The “Clean” is a well-known and well-used component of athletic training and fitness programs everywhere. Proper understanding of the complete movement and relevant terminology, though, is far more rare.

The clean (as part of the clean and jerk) is one of only 2 “Olympic” lifts – the other being the Snatch. For reference, the squat, bench press, and deadlift are considered “Power Lifts”. 

As defined by the IWF’s rules for competition, a clean is performed anytime a barbell is “pulled in a single movement from the platform to the shoulders, while either splitting or bending the legs.” Simply put, a clean is a lift that moves a barbell from the floor to a front rack position at the shoulders.

Here at PLT4M, we like to break the full clean down into 3 distinct elements when educating younger athletes. This helps us understand the specific points of each phase of the lift, making us far better movers in total.

We refer to these as Position 1, 2, and 3 – also known as the “high hang”, “hang”, “floor”. 

In these videos, we first introduce the Clean in its entirety and introduce each position. From there, we break out each position further it an individual video, and we end with some common faults and corrective cues.