The clean and press is one of those full-body exercises that just about anyone can benefit from, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced athlete. This exercise helps to gain muscle by engaging multiple muscle groups, including the core, shoulders, glutes, hamstrings, and arms. It’s a compound movement that engages your core, upper body, and lower body all at once, making it an efficient way to build strength and power. Not only does it help you add muscle and size to your legs, but it also works wonders for your chest, arms, shoulders, and back. Plus, it comes with a bunch of other great benefits. Let’s dive into the top 10 reasons why you should be incorporating the clean and press into your workout routine.
Understanding the Clean and Press
The clean and press is a powerhouse compound exercise that targets multiple muscle groups, making it an incredibly effective full-body workout. This dynamic movement involves lifting a barbell from the floor to overhead in one fluid motion, demanding both strength and proper technique to execute safely and effectively. In this article, we will explore the myriad benefits of the clean and press, guide you through the correct way to perform the exercise, and suggest various workout variations to help you seamlessly incorporate it into your fitness routine.
1. What is the Clean and Press?
The clean and press is a robust compound barbell exercise that engages multiple muscle groups, including the arms, abs, back, shoulders, and legs. This full-body move is ideal for building real-world strength and enhancing overall fitness. The exercise involves lifting a barbell from the floor to an overhead position in one continuous motion. This requires not only significant strength but also impeccable technique to ensure the exercise is performed safely and effectively. By incorporating the clean and press into your workout routine, you can target multiple muscle groups simultaneously, making it a time-efficient and highly effective exercise.
1. A Full-Body Strength Builder
The clean and press is a powerhouse when it comes to building overall strength and power. Since it involves multiple major muscle groups working together, it forces your body to move in sync, which is excellent for improving coordination and strength. Whether you’re using a barbell, dumbbells, or kettlebells, you’re getting a comprehensive workout that’s going to push your body to the limit. And the best part? It’s an efficient way to hit both your upper and lower body in one exercise, saving you time while maximizing results.
2. Boosts Explosiveness
If you’re looking to increase your explosiveness, the clean and press is a fantastic choice. The power clean, which focuses on developing explosiveness without involving an overhead press, is also crucial for building overall body strength. Explosiveness, which is basically the ability to move quickly and with force, is essential for athletes in sports like basketball, soccer, and football. It’s not just about how strong you are—it’s about how fast you can apply that strength. The clean and press targets exactly that. By practicing this move, you’re training your muscles to produce power quickly, which can carry over into everything from sprinting to jumping. And even if you’re not an athlete, building explosiveness can improve your overall fitness and help with daily tasks like lifting heavy objects more efficiently.
3. Engages Your Entire Body in a Full Body Exercise
One of the clean and press’s most significant advantages is how it works multiple muscle groups simultaneously. You’re not just isolating one part of the body—instead, you’re engaging your legs, hips, back, shoulders, chest, and arms all at once. Additionally, the clean and press improves muscular endurance, enhancing both cardiovascular fitness and overall conditioning. On top of that, your core muscles (abs and lower back) play a critical role in stabilizing your body throughout the movement. This full-body engagement makes the clean and press an excellent way to improve functional strength, which is the kind of strength you use in everyday life.
5. How to Do the Clean and Press
To perform the clean and press correctly, follow these steps:
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Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart: Position your feet so they are parallel or slightly turned outwards, ensuring a stable base.
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Grip the barbell: Hold the barbell with your hands shoulder-width apart, palms facing your thighs.
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Engage your core and lift: Keep your back straight and core muscles engaged as you lift the barbell off the ground, standing up straight.
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Generate power with your legs: As you lift the barbell, keep it close to your body and use your legs to generate the necessary power.
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Reach the front rack position: Once the barbell reaches your shoulders, transition into the front rack position, preparing for the press.
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Press overhead: Push the barbell overhead, fully extending your arms.
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Lower with control: Carefully lower the barbell back to the starting position, maintaining control throughout the entire movement.
By following these steps, you can ensure that you are performing the clean and press with proper form, maximizing its benefits while minimizing the risk of injury.
4. Improves Coordination, Balance, and Agility
The clean and press isn’t just about raw power—it also requires coordination, balance, and agility. To perform the movement correctly, you need to time the phases of the exercise properly, transitioning from the clean (bringing the weight to your shoulders) to the press (pushing the weight overhead). This improves your body’s ability to work in harmony, making you more agile and coordinated. These skills are especially important for athletes, but they’re also valuable for anyone who wants to move better in everyday life. For example, if you play recreational sports or just want to feel more stable when moving quickly or changing direction, this exercise can help.
