Power Clean

Take your start position: feet between hip- and shoulder-width, toes turned slightly out, bar over the balls of your feet. Hook grip, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width. Adjust the width until your rack position works for your wrists and elbows.

set and braced before the bar moves.

Push the floor away and stand the bar up to just above your knees. Shoulders and hips rise together, back angle about the same, bar close to your shins, arms long.

Keep your shoulders over or slightly in front of the bar until it reaches about mid-thigh, then extend your hips and knees hard. The small re-bend of the knees happens on its own; don't force it. Keep your heels down as long as you can. Let them come up late, or not at all, as you finish. Don't chase your toes.

a patient pull, then a fast, vertical jump.

Shrug at full extension with your elbows still straight. Your elbows bend only after your shoulders reach their highest point.

Pull yourself under the bar and rotate your arms around and under it, bending your hips and knees into a partial squat at the same time.

Move your feet into your squat stance and land flat-footed. Use your normal squat stance while you learn. If you can't stop high, it lets you keep sitting safely into a full squat.

Drive your elbows up and forward until your upper arms are about parallel to the floor. Go as high as you can without letting your shoulders drop or pull back.

elbows snapping forward fast, the bar landing on your shoulders, not in your hands.

Rack the bar in the channel between the top of your shoulders and your throat, with your shoulders pushed forward and slightly up. Don't let it sit on your collarbones; that hurts and bruises. Keep your hands around the bar with a full but loose grip. If mobility won't allow that, an open grip with a few fingers is fine, as long as your shoulders hold the bar.

Meet the bar with your thighs above horizontal, torso nearly upright, shoulders slightly ahead of your hips, head neutral. Don't drop under early and let the bar fall onto you. Meet it at the height you pulled it to.

a stiff, quick landing, like landing from a jump.

If you sink below parallel, ride it down into a front squat and stand it up. That rep is a clean, not a power clean. Next time, finish the pull or take some weight off.

Once you're balanced and in control, stand up to full extension. Keep your elbows up and the bar on your shoulders.

Lower your elbows to unrack the bar and lower it to your thighs. Bend your hips and knees to cushion it, then squat it to the floor with straight arms. On bumper plates, where your gym allows it, you can drop it onto the platform instead.

Practise missing with a PVC pipe or an empty bar before you lift heavy. Only drop loaded bars on bumper plates, on a platform with clear space around it.

If the bar is crashing, rolling forward or you can't hold the rack, let it go and get away from it fast. Make distance between you and the bar so it lands on the platform, never across your thighs or knees. Don't try to fight a bad catch.

Stop the session if your wrists, elbows or lower back hurt. The spine, shoulders and knees are the most commonly reported injury sites in weightlifting. Get pain checked instead of training through it.