Split Clean
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- A barbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Set up over the bar as for a clean: feet about hip-width apart, grip just outside the legs, back flat and shoulders over the bar.
- Push the floor away and drive the hips through, keeping the bar close.
- As the hips finish, shrug and pull the elbows high.
- Split the feet, one forward and one back, while whipping the elbows under to catch the bar on the front of the shoulders.
- Receive the bar in the split with the torso upright and the front knee bent.
- Recover the front foot back, then the back foot forward, and stand tall with the bar racked.
Common mistakes
- Splitting before the pull is finished. The feet move as the bar is rising; an early split drops you under a bar that is not yet going up.
- Landing the feet on one line. The front and back foot land on separate tracks about hip-width apart so the catch is stable.
- Leaning forward in the split. The torso stays upright and the bar sits on the shoulders; a forward lean lets it roll off.
- Recovering with the back foot first. The front foot steps back first so the bar stays over the hips.