The clean and jerk is a very dynamic move that works almost all of the major muscle groups in the body, including the quads, back shoulders, glutes, and core. There are two types of lifts in weightlifting, but the clean and jerk is a great addition to your workout routine. While it may appear easy, the clean and jerk is actually quite difficult to execute. It's a combination of a deadlift, clean, and overhead press – which takes time, skill, and patience to learn. If you want to be rewarded with more full-body strength, coordination, and power, then keep reading this article.
We'll go over all of the steps needed to perform a clean and jerk, the benefits of the move, variations, and alternatives.
WHAT IS THE CLEAN AND JERK EXERCISE?
The clean and jerk is a heavier Olympic lift than the other lift. The clean and jerk is made up of two movements: the clean and the jerk. These movements are done one after the other. You must complete both of these movements to count as a good lift. You have to pay attention to your upper body strength as much as you do your lower body strength.
After you catch the barbell and are steady, the clean and jerk consists of you jerking the bar overhead. Your arms must be fully extended and your feet must be together to complete the lift.
This will be a more thorough explanation of the movement.
The clean is a movement in which the bar is brought from the floor to a front rack position in one swift, explosive movement.
The jerk is an overhead pressing movement that uses both the upper and lower body to extend the bar fully overhead.
IT’S AN OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING POWER MOVEMENT!
The clean and jerk is primarily a power exercise. The word “power” is often misunderstood and interchanged with “strength.” While they are related, strength and power are quite different performance variables. The simplest way to distinguish these two is that strength is slow strength (like a heavy squat) while power is fast strength (like a squat jump). The power is the rate at which work is done. It is the load divided by the time or space.
The Strength and Conditioning Journal provides three formulas to calculate power1:
- Power = work/time
- Power = force × (distance/time)
- Power = force × velocity
How to Do the Clean and Jerk
The following is a step-by-step guide on how to properly execute the clean and jerk with a barbell. You can do a clean and jerk with either dumbells or kettlebells, but it is traditionally done with a barbell.
Step 1 — Get Set
Stand in front of a loaded barbell with the feet set hip-width and turned slightly out (as this will allow the lifter to keep the knees/thighs out on the setup). Your shoulders should be level with the barbell, with your hips lower than your shoulders but higher than your knees. Below are some general concepts to keep in mind when setting up for a water start. When setting up for a water start, keep the following concepts in mind: -Your feet should be parallel to each other and pointing straight ahead. -Your weight should be evenly distributed between your feet. -Your hands should be at your sides, with your palms facing down.
The barbell should be touching your shins at the start of the lift. This will help the barbell start close to the body, which will allow for a smoother bar path.
Step 2 — Initiate the First Pull
When you first start to lift the barbell off the ground, that's considered the “first pull.” The second pull begins when the barbell passes the knee. The initial pull is essentially a deadlift. Maintain a neutral spine and brace your core.
The first pull should be done with the goal of gaining momentum for the second pull, which should be done explosively.
Step 3 — Initiate Second Pull and Turn the Bar Over
This step can be divided into two sections, but it occurs so rapidly that it appears to be one continuous step. The barbell should end up right at hip level, passing the knee in the process. Keeping their feet firmly planted on the ground, the person then lifts their hips and pulls the barbell up their body. By maintaining their balance, they make sure that their shoulders are always above the bar. The person then grabs the barbell and forcefully rotates their elbows underneath and into the front rack position. As you finish the second pull, extend your traps to keep the bar elevated, and use that momentum to pull yourself under the bar.
Try to move your feet and reset them at the same time so that you're in a strong front rack position.
Step 4 — Catch the Barbell
The barbell will be caught across the lifters shoulders in a front rack position as they quickly squat down from the hip drive. The elbows should be pointing forward.
Form Tip: Be aware of your knees. There are a lot of things happening during a clean and jerk, so make sure to keep your knees actively pressed out for a more efficient squat.
Step 5 — Dip Down
The lifter is going to from the front rack position and dip their knees down a few inches. This allows you to use the momentum from the weight to help drive it overhead for the jerk phase of the lift. This section of the lift is essentially a push press.
The speed at which you dip should be smooth and allow your muscles to stretch and contract. Make sure to lower your body in a straight line, keeping your torso still and not moving forward or backward.
Step 6 — Jerk the Bar Overhead
There are two types of jerk: a split jerk and a squat jerk. For now, we’ll stick with the squat jerk. Don't just think of the jerk as an overhead press. The push press is a move where you press the weight overhead and then drop under it to reduce the distance it has to travel. So, you will lower yourself down, drive the bar over your head, and drop into a half squat position as the bar rises up.
When you are driving the bar up, use your legs to push and try to imagine pushing everything up through the bar.
Step 7 — Receive and Recover the Jerk Overhead
Extend your arms and pause in the bottom of the jerk to stabilize the weight. Hold this position while you get set. Do not stand up until the weight feels balanced. Once you’re stabilized, stand up.
Keep your arms locked out if you feel like you're going to drop the weight, and let them fall forward so the bar crashes to the floor. Keep your head up and don't lean forward when lifting the bar, as it may bounce back and hit you.
Benefits of the Clean and Jerk
There are many benefits of the clean and jerk. The clean and jerk is a worthwhile addition to your workout split for three main reasons.
Total Body Strength and Power
You must be strong and explosive at all points of the lift – from the initial pull off the ground to the hip drive, to the jerk. The clean and jerk is a full-body move that works all your muscles, making it a great exercise for increasing strength and power. Focusing on the deadlift, push press, and clean will help improve your clean and jerk overall, and doing clean and jerks will in turn help improve those individual moves.
