Clean and Jerk

How to do it

1. Clean the bar to the front of your shoulders and stand up out of the receiving position.
2. Settle the bar on the shoulders, elbows in front, feet under your hips.
3. Dip a few inches by bending the knees with the torso upright.
4. Drive up hard through the legs and send the bar off the shoulders.
5. Split or drop under it, catching with the arms locked overhead.
6. Recover the feet to a line under the bar and stand tall before lowering.

Common mistakes

• Dipping by leaning forward. The dip is a short vertical drop; a forward lean sends the bar away from the body and the jerk then has to travel around the head.
• Pressing the bar out at the top. A jerk is caught with the arms already locked — a press-out means the leg drive did not put the bar high enough.
• Treating it as one continuous movement. The clean finishes and the bar settles before the jerk starts; running them together wastes the recovery the shoulders need.
• Recovering the feet before the bar is stable. The arms lock, the bar settles, and then the feet come back — in that order.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Shoulders

Secondary

• Abs
• Glutes
• Hamstrings
• Spinal Erectors
• Quads
• Traps
• Triceps