Power Clean: How To and Why (The Complete Guide)

The Power Clean is an explosive Olympic lift that builds total-body power, speed, and coordination. It involves pulling a barbell from the floor and catching it in a front rack position with the hips above parallel.

Unlike a full clean, you don’t drop into a deep squat to receive the bar, making it more focused on force production and athletic carryover.

Primary Muscles Worked: Glutes, Hamstrings, Quadriceps, Traps
Secondary Muscles Worked: Calves, Spinal Erectors, Lats, Core, Deltoids
Equipment Needed: Barbell and Plates

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How To Power Clean

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Set-Up:
   • Stand with feet hip-width apart and the bar over midfoot.
   • Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width using a hook grip.
   • Set your back flat, brace your core, and keep your chest up.
2. Execution:
   • First Pull: Push through your legs to lift the bar from the floor, keeping your chest up and bar close to your body.
   • Transition: As the bar passes your knees, shift into the second pull—bring your torso upright and prepare to explode.
   • Second Pull: Extend your hips, knees, and ankles forcefully (triple extension) while shrugging your shoulders.
   • Catch: Drop under the bar slightly and catch it on your shoulders in the front rack position with your elbows up.
   • Stand tall to finish the lift.
3. Tips for Proper Form:
   • Keep the bar path close and vertical.
   • Don’t pull with your arms—let your legs and hips do the work.
   • Punch your elbows through quickly in the catch for a strong rack position.

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Key Benefits

• Builds explosive power for sports, lifting, and athletic movement.
• Trains speed and coordination under load.
• Improves full-body strength and timing.

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Modifications and Variations

• Easier Option:
  • Start from the hang position (Hang Power Clean) to simplify the movement.
  • Use lighter loads and focus on technique.
• Harder Option:
  • Perform from blocks or a deficit to increase range.
  • Use complexes (e.g., clean + front squat) for volume and control.

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Common Mistakes

• Early Arm Bend: Keep arms straight through the second pull—don’t curl the bar.
• Poor Rack Position: Get the elbows up and bar on the shoulders, not in the hands.
• Jumping Forward or Back: Stay balanced—feet should land where they started.

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Reps and Sets Recommendations

• For Power Development: 4–6 sets of 2–3 reps with moderate to heavy weight, plenty of rest.
• For Technique: 3–5 sets of 3–5 reps with lighter weight and focus on clean execution.
• As Part of a Strength Program: Pair with squats or pulls in total-body sessions.

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Power Clean Teaching Progression

Obviously, this is all easier said than done and it will take a good amount of practice before you become proficient with your technique.

It also needs to be said that I would never start an athlete, or any lifter, with power cleans straight away if they are still new to lifting. The power clean involves a lot of moving parts – technique, timing and coordination all have to be in sync to properly execute the lift.

I always start by teaching a few other lifts and power clean variations to get lifters comfortable with the different aspects of the power clean and after a few weeks we’d start to attempt the full lift.

Front Squats

The first thing I have a lifter start working on is front squats. Not only will the front squat help build lower body strength, core strength and upper back strength – all important for power cleans – but, it will also help teach the lifter the final catch position.

If a new lifter has never front squatted before, the front rack position is sometimes not the most comfortable position to attain.

In fact, lack of wrist flexibility can make the position very uncomfortable. However, this can be improved over time which is exactly why I like to start with front squats in the first place.

Deadlift / Clean Pulls

Next, we’ll begin to learn the starting position and first pull by deadlifting. I don’t do a lot of deadlifting within my programming, but I love them for learning the starting position and first pull in a slower, more controlled movement.

This will help the lifter how get their core engaged, learn torso angle and build strength in the posterior chain muscles.

Once the lifter shows proficiency with the deadlift, we’ll quickly move on to clean pulls. (Normally after 2 to 3 sessions)

Clean pulls are essentially power cleans without the catch.

Lifters will use the same starting position, first pull and second pull and then finish the rep by aggressively extending through the hips, up through the balls of the feet and shrugging.

After three to four weeks of front squat, along with a progression of deadlifts and clean pulls, we’ll put the two lifts together and power clean. We’ll start with very light weight and then slowly build our way up.

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Power Clean Variations

Technically the power clean is a variation itself – a variation of the full clean as seen in Olympic weightlifting.

Instead of catching the bar in the bottom of a front squat, the bar is caught much higher, in a quarter squat position.

If you change the starting position to a hang, instead of the floor, you have what is called a hang power clean.

For a hang power clean you will start by standing with the bar followed by setting the back, knees bent, engaging the core and then hinging forward until the bar is just above the knee. It’s basically skipping the first pull of the power clean and starting directly from the second pull instead.

Catching low from this hang position instead of up high turns this lift into a hang clean.

Finally, if you start from an even higher hang position, just above the mid thigh position, you have what’s called a high hang power clean.

This is probably the most challenging variation because you have less hip extension to help you drive the bar. It is predominantly used to help reinforce the final full hip extension, driving the elbows high and quickly snapping under to catch the bar.

Why Power Clean

Now that I’ve covered how to power clean along with progressions and variations, why should you power clean in the first place?

Power cleans are one of the best movements anyone, whether athlete or weekend warrior, to build explosive power and improve athletic performance.

The movement pattern of a power clean is the same explosive triple extension as someone jumping, exploding out of the blocks on a 100m sprint or making a tackle on the football field.

It’s one of the best tools we have available to us in the weight room to develop full body power.

Because with Olympic movements like power cleans, it’s not just about upper body strength or lower body strength, it’s about being able to use your entire body to coordinate power and explosiveness in an athletic movement.

Power cleans demand maximal effort on every rep. They also demand focus and they demand attention to detail, even on lighter work sets.

Final Thoughts on Power Cleans

Now you should not only know how to power clean, but how to build up your technical base and progress to power cleans and finally why you should be doing power cleans in the first place.

Just remember, that while they are great for building explosive power, never sacrifice heavier weights for technique. Proper technique should always be the first priority to ensure that the lift is being done safely.

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