Clean and Jerk

Technique

How to perform Clean and Jerk

1. Set up over a barbell on the floor with your hands just outside your legs, arms straight and trunk braced.
2. Push through your feet to lift the bar close to your legs, keeping your hips and shoulders rising together.
3. As the bar reaches your thighs, extend your hips, knees and ankles to accelerate it upward.
4. Pull under the bar and rotate your elbows forward to receive it on the front of your shoulders in a squat.
5. Stand from the squat and reset your stance and grip for the jerk.
6. Dip with an upright torso, then drive through your legs and push under the bar into a split stance with your arms extended overhead.
7. Stabilize the bar, bring your feet back under you and finish standing.
8. Return the bar using the practiced method appropriate to the equipment and lifting area.

Programming relevance

Muscles involved

Primary targets: Gluteus Maximus, Vastus Lateralis, Vastus Medialis, Trapezius.