The July 2003 CrossFit Journal article “The Clean” aptly designates the clean as the “King of All Exercises.” While the snatch provides many, if not all, of the fitness qualities of the clean, the clean is more accessible to athletes due to the lower mobility requirements of the front squat versus the overhead squat. Add the fact that the clean is a gateway to the clean and jerk, the most efficient method for getting the heaviest loads overhead, resulting in an unparalleled capacity to improve your fitness, and the clean is justified in claiming this title.
To perform a clean, the lifter uses the hips and legs to pull the weight off the ground and launch it upward before pulling themselves down to receive the bar at the bottom of a front squat. The movement finishes with the athlete standing tall with the bar racked on the shoulders. A well-executed clean is poetry in motion. The value of this movement, and CrossFit’s near insistence that everyone learns to clean, stems from the fact that all 10 general physical skills and general athleticism are positively impacted by learning, practicing, and improving your clean.
*Ten General Physical Skills
CrossFit believes a regimen develops fitness to the extent that it improves each of these 10 skills. The clean helps us do it in spades.
#1 – Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance
Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance is the ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen. Sets of high-rep cleans — 15 reps or so — work the glycolytic pathway and confer similar cardio benefits to 800-meter runs. The cardio benefit is even more profound with clean and jerks. For instance, Ethan Reeve, a Hall of Fame collegiate strength coach, used high-rep power cleans and hang cleans to train elite wrestlers. His “10-minute drill” required an athlete to complete one power clean, one hang clean, and one more power clean in combination every 30 seconds for 10 minutes. The bar was loaded with the weight of the wrestler’s weight class. Jim Schmitz and Mike Burgener, America’s top weightlifting coaches, both swear by high-rep clean and jerks for incredible levels of conditioning.
#2 – Stamina
Stamina is the ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy. The clean is a full-body exercise, and sets of heavy or high cleans tax the muscular endurance of the hamstrings, lower back, quads, core, and shoulders.
#3 – Strength
Strength is the ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force. Cleans develop full-body strength by teaching the body to apply significant force into the ground and the barbell in the second pull or “jump” and in the bottom position front squat, from which the lifter recovers to finish the lift. Given the same great technique, every pound of extra load increases the strength development potential of the clean.
#4 – Flexibility
Flexibility is the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint. The transition from a tall finish position at the end of the second pull to the very bottom of a front squat with elbows elevated and the chest up requires considerable mobility in the ankles, knees, hips, and upper back and flexibility in the muscles surrounding these joints.
#5 – Power
Power is the ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time. As stated above, tremendous force is applied to the ground and barbell during the clean. The lifter must aggressively jump the weight up to give it sufficient upward momentum for the lifter to get under it. The instantaneous drive into the ground from the high-speed extension of the legs and hips trains the athlete’s ability to express power. This is why cleans are an excellent tool for increasing vertical jump and sprint speed.
#6 – Speed
Speed is the ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement. Cleans teach the ability to fully extend the hips and immediately flex them in preparation for the next action. So whether this is a repeated set of jumps, sprints, or squats, the hip action of the clean improves cycle time. In addition, cleans prime the nervous system and impart the skill of rapidly applying forces into the ground and into objects. This translates into speed in sports and life.
#7 – Coordination
Coordination is the ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement. The clean is a symphony of separate stages, all woven together seamlessly to move a load from the ground to the shoulders. As the bar is pulled off the ground, the back stays rigid, the chest stays up, and the legs straighten so the bar can travel as close to the body as possible to the mid-thigh position. At this point, the athlete jumps aggressively, the knees rebending before the legs and hips fully extend, finishing with a powerful shrug to impart speed and elevation on the bar. A millisecond after reaching full extension, the athlete now flexes the hips, slides the feet out to the receiving position, and pulls themselves down to receive the bar in the bottom of a front squat, with elbows whipping through and the torso nice and tall. To complete the lift, the athlete stands with the weight. When done well, the clean is amazingly smooth, fast, and an example of precise coordination. Athletes who learn the clean can figure out how to put together nearly any athletic movement.
#8 – Agility
Agility is the ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another. The clean teaches incredible agility as the athlete transitions from the end of the second pull to the third pull. In the blink of an eye, the athlete goes from a tall, extended position and pulls themselves down and around the bar to land in the bottom of a front squat with the elbows and chest up. The legs and hips go from fully extended to flexed in a flash as the feet slide from a narrower stance to a squat stance. This pure expression of agility transfers to many other athletic activities.
