Dumbbell Cleans

The Olympic lifts and their variations can be performed with dumbbells. This has a number of benefits for an athlete. First, it allows for more variety in terms of the exercise. With a barbell clean, the bar can only be gripped a certain way, the bar must follow a precise pathway, etc. This is not the case with dumbbells. Second, the dumbbell allows for both sides of the body to have to work independently.

To perform the dumbbell clean, stand up with a dumbbell in each hand. Dumbbells can be held at your sides or they can be held in front of your body as if they were a barbell. For our description, we’ll have them held at the sides.

Stick the chest out and pull the shoulders back. Feet should be hip-width apart. Keeping the arms straight, push the hips back and unlock the knees. Do this until the dumbbells are even with mid-thigh level.

From this position, explosively extend the hips and shrug the shoulders up. As this is occurring, relax the arms and allow the dumbbells to move up the body. When the dumbbells reach shoulder height, quickly move into a quarter squat and receive the dumbbells on the shoulders. Stand up and repeat. To see this exercise, click here: Dumbbell Cleans on YouTube

All the variations of the clean can be done with dumbbells. It can be done from different positions in the hang, from the floor, from blocks, squat style, split style, one-legged, etc. This exercise would be used just like the regular clean, this means using it towards the beginning of a workout with a low volume to focus on technique and explosiveness.

Below is a sample week of workouts that would incorporate the dumbbell clean.