How to Do a Hang Clean Exercise

The hang clean is a solid bar exercise to get you focusing on the second half of the clean exercise and trains you to develop muscle and technique for the extension phase of a clean. As a nearly head-to-toe workout you should add the hang clean to your exercise toolbox to make some safe and significant gains.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Get into the hang position. Begin with a moderately loaded barbell. Grab the bar with an overhand grip that is a bit more than shoulder width apart. Raise the bar to rest against the middle of your thighs. Your shoulders should be rounded forward, your back straight and your chest thrust out. Keep your feet about hip-width apart, toes forward.
2. Jump and shrug up. From the hang position, explosively jump and extend your hips straight out. As you get to maximal extension, shrug the bar up and bending your elbows to raise the bar higher. As you move into the shrug, flex your calves and step up slightly on your toes to get maximum power.
3. Catch the bar. As you get to the top of the extension with the bar nearing its upward peak, you need to rotate your elbows so that they face outwards. As you do so, push the bar against the top of your chest and anterior deltoids so that it can come to rest there.
4. Drop down into a squat. Once you've got the bar resting on your chest and shoulders with your elbows pointing out, drop down in a fairly deep squat. Make sure to keep your back straight and your muscles tight. Once you get to the bottom of the squat raise back up immediately. Drop the bar down to your thighs or to the ground to begin the hang clean again.