Clean and Jerk
The clean and jerk is the heavier of the two Olympic weightlifting lifts: you pull a barbell from the floor to your shoulders in one explosive movement (the clean), then drive it overhead with your legs and catch it on straight arms (the jerk). It trains whole-body power, with the hips, legs, back and trapezius driving the bar and the shoulders and triceps securing it overhead.
Also called: C&J, Clean & Jerk, Squat Clean and Jerk, Olympic Clean and Jerk · Equipment: barbell · Pattern: compound
Step by step
- Stand with the bar over the middle of your feet, feet about hip-width apart. Take a hook grip (thumb wrapped under your first two fingers) about a thumb's length outside your legs.
- Set your back flat and braced, shoulders slightly in front of the bar and arms straight. Take a big breath and hold it.
- Push the floor away to lift the bar, keeping it close to your shins and your back angle unchanged until the bar passes your knees.
- As the bar reaches your upper thigh, extend your hips, knees and ankles explosively and shrug. Keep your arms long until your legs have finished driving.
- Pull yourself under the bar, turn your elbows round fast and catch the bar on your shoulders in a front rack at the bottom of a front squat. Stand up and settle the bar.
- Reset your feet to hip width, release the hook grip, breathe and brace. Dip a short distance straight down through the knees, torso upright and weight across the whole foot.
- Drive hard out of the dip, then move your feet quickly into a split (one foot forward, one back) and punch under the bar to catch it on straight elbows.
- With the bar held over the middle of your feet, step the front foot back halfway, then the back foot forward, until you stand tall with feet together.
- Return the bar to your shoulders and then to the platform under control. Bumper plates allow a controlled drop from overhead.
- Push the floor away, back angle constant
- Arms long until the legs finish
- Finish tall, then pull under
- Fast elbows into the front rack
- Dip straight down, drive straight up
- Punch under the bar to straight elbows
- Bar over the middle of your feet overhead
In VALDA, these cues are one tap away on the exercise while you train.
What it trains
| Muscle | Role | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Gluteus maximus | Prime mover | C |
| Quadriceps: vastus lateralis | Prime mover | C |
| Trapezius: upper | Prime mover | C |
| Anterior deltoid: anterior | Prime mover | C |
| Quadriceps: rectus femoris | Secondary | C |
| Hamstrings: biceps femoris (long head) | Secondary | C |
| Gastrocnemius: medial/lateral head | Secondary | C |
| Lateral deltoid: lateral | Secondary | C |
| Triceps brachii | Secondary | C |
| Latissimus dorsi | Secondary | C |
| Adductors | Secondary | C |
| Erector spinae | Stabiliser | C |
| Rhomboids | Stabiliser | C |
| Forearm flexors | Stabiliser | C |
| Rectus abdominis | Stabiliser | C |
| Obliques (internal/external) | Stabiliser | C |
Evidence grades: A = strong research base · B = good · C = limited · D = coaching consensus.
What goes wrong, and the fix
Bending the arms early in the pull
Fix: Keep the arms long and loose until the hips, knees and ankles have fully extended.
Back rounding off the floor
Fix: Brace before the pull and hold a flat back at a constant angle past the knees.
Bar swinging away from the hips
Fix: Keep the lats tight and the bar brushing the upper thigh at full extension.
Slow elbows in the catch
Fix: Turn the elbows round fast and meet the bar high on the shoulders.
Dipping forward in the jerk
Fix: Keep the torso upright and the weight over the whole foot in a short, straight dip.
Pressing the jerk out
Fix: Drive with the legs, then move the feet fast and punch under to straight elbows.
Bar forward of the base overhead
Fix: Finish with the bar over the middle of the feet and your head through the arms.
What the research says
Power · first choiceSport performance · first choiceStrengthGeneral fitnessFat loss & conditioning
- Sets and reps — Weightlifting training is commonly built on singles, doubles and triples, with much of the work between about 70% and 90% of the best lift and bar speed kept high. This is coaching practice; there is no direct research on the best rep range for the full lift.
- Transfer to jumping — A meta-analysis found weightlifting training improved vertical jump by about 8% compared with no training and about 5% compared with traditional resistance training, with results similar to plyometric training.
- Strength base — Reviews describe maximal strength as the foundation of power, which is why heavy squats and pulls are commonly trained alongside the full lift, with more speed-focused work as lifters get stronger.
- Lifts in parts — Reviews describe pulls, hang and power variations as a continuum that trades load and skill demand for speed and accessibility. Many programmes build the clean and the jerk separately before joining them.
- Session order — Research on exercise order finds the lift trained first in a session tends to show the larger strength gain. The full lift is usually placed first, when fatigue is lowest.
- Rest between reps — Studies of cluster sets, with short rests between reps, find bar speed and power are held better than in continuous sets. Heavy work is typically done as single reps with a full reset between each.
Swap it mid-workout
With VALDA Pro, FLEX offers alternatives like these when you swap an exercise mid-workout.
Log the clean and jerk in VALDA, with these cues one tap away while you train and your history for it in one place.
General information about exercise technique, not medical advice. If you have an injury or a health condition, your healthcare provider is the right person to ask.