Improved Athletic Performance
There are many reasons why athletes on teams outside of weightlifting perform the clean and jerk (and its many variations). This exercise routine results in the development of strength in the glutes and legs, and this improved strength leads to the ability to sprint faster and jump higher. A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that Olympic weightlifting can help improve your vertical jump. (1)
Better Motor Skill Development
The clean and jerk is a move that requires the lifter to focus on many aspects at once. The nervous system sends signals to the muscles to tell them what to do. The connection between your brain and muscles is also known as “motor skills.” Just like muscles, the central nervous system can be trained to be more efficient and responsive. The better you practice the movement, the better you'll be at it.
Muscles Worked by the Clean and Jerk
The clean and jerk is a movement that uses nearly every muscle in the body. The clean and jerk exercise works the following major muscle groups: shoulders, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, pectoralis major, triceps, quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.
Hamstrings
The hamstrings are only used during the second phase of the clean and jerk, when the hips are driven forward. The clean and jerk isn't the best exercise to grow your hamstrings because they're contracted explosively and for a short time. The Romanian deadlift and good morning exercises are also beneficial for developing strong hamstrings.
Quadriceps
The quadriceps muscles are used when squatting during the clean and during the dip and drive phase of the jerk. Quads that are strong help increase the ability to get out of the clean.
Back and Traps
The lats and traps are muscles located in the back and are used during the pulling, squatting, and jerk phase of the lift. In order to maintain an upright position during a front squat, and to provide stability during a jerk, it is necessary to have strong back and trap muscles.
Who Should Do the Clean and Jerk?
We will discuss which types of athletes can benefit from the clean and jerk and why below.
Strength and Power Athletes
The bench press is a popular exercise for strength and power athletes as it can help increase overall strength, add muscle mass to the chest and triceps, and improve performance in their chosen sport.
- Powerlifters and Strongmen/Strongwomen: Pure strength athletes can integrate the clean and jerk into their training to improve power output and overall athleticism.
- Weightlifters: The clean and jerk is a necessary exercise for all Olympic weightlifters to train as it is one of the two movements performed in a competition. Practicing this movement and its various positional drills can increase technique and overall performance in competition.
Functional Fitness Athletes
The clean and jerk is a movement that is often found in CrossFit programs, competitions, and workouts. The clean and jerk is an excellent exercise for CrossFit and fitness athletes to improve overall strength and power, as well as train for competition.
General Population
You can get the same benefits as the above mentioned by using the clean and jerk at the gym. Although it is a technical move, if it is not done properly it could lead to an injury. It is important to talk to a trainer before starting to lift weights and to always lift a weight that is lighter than you think you can handle.
Clean and Jerk Squat Sets, Reps, and Weight Recommendations
The following are three sets of recommended repetitions and weights (intensity) for coaches and athletes to properly program the clean and jerk based on training goal. The below guidelines are here to offer coaches and athletes recommendations for programming. If you want to grow your muscles, the clean and jerk can help, but it's not the best move to focus on.
To Improve Technique
The clean and jerk should not be trained with heavy loads because it is important to develop proper positional awareness, timing, and foundational movement patterning necessary for more advanced training progressions. You should start by doing 3-5 sets of 3-5 repetitions with light to moderate loads, which is 50-65% of your one-rep max. The key here is movement quality, timing, and precision.
To Increase Power Output
This phase is often used for athletes who are not Olympic weightlifters but are looking to improve their athletic power outputs by integrating the clean and jerk. You should aim for three to five sets of two to five reps using 60-80% of your 1RM.
To Improve Olympic Weightlifting Performance (Non-Peaking)
Olympic weightlifters will spend most of their training in this range to increase volume, add intensity, and address maximal power output. This suggests that Olympic weightlifters will typically do 3-10 sets of 1-3 repetitions, using 70-75% of the weight they could lift in one repetition.
Clean and Jerk Variations
There are three variations of the clean and jerk to improve strength, technique, and performance.
Block Clean
Increasing the rate of force production in the clean can be done by block cleaning or addressing technical breakdowns in the pull. The clean is a lifting movementdone from blocks, set at varying heights to help improve positional strength. The following are also great to use before a block clean in a complex.
Clean + Jerk Complex
Weightlifting complexes are a combination of different phases of an Olympic lift, such as the snatch, clean, and jerk, strung together. Moving in this way during your workout routine increases the amount of training you do, makes your training more varied, and helps you get better at technique and positional strength. In the video below, for example, the lifter performs a clean, followed by a front squat, and then two different variations of the jerk. He still did a full clean and jerk, but he broke it down into separate lifts. You can try the complex task below, or start with something more simple. Even doing a full clean with an additional front squat is an extra challenge.
Hang Clean
The hang clean is a similar exercise to the block clean in that it requires more force to perform. This can also help lifters who have trouble transitioning under the bar. You can do these variations with a low hang (from below the knee) or high hang (from above the knee).
How should I learn the clean and jerk?
If possible, you should find a local weightlifting coach who has been accredited by USA Weightlifting. This will give you the best chance to get started on the right foot. It is recommended that you find a good coach online to help you learn the basic movements of the lift if you are not able to do it on your own.
I'm weak out of the hole of my front squat, how can I fix this?
Doing more cleans will not necessarily increase leg strength for the clean and jerk. In order to increase your front squat volume, be sure to treat the front squat portion of the clean as a separate lift. aeiou This means taking a second to get set, lowering yourself slowly, and driving up with good form. Do not speed through the movement as if it is just a step in the clean and jerk. This is a delicate issue that needs to be handled carefully.
How often should I do the clean and jerk?
Most people who want to improve their weightlifting performance and technique should do at least three training sessions per week that include the clean and jerk or variations of it. The more often you work out, the more important it is to pay attention to how your body is recovering, how hard you are working out, and how your performance is changing over time. By doing this, you can figure out what works best for you.