5. Burns Tons of Calories
If you’re looking to burn calories fast, the clean and press is a great tool for the job. Because it’s a compound exercise that involves multiple large muscle groups, your body has to work hard to perform it. This results in a higher calorie burn compared to isolated movements like bicep curls or leg extensions. The intensity of the clean and press elevates your heart rate, turning it into a metabolic conditioning workout that can torch calories in a short amount of time. Incorporating this exercise into your routine will not only help you build muscle but also boost your cardiovascular fitness.
6. Builds Lean Muscle Mass and Muscular Endurance
Want to build lean muscle while keeping your body fat percentage low? The clean and press is perfect for that. Because it involves heavy lifting with multiple muscle groups, it’s great for hypertrophy (muscle growth). The more muscle you build, the higher your resting metabolic rate becomes, meaning you’ll burn more calories even when you’re not working out. This makes the clean and press a powerful exercise for improving body composition—helping you get leaner while adding strength and muscle.
7. Improves Cardiovascular Health
While most people think of cardio exercises like running or cycling for heart health, strength training exercises like the clean and press can also benefit your cardiovascular system. The clean and press elevates your heart rate and improves your overall cardiovascular endurance. As you get stronger and more proficient at this exercise, you’ll be able to handle heavier weights and higher reps, which will challenge your heart and lungs even more. Over time, this can lead to improved heart health, reduced blood pressure, and better endurance during other forms of exercise.
10. Clean and Press Workout Variations
The clean and press is a versatile exercise that can be adapted to suit different fitness levels and goals. Here are some variations to consider:
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Dumbbell Clean and Press: Swap the barbell for dumbbells to specifically target the upper body muscles and add variety to your routine.
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Kettlebell Clean and Press: Using a kettlebell instead of a barbell can provide a different challenge and engage your core muscles more intensely.
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Clean and Press with Pause: Incorporate a brief pause at the top of the movement to increase time under tension, enhancing muscle endurance and strength.
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Clean and Press with Rotation: Add a rotational element as you press the barbell overhead to further engage your core muscles and improve functional strength.
These variations can help keep your workouts fresh and challenging, allowing you to continue making progress and achieving your fitness goals.
8. Enhances Explosive Power in Your Lower Body
Although the clean and press is often considered an upper-body exercise because of the pressing motion, it actually does wonders for your lower body as well. The clean part of the movement involves a lot of leg drive, particularly in your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. This leg power is essential for athletes who need to sprint, jump, or quickly change direction. Even if you’re not an athlete, building lower-body strength and explosive power will improve your overall fitness and make activities like hiking, climbing stairs, or lifting heavy items much easier.
9. Supports Good Posture
The clean and press requires you to maintain proper alignment throughout the entire movement, especially during the overhead press. This focus on posture and alignment can carry over into your everyday life, helping you develop better posture when sitting, standing, and moving around. If you spend a lot of time sitting at a desk or hunched over a computer, adding the clean and press to your routine can help counteract some of the negative effects of poor posture, such as rounded shoulders or a weak back.
10. Versatile and Adaptable to Any Fitness Level
One of the best things about the clean and press exercise is how versatile it is. You can modify the weight, range of motion, or even the type of equipment you use (barbells, dumbbells, or kettlebells) to suit your fitness level. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re an experienced lifter, you can adjust the exercise to match your abilities and goals. As you get stronger, you can increase the weight, add more reps, or work on improving your form to continue challenging your body.
14. Safety and Precautions
When performing the clean and press, prioritizing safety and proper form is essential. Here are some key precautions to take:
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Warm up properly: Begin your workout with light cardio and dynamic stretching to prepare your muscles and joints, reducing the risk of injury.
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Use proper form: Maintain a straight back, engage your core, and use your legs to generate power throughout the movement.
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Start with a comfortable weight: Choose a weight that allows you to perform the exercise with good form, gradually increasing the load as you become more proficient.
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Avoid swinging the barbell: Keep the barbell close to your body and control the movement to prevent unnecessary strain.
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Get a spotter: If possible, have a spotter assist you to ensure safety, especially when lifting heavier weights.
By following these safety tips, you can perform the clean and press effectively while minimizing the risk of injury, allowing you to reap the full benefits of this powerful exercise.
Conclusion
The clean and press is one of the best full-body exercises you can include in your workout routine. Not only does it help build strength, power, and muscle, but it also improves coordination, balance, and cardiovascular fitness. Whether you’re an athlete looking to enhance your performance or someone simply aiming to stay in shape, this exercise offers tremendous benefits. If you haven’t already, give the clean and press a try—you’ll be surprised by how much it can do for your body and fitness levels.
