The Floor-to-Shoulder Explosive Heist

Trail Log · Movement Breakdown

Oh, the power clean. This is the one where you rip a barbell off the floor and heave it up to your shoulders in one continuous, explosive motion. It's the Olympic weightlifting equivalent of a bank heist — fast, coordinated, slightly dangerous, and absolutely thrilling when you pull it off cleanly.

You start with the bar on the floor, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width, toes pointed out a bit, and your hands gripping the bar just outside your knees with an overhand grip. Your back is flat, chest is up, and you're staring straight ahead like you're challenging the barbell to a staring contest. Then you drive through your heels, extending your hips and knees to lift the bar off the ground. The bar stays close to your shins — like, intimate close, almost uncomfortably close.

As the bar passes your knees, you aggressively extend your hips, knees, and ankles — basically you jump, but with a heavy bar in your hands. At full extension, you shrug your shoulders hard, then pull yourself under the bar by whipping your elbows around to catch it on your shoulders. Your feet may even leave the ground briefly, because you've generated so much force that your body is practically airborne. Then you stand up tall with the bar racked on your front deltoids, looking like you just accomplished something magnificent — because you did. The power clean builds explosive full-body power like almost nothing else, and it's the reason Olympic lifters can jump higher than people who actually practice jumping.