How to Perform Power Clean and Press, Common Mistakes and Popular Variations

I think people have really complicated Olympic lifting movements. For movements such as power clean and press, you will see a lot of people picking on all the nitty gritties of the movements. For someone like you and me who are mostly interested in building athleticism and not really looking for Personal Records, it is more important to perform this exercise rather than falling for tiny details that people talk about and not really perform this exercise. We will mostly be performing the power clean and press with lightweights and all those minor details don’t matter much when the weights are light. In this article we will simplify Power Clean and Press when performed with lightweights.

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Technically speaking Clean and Press is not an Olympic lift. It used to be until 1972 when it was removed. Stay tuned to learn why. In this video we will focus on the sister lift of clean and press called the power clean and press. Lets learn how to perform it.

How to perform a Clean an Press

With the bar placed on the floor, bend over at the hips with knee flexion to grab the bar at just a little bit wider than shoulder width. Keep the bar as close to your shins as possible. The spine should be straight, or ‘neutral’. Now start pulling the weight up by extending the hip and knee. As the bar crosses your knees extend your hips, knees and ankles to fling the bar up.

The Bar should remain as close to your body as possible. As the bar gets close to your shoulders, move your elbows around the bar to get the bar racked on your shoulders. Your elbows should be pointing forward. Up to this point you have performed a power clean. Now press the bar overhead in… Read More