Ever wanted to learn how to Olympic lift? I’m Jenny Tong, a British Champion weightlifter and Mirafit Athlete and I’m going to take you through the key components of one of two Olympic lifts: the Clean and Jerk. We’re going to go through each stage of the movement so at the end of the article you can begin lifting like a British champ yourself.

The Clean and Jerk Explained

It’s easier to think of the Clean and Jerk as not one exercise, but a multitude of exercises rolled into one. That’s because it consists of a squat, deadlift, front squat, and overhead press. Because of the complexity of the movement, it takes a while to master the lift, however it’s worth the weight (pun intended). Olympic lifting not only improves your overall strength, it also increases explosive power and range of movement. 

Clean and Jerk - Step by Step

Rack Position

The first thing you want to do is figure out your rack position. With the clean, you are going to have a narrow grip on the Barbell, very similar to a deadlift position but with a hook grip. A hook grip means your thumbs go under your fingers. Place the bar at your hips in a narrow stance, then you bring the bar onto your chest. This is the front rack position.

Top Tip - When we teach weightlifting, we tend to teach from the ‘top down’.

The first thing we learn is rack position. The second thing is how we get into the rack position. Starting with the bar at the hip using the hook grip you dip and extend the legs. Then as you extend you allow your arms to float up and feed your elbows through and under the bar. You are producing force using your legs that will drive the bar up. You’re not thrusting the hips forward and pushing the bar out. To add power to the movement, when you dip and extend, jump your feet out into your receive position by stomping your feet.

Low Squat

Once you're happy with your rack position, you’re going to take it into a low squat position. So, you’re going to dip, extend and drop under the bar into a front squat rack position.

Power Position

Now we need to work out how you get the bar down the thigh. Starting at the hips, this position is called the power position and it’s called this because it is where all the power is generated from. We use the biggest muscle groups in our body to generate force.

From the power position, keep the chest upright and your hips should be sat over your ankles and under your shoulders. From there let the bar roll down your thighs, as you do so your chest should drop forward slightly and your shins drop back slightly, don’t let all of the weight shift into your heels.

Top Tip - Your weight distribution is important, often when we think of compound movements such as squats and deadlifts you are told to put the weight into your heels. Weightlifting is different, your weight should predominantly be through the mid foot just in front of your ankle. As the bar rolls down the thighs the weight is going to come forward into the ball of the foot. Think of the base of support travelling down your shoelaces.

A common misconception with weightlifting is that the work is done with your arms, when in fact it’s done with your legs. Your legs are the biggest muscle groups in your body, and you need them to produce power. Use your legs and relax your arms by pulling your scapula’s in like bodybuilders do when they’re flexing.

Hang Clean

Next, we need to figure out how to get the bar past the knee. This is one of the trickier moves in weightlifting because we tend to either want to bend at the hip or bend at the knee when we have to learn to move the two together. The key to weightlifting is to maintain a strong back angle. You need your hips and knees to anchor at the same time and you want to stay over the bar. A good way to master this position is to pulse the bar above and below the knee, you should feel a nice, tasty burn in your hamstrings.

Start Position

From the hip, roll the bar down your leg, break at the knee, and then arrive at the start position. Your knees should be inside your arms and push your knees out slightly, the arms should be relaxed with a hook grip. Keep your chest and chin up so you can see where you’re going.

From the start position, you’re going to come up nice and slowly and hit all of the positions we’ve done so far from the bottom up this time. Slowly from below the knee to above the knee, mid-thigh, extend and drop into your squat.

Top Tip - Weightlifting has some key stable components that everyone must do throughout the lift. In order to execute that lift from a proficiently technical point of view. However, like most sports there is going to be a level of range and variety within those components. Take me for example, I’m 5’2 with relatively short limbs, I will move very differently to someone who’s 6' 2 with long arms. In the start position there is a blueprint for what ‘good’ looks like, but that will vary from person to person.

Jerk

People think the jerk involves a lot of overhead strength. You need overhead stabilisation, but you don’t necessarily push the bar overhead with your arms, what you’re actually doing is driving the bar up using your legs. The first thing to do is dip, absorb the weight and force, then pop up.

Once you’ve finished your clean you get into the rack position. You use the same grip, but you might slightly open your hands. Take a big breath in to create a shelf for the bar with your shoulders then dip to absorb the weight. When you dip you maintain an upright angle, not a squat. After you dip you want to extend straight up.

You want to do a split jerk which is where you split your legs under the bar. The bar is in line with the crown of the head and stacked in a nice straight line. Your hips should be stacked under the shoulders and almost central between the feet. You can step whichever foot forward, it’s down to personal choice. Another thing to note about your jerk receive position is that your front leg is your weight bearing leg and your back is your stabilising leg. Allow the back leg to bend slightly whilst the front leg is loaded.

Top Tip - Explore each side and see which one feels more stable. Dip, extend and split. When we split, we want to broaden the base of support. 

Remember that when it comes to Olympic lifting, it takes patience and lots of practice. But, you’ll certainly reap the rewards if you stick to it. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to master the movement, as long as you remember to get your technique on point before adding additional weight.

Written by guest author Eryn Barber.

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Tags: Equipment > Bars and Weight Plates ; Exercise Type > Strength