Barbell Clean
A step-by-step form guide from the Ægir Iron exercise library: how to do the lift, what to watch for, and the muscles it trains.
- Equipment
- Barbell
This is a technical lift, best learned under a coach’s eye before loading heavy.
HOW TO PERFORM
- Set up with the feet hip width, a hook grip just outside the shins, the bar over mid-foot, back flat and the shoulders slightly over the bar.
- Push the floor away until the bar passes the knees, keeping it close to the shins and the back angle constant.
- From the upper thigh, extend the hips, knees and ankles explosively and shrug, keeping the bar close to the body.
- Pull yourself under the bar and receive it on the front rack with the elbows high, riding it down into a full front squat.
- Stand up out of the squat with the bar on the shoulders.
FORM TIPS
- The catch is a full squat. Receiving it with the thighs above parallel makes it a power clean, which has its own guide.
- The pause clean holds still for a count partway up the first pull, usually just below the knee, then finishes the lift as above.
TARGET MUSCLES
Primary
- Traps
- Glutes
- Hamstrings
Secondary
- Lower Back
- Quads
- Shoulders
- Forearms
In the app
This guide covers these exercises in the Ægir Iron library:
- Barbell Clean
- Barbell Pause Clean
Log it in Ægir Iron to track your PRs and estimated 1RM, and to see the sets each muscle gets every week. Free for individual lifters.