4 Stretches to Help Improve Your Clean

The Clean is often used to develop power when training athletes, due to how it provides an overload stimulus for triple extension of the ankle, knee and hip. However, the catch phase of a Clean can be troublesome for a lot of people, especially if they are not proficient with Front Squats. A lot of people, especially male athletes, struggle to get into the proper positions required when catching a Clean due to limited mobility of certain joints. I’m going to give you 4 stretches that you can use to help improve your mobility and hopefully help out with your Cleans.

The first two stretches are going to be targeting the upper body and will help with your rack position. It is very common, especially with athletes whom have lots of upper body musculature, to struggle getting their elbows up in the rack position of the clean. This results in them catching the barbell with their elbows down and more in their hands, resulting in additional stress on the wrist and elbow, or them compensating by leaning back resulting in additional stress on their lumbar spine. A lot of the time this may be a technique issue, but in certain cases the athlete may have limited shoulder flexion or wrist extension. When you have a tight athlete and mobility is the issue try the following stretches:

Bench T-spine mobilization: Targets Latissimus Dorsi/Long Head of Triceps

Forearm Stretch: Targets Forearm Musculature

Here’s a bonus rack position stretch if you have a partner available. You can actually get into the rack position and have them assist you like this:

The next two stretches deal with the lower body and will be helpful when catching a clean in a full squat. This stretch will help improve your hip mobility for any form of squatting and can be done alone, but is better with a partner. I call it the pillar of pain.

3. Pillar of Pain: Targets Hip Musculature

The last stretch I’m going to show you is a stretch to help improve ankle dorsiflexion. Lack of ankle dorsiflexion is an overlooked limiting factor in squat depth. This is especially common with athletes who have previously suffered ankle injuries. Without adequate dorsiflexion you either cannot complete a full squat or you will be forced to compensate. One way an athlete might compensate is by turning the feet further out or if only one ankle is tight, shifting towards the good ankle. I’ll show you a barbell calf stretche to help improve your dorsiflexion.

4. Barbell Calf Stretch: Targets Calf Musculature