor

"A clean doesn't need to be fast off the floor, it needs to be fast at the hips," says Lee. "By ripping the bar off the floor, we add speed to an area of the movement that doesn't necessarily need it. This leads to higher chance of making a mistake."

Don't Lift with Your Back

"Keep the power in your lower body," he says. "Many will make the mistake of lifting with the back and upper body. Those who are strong may even be able to lift a great deal of weight by this, but at some point they'll hit a plateau due to not engaging the correct muscle groups."

Don't Bend Your Arms Too Early

Not only will you slow the bar down and force it to change direction, but it'll wind up crashing onto your shoulders (ouch). Wait until you've reached full extension before bending your arms.

How to Progress the Power Clean

"Master the movement, increase the volume, increase the load. Repeat," says Lee, who advises focusing on 70 to 80 per cent loads.

"Performing the heaviest power clean you can each time you attempt it will likely cause an injury," he says. "Refine the movement as best you can to reap the rewards of it."

Crushed your power clean form? Great. It's just one of three components you need to crack before attempting the holy grail of all Olympic weightlifting movements. The clean and jerk.

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Assuming that's your ultimate goal, what comes next? The squat clean, says Lee, which involves catching [the bar] in a squat position.

The final piece of the puzzle, should you be dedicated enough, requires you to hone three overhead movements: the press, push press and jerk. But you don't need to worry about that just yet.

For now? You heard the man. Master the movement, increase the volume, increase the load. Repeat. Get to it.

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