Wouldn’t it be great if there was one silver bullet that would satisfy all of your exercise needs? I mean, get a little more buff, burn some fat, and just become a badass in general. Anybody who has seen any old school lifting will be familiar with the clean and press. it seems to work pretty much your whole body, but is it enough all by itself for a complete total body workout? Will doing only clean and presses be a good workout?
Somehow this exercise seems to equal more than the sum of the individual parts. You will find it 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 consisting 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!
Look, I’m not going to tell you that the clean and press is the only exercise you’ll ever need to have a perfectly balanced physique. You might never look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but you could definitely get pretty freaking strong and muscular from just this one exercise.
Maybe you don’t have time to do a bunch of different exercises. Or maybe you absolutely hate lifting weights and want to spend as little time as possible doing it. Despite all this you still want to be muscular. And as far as bang for your buck, the clean and press is probably the most effective exercise out there.
How do I do Clean and Presses?
To perform the exercise is not simple, but reasonably straightforward to learn for most people. Stand with your feet at the bar, shoulder width apart. You can play with different stances later. Keep your head facing forward as you bend slightly at the knees and waste to grasp the bar.
You will take an overhand grip around shoulder width on the bar. In one movement explosively lift the bar from the ground up to shoulder height. You will need to involve the legs, love back, traps, and shoulders.
From this moment you simply perform a military press. To get a greater focus on legs, and potentially use more weight, you can perform a push press instead of a military press. Obtaining your power from your legs.
Then, lower the weight, in a controlled manner, first to the shoulders, then to the waist, then to the floor. Repeat.
Training legs as a priority
One of the beautiful things about the clean and press, is that you can train legs without training legs! You can definitely work your thighs and even calves, and make them grow without having the dreaded leg day! I mean sure, banging out a bunch of squats and leg presses would get them bigger faster, but you will see results from these.
The great Tom Platz was famous for his leg development and used to do a lot of squats. He said that it was helpful to visualize himself as one giant piston, cranking out rep after rep. I think that works great for clean and presses too, although it will be in a lower rep range in relation to the weight.
Does it work your whole body?
The clean and press is very technical, and somewhat intimidating movement. Once an Olympic competitive lift, it is now almost forgotten in modern gyms. The fact of the matter is, that it’s probably the best total body exercise that someone can do with a barbell. From your calves and even the muscle on the front of the shin, through your thighs and hips, lower back and core, trapezius, shoulders, arms, and forearms; the clean and press works almost every muscle.
It basically takes a weight, hopefully a relatively heavy one, through the entire range of motion in which you can hold a barbell. From the floor to overhead. Moving it even further than your total height. It takes a lot of energy and coordination to achieve this.
How fast should I do them?
The clean and press can be performed as a heavy, explosive movement. It can also be performed with a lighter weight, in a more controlled fashion. Which provides a somewhat different workout. The best way to do it is explosive on the way up, and controlled on the way down. It is a very hard exercise and you will find that you’ll need more rest time between sets than on most other movements.
Now, the clean and press is a pretty serious exercise. If you have zero experience in lifting weights or if you have any back or other types of medical problems you will definitely need to check with a doctor before attempting to do the clean and press.
What weight should I use?
If you have never performed the clean and press before, I would recommend starting with definitely no more than 50% of your body weight. In fact, to learn the movement I would practice with just a 45-pound bar. If you are not strong enough to start with that, perhaps try it with a couple of 10 or 15 lb dumbbells. Even well trained individuals need only use 65-70% of their bodyweight.
Conversely, if you are doing 10 of them easily in one set without fainting, you need a heavier weight. You should be looking for a weight where five or six reps is challenging – even fresh at the beginning of a workout.
Can I drop the weight from overhead?
You can, but don’t. With CrossFit and some other “hardcore” training techniques, there is a tendency to want to drop the weight at the top of the movement. I do not think that this is a good idea. not only will it make you unpopular at the average gym, and look like a meathead, but you’re robbing yourself of half the benefits! Lowering the weight in a controlled manner is crucial. The shoulder muscles, especially the trapezius, as well as the lower and mid back and hamstrings, are worked especially well during the negative phase of the movement.
