The Clean And Press Combo Is Not Just For Olympic Weightlifters
Most of us have watched the Olympics so more than likely you have seen the weightlifting competition. You’ve seen huge men and women perform the clean and press combo with a completely loaded bar and thought “holy cow”. Of course, none of us normal human beings are going to reach such a heavy weight. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t add the clean and press combo to your workout. In case you are not familiar, let me define the clean and press combo.
There are a few different ways to perform the clean and press combo. One is to take the bar from a rack, hands hip width apart, rest the bar across the top of your chest, then perform a front squat. Return to the start position, then lift the bar over your head. Return to the start position, that’s one rep. I prefer to do the clean and pull combo as follows-
Hold a barbell on the floor with your feet and hands hip-width apart, keep your head up
Rapidly extend your hips and knees, pulling the barbell up, keeping your arms straight, and drop under the bar as it travels up.
Stand upright with the barbell across your shoulders then rapidly press the barbell overhead.
Lower the bar back to your shoulders and lower your body toward the floor, sending your hips back and down and bending your knees.
Return upright and then the bar back to the floor and repeat.
Watch the demonstration below-
Use Caution Starting Out
Please don’t load up a bar (even two 45’s can count as loaded) and try doing the clean and press combo. It works the entire body which is great but can also be dangerous. To prevent injury, I suggest doing starting out with just a barbell. Watch the above video a few times on your phone to make sure you have the form down. When using the barbell as a warm up, make sure you use perfect form. Even if they seem easy at first, I would suggest only increase the weight by using 10-pound plate.
How To Build Up To Clean And Press Combo For Beginners
If you are just getting into weight lifting or are out of shape you can build up to doing a clean and press combo doing the following-
Bodyweight Squats – Work up to four sets of ten. Use a Tempo of 4-0-1-0 (lower 4 seconds)
After completing the squats go into four sets of ten reps of military press using a tempo of 4-0-1-0 (lowering four seconds)
Perform these two exercises once a week for two weeks. Week three, perform them twice. By week four, you should be ready to start performing the clean and press combo using an Olympic barbell which weigh between 35-45 pounds depending on what your gym uses.
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