Power clean: the bar from the floor to your shoulders in one fast pull, caught above a full squat

A power clean takes a barbell from the floor to the front of your shoulders in one movement. You pull it up your legs, stand up explosively so it keeps rising, then pull yourself under it and catch it in a partial squat. "Power" names the catch: in one study, a power clean counted only if the bar landed across the front of the shoulders and the hips stayed above the knees at the lowest point of the catch.¹ Catch it in a full squat and it's a clean, the first half of the clean and jerk.

It's a skill lift. This page describes the positions and what the research measured; it isn't a substitute for learning it with a coach watching you lift. In one study of the power clean, every lifter had three one-hour lessons on the technique before any testing.² Starting from the thigh instead of the floor is the hang clean; the same pattern with one kettlebell is the kettlebell clean.

How to do a power clean, position by position

1. Set up. Feet about hip width, the bar over the middle of your feet, hands just outside your legs with an overhand grip. Hips higher than your knees, back flat, shoulders over or slightly in front of the bar, arms straight.
2. First pull. Push the floor away and stand the bar up to above your knees, keeping it close to your shins and your back angle the same. This part is slow compared with what comes next.
3. Second pull. As the bar reaches the middle of your thighs, extend your hips, knees and ankles hard, as if you were jumping, and shrug. A 2026 study describes this pull in the hang power clean as a rapid, forceful extension of the hips, knees and ankles with the bar kept close to the thighs.³
4. Pull under. Only then bend your arms. In the same description, the elbows bend only after the hips, knees and ankles finish extending, and that pulls the body under the bar.³
5. Catch. Whip your elbows forward and up so the bar lands across the front of your shoulders and collarbones, in a quarter squat.³ Land on flat feet, then stand up straight.
6. Return the bar to your thighs, then the floor, and reset before the next rep.

The rack position at the end is the one on the front squat, and the setup from the floor shares a lot with the deadlift. The difference is speed: a deadlift ends when you stand up; a power clean only starts moving fast there.

What the studies of the power clean measured

• Beginners time it differently. Muscle activity from 16 muscles was recorded in 10 untrained men and 7 weightlifters doing power cleans. The untrained group switched on the muscle group that extends the hips, and the one that bends the arms, earlier in the lift. The authors suggest that people early in training should try to delay both: the hip drive and the arm bend.⁴ In plain terms: don't pull with your arms too soon.
• The hook grip. In 11 well-trained men lifting up to their max, a hook grip (thumb under the fingers) and an ordinary grip produced no differences in force during the pull or the catch. With the hook grip, the catch and the whole lift were shorter at 80% to 95% of the max. The authors judge grip type possibly irrelevant for non-weightlifters doing lighter versions that skip the catch.⁵
• Weeks of training. In 30 healthy men training twice a week for six weeks, a program built on power cleans, high pulls and back squats and a kettlebell program both raised strength and power; the barbell group gained more back-squat strength. Vertical jump didn't differ between the groups.⁶
• Jumping. A 2016 meta-analysis pooled six studies of 232 people with resistance-training experience. Weightlifting training raised vertical jump height by 7.7% compared with control groups and by 5.1% compared with traditional resistance training, and did about the same as plyometric training.⁷ Those studies used weightlifting exercises in general, not the power clean alone.

None of these studies measured muscle growth from power cleans, so this page doesn't claim it. What they show is a fast, whole-body lift that people train for power and jumping.

Versions: hang, full clean, pull, and lighter kit

• Hang power clean: start standing, lower the bar to just above your knees, and go from there. It skips the first pull, which makes it the usual way to learn the top half. It has its own page.
• Full clean (squat clean): catch the bar in a full front squat, then stand. It's the clean in the clean and jerk.
• Clean pull: the same pull to full extension with no catch. It's the "catch-less" kind of derivative the grip study mentions,⁵ and a practical way to train the pull before the catch is ready.
• From blocks: the bar starts on boxes at knee height or just above. As a practical option, it fixes the start position so every rep begins in the same place.
• Dumbbell or kettlebell: one weight, the same hip drive, caught at the shoulder. The one-arm kettlebell version is on the kettlebell clean.

The common faults, and a fix for each

• Bending the arms early. The arms take over from the legs. Keep them straight like ropes until your hips, knees and ankles have finished extending, as in the technique description above; the study of beginners also suggests delaying the arm bend.
• The bar swinging away from you. If it loops out in front, you'll chase it forward. Keep it brushing your thighs and drive up, not out.
• Catching with your elbows down. The bar rests on your hands and wrists instead of your shoulders. Turn your elbows fast and point them forward.
• Jumping forward or landing on your toes. Land with flat feet, about where you started.
• Rushing the first pull. If your hips shoot up and your chest drops, the bar drifts. Stand it up smoothly and save the speed for the thighs.
• Lifting through something that hurts. Tired legs and a heavy grip are normal; if you have pain, an injury or a condition, ask a doctor or a physical therapist.

Sets, reps and where they go

• What one study used. The six-week program above had four sets of four power cleans a session for three weeks, then six sets of four, twice a week.⁶
• What the 2026 position stand says. The American College of Sports Medicine's review of reviews found power was enhanced by moderate loads, 30% to 70% of a one-rep max, low-to-moderate volume (24 reps across all sets or fewer) and Olympic-style weightlifting. Strength was enhanced by lifting at the beginning of a session.⁸
• A practical start: an empty bar or a light one, three to five sets of two or three reps, two to three minutes of rest, first in the session after a warm-up. Stop the set when the bar slows or the catch gets messy.
• Once or twice a week is plenty. It shares the hips and legs with your squats and deadlifts, so count it in the same week.

Common questions

Power clean or clean: what's the difference?

Where you catch it. A power clean is caught in a partial squat with the hips above the knees;¹ a clean, or squat clean, is caught in a full front squat. In practice, the full catch lets you get under a heavier bar, and it's the version used in the clean and jerk.

Power clean or hang clean?

The power clean starts on the floor; the hang clean starts at the thigh or just above the knee. The hang version skips the first pull, so it is easier to learn and lighter to load. The hang clean page covers it.

What muscles does the power clean work?

The one study of muscle activity here recorded 16 muscles, from the calves and thighs through the hips and back to the arms and grip, and compared when they switched on, not which worked hardest.⁴ It's a whole-body lift; this page doesn't rank the muscles.

Do I need a coach to learn it?

It helps to have a coach watch you lift. The lifters in one study had three one-hour technique lessons first.² If you don't have that, the hang power clean and the clean pull are the simpler place to start.

What if something hurts?

If you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, a doctor or a physical therapist should set the limits before you train hard.

If you'd rather not plan it alone

This page describes a weightlifting lift; it isn't a sign that coaching will program it for you. The lift is learned with a coach watching you. What coaching does is build the week around your goals and your days: your workouts live in Trainerize, sized to the time you have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: at your next session, after a warm-up, do three sets of three hang power cleans with an empty bar and write down how the catch felt.