Barbell

clean

If you aspire to strength and athleticism, this Olympic exercise will become a staple in your programme. The complex, compound movement trains you to use your entire body as a connected unit to develop power. Don’t hesitate as you perform it – be powerful, fast, and fluid.

Exercise profile

Equipment

Barbell

Primary muscle groups

hamstrings, quads, shoulders

Secondary muscle groups

Forearms, calves, core, triceps

1 Place your feet under the bar, shoulder-width apart, with the bar grazing your shins. Grip the barbell so your forearms touch the outsides of your thighs. Push your glutes back and hinge forwards at the hips. Align your shoulders over the bar.

2 Retract your shoulder blades to activate your back, and brace your core. Inhale, push through your heels, and straighten your legs to begin to stand up. Keep the bar close to your legs.

3 Continue standing up. When the bar passes your knees, aggressively extend your hips, legs, and ankles, and rise onto the balls of your feet. Drive the bar up to your underarms, shrug your shoulders towards your ears, and pull your elbows up and back.

4 Quickly squat down to drop your shoulders under the bar, rotate your hands and elbows underneath the bar, and catch the bar on your collarbone.

5 Immediately push through your heels to stand up with the bar on your shoulders.

6 Drop the bar to the floor. That is one rep. Repeat for the number of reps given in your workout.