Movement Tip: The Muscle Clean

CrossFit Seminar Staff member Julie Foucher demonstrates the Muscle Clean for us this week. With the Muscle Clean, the legs do not bend after the hips extend. This means you can’t drop your body under the bar and effectively need to use your arms more. You do this by bringing the elbows high enough to turnover into the Front Squat. As the arms tend to be a lot weaker than the hips and legs, it’s likely that you would use a much lighter weight for your Muscle Clean than for a Clean.

Points Of Performance

• Stand on feet with hip-width apart
• Hands about one thumb’s distance from hips
• Hook grip on the bar
• Shoulders slightly in front of the bar at set-up
• Lumbar curve maintained
• Hips and shoulders rise at the same rate, then hips extend rapidly
• Heels down until hips and legs extend
• Shoulders shrug, followed by a pull under with the arms
• Bar is pulled to rack position keeping the legs straight
• Complete at full hip and knee extension with the bar in the front rack position