Clean Deadlift

How to perform the Clean Deadlift

1. Set up in the clean start: clean grip, bar over the balls of the feet, hips set higher than the knees, chest up, back flat and lats squeezed.
2. Break the bar from the floor by driving the legs down into the platform, keeping the shoulders slightly ahead of the bar and the bar against the legs.
3. Hold the back angle to the knee, then open the hips to stand tall: controlled and heavy, a strength builder for the clean pull, not an explosive rep.
4. Lower the bar along the same path back to the floor and reset the position before each rep.

Suggested working range: 3–5 reps. Default progression: percentage.

Common mistakes

• •Yanking the bar off the floor so the hips rise faster than the shoulders and the back rounds.
• •Rounding the lower back under the heavier load instead of keeping a flat, braced spine.
• •Letting the bar drift out in front of the legs rather than dragging it up close to the body.
• •Treating it as an explosive pull rather than the controlled, position-building strength lift it is.

Variations & alternatives

Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or the main lift has stalled.

Romanian Deadlift

Hamstrings · Barbell

Leg Curl

Hamstrings · Machine

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

Hamstrings · Dumbbell

Single-Leg Curl

Hamstrings · Machine

Nordic Hamstring Curl

Hamstrings · Bodyweight