Not only is lowering the weight in a controlled manner an additional task for the muscles to perform, it’s also a safety issue. People get hurt at the gym all the time, so why risk safety by dropping weights?
That being said, you should do it in an area in the gym where you will have space to drop the weights in an emergency.
Break it down (mentally)…
One way to look at it, is to view the clean and press as a combination of three exercises. The deadlift, the power clean, and the military press.
While warming up you guys should take a brief pause in between each one of these sections of the exercise. But when actually performing it you should merge the two into one continuous power clean from floor to shoulder without stopping. You will need a slight pause before the pressing motion.
While focusing on the first part of the movement really try to feel it in your legs. The second part of the motion is more like a cheat form of an upright row.
The last part is the least technical, but the most outright difficult. The overhead press. When you are starting to fatigue this will require you to summon all your willpower. Overhead presses give you a ton of benefit. You will find that even if you do a lot of push Downs, skull crushes, bench pressing etc. You will probably still get some soreness in your triceps. This is because overhead pressing works both ends of the triceps to a greater degree than these other exercises.
If you begin to fatigue during the training session, and can no longer do the pressing motion, you can do partials. Just doing the power clean to the shoulder is quite a workout. Just do some burnouts on the first 1/3rd of the movement and it will be equal to a light deadlift.
Will it boost my metabolism?
The clean and press involves virtually all your muscle groups, including the large muscles of the legs as well as your upper torso and arms. It is also a breathing exercise and will expand your lungs. You will feel energized after this workout and will have a metabolic boost as a result of this type of training.
Do I need any other exercises?
Like I said, the clean and press works pretty much everything. But some muscle groups are worked more thoroughly than others. So you will still need something else for your back and probably abs too. I would probably do bent over rows, or pull ups, maybe even both.
I would do 5 sets minimum of rows or pullups 3+ times a week. Also 5 sets minimum of an ab exercise of your choice. Combine this with 30-plus clean and presses three times a week, or even more frequently, and you will get jacked.
As far as legs go, you will really have to focus on involving your legs in the clean and press. If you go heavier you can make it more of a push press in the later part of the movement. This will involve the legs to an even greater degree. As long as you focus on using particular of the thigh muscles, you will definitely be able to gain some leg strength and even size from clean and presses. Continue to up the weight, and really push yourself, and your legs will grow.
However, if you want monster wheels, you want to do some other leg work. Especially if you’re a well developed, advanced lifter.
Will I get huge and muscular from clean and presses?
Definitely! As long as you follow the principal of progressive overload (I.e. increase the weight), you will grow. The clean and press is not an easy exercise and recruits probably 70% of the muscle in your body. From your forearms, all the way down to your calves, and everything in between. It is almost the perfect total body workout. Get ready! This exercise is very taxing and will have you huffing and puffing after just a few reps.
It is such a strenuous exercise, and engages so much muscle fiber, that it leads to a large boost in testosterone, HGH, and puts you in an anabolic state. Like I said before, you will find that it also gives your metabolism a major jump start for the next day(s). There’s something almost prehistoric about lifting a heavy barbell overhead. You will feel like a beast – and soon you’ll look like one too!
To summarize…
Start with about 50% of your weight, or less if you’re just learning the movement.
Aim for 50 reps in as few sets as possible.
Take plenty of rest between sets (2-5 mins).
If you can do more than 5 reps per set – increase the weight!
Get going, and enjoy your workout!
Related Posts:
How many squats a day will make a difference?
While nearly any number of squats will make some difference, the higher the number you do, the greater the results. This carries true until you get to really high rep numbers, i.e. over 200 squats. If you are out of shape, even 10-20 squats per day will have a significant impact on the strength of your legs, back, and on your energy levels. It is difficult to overtrain with bodyweight squats, so do plenty of them. 100+ squats a day is a great level to be at. If you want more muscular legs, try to work your way up to at least 50 per day, every other day and you will not regret it!
What Is The One And Only Shoulder Exercise You Need?
One of the best all around exercises for the shoulders has to be the clean-and-press. I can’t think of any other movement which will simultaneously challenge the traps as well as the deltoids (as well as many other muscle groups) through a full range of motion while allowing the use of quite a heavy weight. The explosive nature of the clean and press can also help build new muscle mass and improve your power.
