More and more people are rediscovering the greatest exercise in the world (in my opinion) the clean and press! This exercise has a slew of incredible benefits and works almost every muscle in your body. The thing is, no one asks you how much you clean and press, they ask what you bench, right? So does this mean that you should not do the clean and press, and just focus on the bench press? No way! The clean and press works a ton of muscles, but will it help increase your bench press?
The clean and press will help improve your bench press more than perhaps any other ancillary movement. The overhead press portion of the exercise will work your deltoids (shoulders), upper pectorals (chest), and your triceps particularly in a way that will make you grow far stronger than just bench pressing alone will. The secret is in the way the triceps works. When you flex the triceps in an overhead position, you train the muscle in a much more thorough way than when the arms are in front of you or at your sides. The insertion point at the top of the triceps actually attaches to the shoulder, providing synergy in lifting the arm overhead, not just extending the lower arm at the elbow. When performed regularly, this movement will greatly enhance your poundage on the bench press.
So, is it just this or is the explosive, total body nature of the clean and press also a contributing factor to the success of this exercise for adding pounds on your bench?
Chest
Most people don’t think of the clean and press as a chest exercise. But if you have ever tried them, you know that the upper pectorals are not only involved, but are worked very hard if you are using any significant amount of weight.
The pecs get a good contraction and pump during a clean and press workout and will even get a little sore from just this. So yes, the clean and press is also an (upper) chest exercise.
Shoulders
You shoulders are key to a big bench press. If your chest and triceps are strong, but your deltoids are weak, you’d better believe that it will hold your bench press back.
The overhead or military press is the best single mass building exercise for your shoulders. This is an absolutely inescapable part of the clean and press. Stronger shoulders means a bigger bench. It’s that simple.
To bump up the effects even higher, you can do more of a push-press. This way you’ll use a little ‘body english’ so that you can use a little more weight.
Be sure to control the weight on the way down. If you cannot lower the weight safely, you are going too heavy.
Triceps
When doing the bench press, the triceps are the final link between the power being sent from your chest through to the barbell. If your triceps fail, the weight doesn’t go up!
The clean and press trains the triceps better than almost any other exercise. The amount of weight typically used is what makes it a serious mass builder, but the angle at which the tricep works – overhead – is the key to maximum tricep muscle activation.
The triceps inserts at the shoulder as well as to the forearm. This means that you are not thoroughly working the tricep unless you are pushing up overhead.
Because of this, exercises such as cable pushdowns and skull-crushers will only partially work the triceps.If you have only ever trained triceps with your arms at your sides or out in front, try the clean and press and you will feel the difference!
Explosiveness!
The explosive nature of the power clean, and the clean and press is what lends it its effectiveness. The explosive, speedy positive motion, followed by a controlled negative motion, will give your muscles no choice but to grow stronger.
The explosiveness factor will also train your body to summon maximum strength and power for a single maximal lift, like on a bench press max-out.
Can I Just Do Overhead or Military Press?
As it pertains to bench pressing, most of the benefits of the clean and press come from the overhead press portion of the movement. This does not mean that the overhead or military press is a sufficient substitute.
The explosive power clean portion is a huge strength builder and will also make your shoulders and arms even more powerful, contributing to a stronger bench press. The major contribution of the power clean is that it works your deltoids in a pulling motion and works your trapezius. This important muscle adds power and stability in an ancillary way to your bench press.
Relative Ease…
The clean and press is an incredibly difficult exercise to perform. If you don’t believe me, try to do a set of 10 – even with relatively light weight (<50% bodyweight) – it’s not easy. Mechanically it is challenging to learn, and your technique will take time to perfect.
Physically, it takes a lot of effort, and makes other exercises, particularly a straight-forward one like the bench press seem relatively easy.
How Many Clean And Presses Do I Need To Do?
I would aim to do 30 reps with at least 50% of your body weight, 2 times a week. This sounds easy, but it’ll probably be 6 sets of 5 or less reps. The clean and press is basically like doing 3 exercises at once, so each rep is like doing 3 reps. You’ll need at least 3 minutes between sets, if you don’t need this much rest, your intensity isn’t high enough. So, you probably need to use more weight, or maybe you aren’t controlling the weight on the way down.
If possible, devote an entire workout to this exercise. The clean and press is so comprehensive and tiring that it is a complete workout in itself. If you are a gym rat and spend hours in the gym each day, try to at least keep it separate from your other strength training.
The clean and press really takes a lot of effort, and there isn’t usually a lot of energy left over afterwards. If you do anything too strenuous before your clean and presses, you won’t perform at your best. If you try to train anything else afterwards without rest, your performance will suffer there too.
I think it’s best to do it on leg day, or back day if you follow a split routine. The clean and press is extremely draining, so you should avoid performing this exercise before or after your other pressing exercises. Especially any kind of bench press or shoulder press.
Clean And Press Will Send Your Bench Through The Roof!
Besides pushups, the clean and press is literally the only upper body pressing exercise I do. I don’t like to do a lot of bench or other pressing as I feel they are a bit rough on your (shoulder) joints. Despite this, I can still bench press 225 lbs for 20 reps at a body weight of 195 lbs. I know this for sure because I like to maintain this level of strength so I do this every couple of months to make sure I can still do it.
I honestly don’t mention this to boast, but to explain that I know firsthand how powerful the clean and press is for developing and maintaining strength, (and muscle mass).
If you are actually training to increase your bench press, and throw in some clean and press on top, you will certainly see the weight increase.
I would expect that an intermediate lifter (who can max bench 100-150% bodyweight for one rep) can boost his bench by at least 10% after 1-2 months of 30 clean and presses, twice a week. With time, the results could be even better. So try it out and see what the clean and press can do for you!
Related Posts:
Will Only Doing Clean And Presses Be A Good Workout?
Somehow this exercise seems to equal more than the sum of the individual parts. You will find that it is pretty intense on your cardiovascular system. Performing High Reps within one set is extremely difficult. The better technique is to shoot for a total number. If you’re simply attempting to only do the clean and press and nothing else I would try and do 50 three times a week. Even if you’re doing other exercises I would aim for at least 20 three times a week. Simply do as many as you can per set, for as many sets as it takes. A whole workout consist of only 50 reps sounds like it would be too easy. Most guys do more than 50 reps just on their biceps. But a clean and press is a lot harder than a barbell curl and it will be difficult to reach that number!
Can Push-ups Make You Bigger?
As a type of resistance training, push-ups can help you gain a good amount of muscle. Just like lifting weights. If done correctly, push-ups can result in much larger arms, shoulders, and chest. Of course it will take some time, and your initial gains may be better than later ones. But by using intensity-increasing techniques, such as training to failure, and slow-reps, you can keep the muscle growth coming for years and get a lot bigger.