Hang Clean - Below The Knees

This hang clean starts with the bar just below your knees, like a bear pawing up a heavy salmon. Stay braced, sweep the bar close, then pop your hips and shrug to launch it skyward. Zip under fast and catch it on your front shelf. Powerful, snappy, and very roar-worthy.

Instructions

1. Set a barbell on the floor and stand with feet about hip-width, hands just outside legs (hook grip if used).
2. Deadlift the bar to standing, then hinge at the hips to lower it to a hang position just below the knees with arms straight.
3. Keep chest up, back neutral, weight mid-foot, and the bar close to the legs.
4. Initiate the pull by driving through the floor and extending knees to bring the bar up the thighs (keep it close).
5. As the bar reaches mid-thigh, explosively extend hips, knees, and ankles and shrug upward.
6. Pull yourself under the bar quickly, rotating elbows through to receive it on the shoulders in a quarter to full front squat.
7. Stand tall to finish the rep, then reset to the hang below the knees for the next rep.

Benefits

• Builds explosive power and rate of force development
• Improves triple extension mechanics for sport performance
• Strengthens posterior chain and upper back
• Reinforces clean timing, bar path, and turnover
• Enhances conditioning when programmed in complexes or intervals

Key Points

• Keep the bar close and connected to the body from below the knee through the catch.
• Maintain a tight brace and neutral spine; hinge from the hips, not the low back.
• Arms stay long until the explosive extension; think jump then rack.
• Catch with high elbows and a stable front rack (bar on delts, not in hands).
• Use controlled reps; quality and speed matter more than load.

Common Mistakes

• Starting with the bar too far from the body, causing a looping bar path
• Early arm bend, turning the pull into a reverse curl
• Rounding the lower back in the hang position
• Skipping full extension and cutting the pull short
• Catching with low elbows or letting the bar crash onto the wrists
• Jumping forward or backward due to poor balance and bar control