Exercise Library
Hang Muscle Clean
Start standing tall with the bar hanging at arms’ length in your clean grip. Ensure even whole foot balance and brace your trunk. Move down to the desired hang position, maintaining whole foot balance and actively keeping the bar against the legs.
From the hang position, start by pushing vertically with the legs through the whole foot, and extend the entire body close to vertically rather than leaning the trunk farther back as you would in a clean. Keep the legs tight and pushing into the floor as you pull the elbows up and out to maintain as much bar speed as possible, shrugging up and back as you do.
Keeping the legs extended, pull the bar back into the shoulders and spin the elbows around the bar to bring it smoothly into the rack position. The goal is to deliver it directly into a secure position without any bouncing or adjustment.
Purpose
The muscle clean is helpful at lighter weights to learn and reinforce the proper upper body mechanics of the turnover (third pull) of the clean—in particular, it’s useful for learning how to deliver the bar precisely and smoothly into the rack position for lifters who have a tendency to allow the bar to crash on them. At more challenging weights, the muscle clean will help strengthen the turnover of the clean. Lifting from the hang can reduce the contribution of the lower body and emphasize upper body strength more, or can be used to focus on improving bar-body interaction in or through specific positions.
Programming
The hang muscle clean can be performed early in a training session as a technique primer, or as a training exercise. It can also be performed at the end of a training session as accessory work. Use 3-5 reps per set generally, although it can also be done for heavy singles and doubles.
From the hang position, start by pushing vertically with the legs through the whole foot, and extend the entire body close to vertically rather than leaning the trunk farther back as you would in a clean. Keep the legs tight and pushing into the floor as you pull the elbows up and out to maintain as much bar speed as possible, shrugging up and back as you do.
Keeping the legs extended, pull the bar back into the shoulders and spin the elbows around the bar to bring it smoothly into the rack position. The goal is to deliver it directly into a secure position without any bouncing or adjustment.
Purpose
The muscle clean is helpful at lighter weights to learn and reinforce the proper upper body mechanics of the turnover (third pull) of the clean—in particular, it’s useful for learning how to deliver the bar precisely and smoothly into the rack position for lifters who have a tendency to allow the bar to crash on them. At more challenging weights, the muscle clean will help strengthen the turnover of the clean. Lifting from the hang can reduce the contribution of the lower body and emphasize upper body strength more, or can be used to focus on improving bar-body interaction in or through specific positions.
Programming
The hang muscle clean can be performed early in a training session as a technique primer, or as a training exercise. It can also be performed at the end of a training session as accessory work. Use 3-5 reps per set generally, although it can also be done for heavy singles and doubles.
