Barbell Power Clean Thruster
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 as you would to clean: feet hip width, bar over mid-foot, hands just outside the shins, back flat.
- Pull the bar from the floor, extend the hips explosively and pull under it, catching it on the front rack in a quarter squat.
- Stand up, then squat to full depth with the elbows high and the torso upright.
- Drive out of the bottom and use that momentum to press the bar to lockout overhead in one motion.
- Lower the bar to the front rack, then to the floor, and reset for the next rep.
FORM TIPS
- The squat and the press are one movement. If the bar stalls at the forehead, the legs stopped driving too soon.
- Stand fully out of the clean before starting the squat so the two lifts stay separate.
TARGET MUSCLES
Primary
- Quads
- Traps
- Shoulders
- Glutes
- Hamstrings
Secondary
- Lower Back
- Triceps
- Forearms
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.