Clean and Press
Trains the Shoulders.
- Equipment
- A barbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Clean the bar to the front of your shoulders and stand tall.
- Settle it on the shoulders with the elbows in front and the feet under your hips.
- Brace your stomach and squeeze your glutes.
- Press the bar overhead with the arms alone — no dip, no leg drive.
- Move your head back slightly so the bar passes your face, then return it once the bar clears.
- Lower the bar to the shoulders, then to the floor, under control.
Common mistakes
- Dipping the knees to start the press. That makes it a push press, which moves more weight and trains something else — the strict press is the point here.
- Arching the lower back to get the bar up. Standing, the arch has nowhere to go but the spine; ribs down and glutes tight is what keeps it out.
- Loading it from the clean. The press is much weaker than the clean, so the press decides the bar — a weight you can clean is often one you cannot press.
- Pressing the bar around the face in an arc. Moving the head back an inch lets it travel in a straight line.