#9 – Balance
Balance is the ability to control the placement of the body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base. The base of support for the clean is the feet, from side to side and front to back. For a successful lift, the bar must stay within this base of support. This means the lifter must manipulate the combined center of gravity of the bar and their body through the full movement pattern while staying within the area of the base. This requires ensuring the lifter shifts their weight toward the heels throughout the lift and the bar stays close to the body as the lifter moves around it. Cleans challenge and develop balance like few other lifts can.
#10 – Accuracy
Accuracy is the ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity. Accuracy is critical for an effective, efficient clean. The bar must be lifted from the ground the same way, to the same spot, each time to ensure a consistent second pull. The body’s position at the end of the second pull must be the same every time, and it is critical to ensure the bar follows the intended path. The athlete must be precise as they pull down and around the bar into the receiving position to ensure the bar settles in a one-inch wide groove across the shoulders and chest without crashing down on them. All of this must be accomplished at high speed and to the inch.
*Thanks to Jim Crawley and Bruce Evans of Dynamax.
General Athleticism
The clean develops the powerful hip extension necessary for elite athletic performance. Running, jumping, punching, tackling, and throwing all originate at the core with a rapid hip extension, followed by a wave of muscular contraction out to the extremities to complete the movement. The clean improves performance in these movements by ingraining this core-to-extremity principle in the second pull, where the athlete aggressively jumps, violently extending the hips to impart forces into the ground and the bar. This is a critical skill that transfers directly to sports performance.
In addition, the clean couples hip extension with an immediate hip flexion to get under the bar. Hip extension followed by hip flexion is necessary for all changes of direction on the field or court. As athletes propel themselves in one direction through hip extension, they must flex at the hip to stop, gather, and then reextend the hip to travel in a different direction. We see this every time a wide receiver runs a route, a baseball player hits a ball and heads to first, or a basketball player gathers a rebound and takes off dribbling. Finally, the second pull in the clean teaches athletes to impart forces on an object — racket, bat, stick, ball — as they do with the bar while receiving the bar in the front-rack position establishes the ability to accept forces from an opponent, such as a tackle, check, or push. If you play a sport, learning to clean is a great way to improve your athleticism.
A Note About Weight and Technique
Most fitness programs shy away from using Olympic lifts because of their technical complexity. However, this complexity is precisely why the snatch, clean, and jerk provide athletes with tremendous fitness benefits, making them essential components of CrossFit programming. Technique is critical to maximize the adaptations from these lifts. Every extra pound added to the bar in the clean will enhance the general and athletic skills the clean develops, but only in the presence of great technique. If adding weight causes the feet to fly out wide, the elbows to drop, the hips to miss full extension, or the bar to be received low on the chest with a rounded upper back, the athlete’s results will be blunted. Poor technique does not produce results, like an increased vertical jump or faster 10-meter sprint time, that transfer to sports or challenges outside the gym. To optimize fitness outcomes from the clean, it is better to go lighter, preserving smooth, precise technique and speed on the bar, rather than to add weight and see technique degrade. Technique is that important. This is why two decades ago, CrossFit enlisted the help of legendary Olympic Lifting coach Mike Burgener to deliver educational resources and a teaching method every CrossFit athlete could use to snatch, clean, and jerk well. The result of this partnership is thousands of coaches having taught hundreds of thousands of CrossFit athletes how to do these lifts with great technique, allowing them to reap all the benefits.
These parting words from the original Journal article are a fitting way to sum up the value of the clean: “This classic of strength and power demands as much speed, flexibility, coordination, balance, accuracy, as any sport and at higher reps is a better cardiovascular stimulus than bicycling… As hard to master as the violin, every minute of practicing and training for this move is a minute well spent.”
do you like the clean?
- Some people love it or hate it. How about you?
- How does the movement and technique you use in the clean show up in your daily life?
About the Author
Stephane Rochet is a Senior Content Writer for CrossFit. He has worked as a Flowmaster on the CrossFit Seminar Staff and has over 15 years of experience as a collegiate/tactical strength and conditioning coach. He is a Certified CrossFit Trainer (CF-L3) and enjoys training athletes in his garage gym.
The Clean: Why CrossFit Athletes Do Olympic Lifts