maratoolBottoms-Up Clean From The Hang Position
How to do the bottoms-up clean from the hang position
- Initiate the exercise by standing upright with a kettlebell in one hand.
- Swing the kettlebell back forcefully and then reverse the motion forcefully. Crush the kettlebell handle as hard as possible and raise the kettlebell to your shoulder.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the forearm flexors and extensors, which move the wrist and keep the hand closed around whatever you are holding.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the biceps add force at the elbow; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A kettlebell's mass hangs below and outside the handle, so it pulls away from the grip and the wrist has to stay packed. That offset is why racked and swinging variations feel nothing like the dumbbell version.
Every exercise using:Kettlebell
These train the forearms too, using equipment this one does not:
- Cable Wrist Curlcable
- Dumbbell Lying Pronationdumbbell
- Finger Curlsbarbell
- Wrist Circlesbody only
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 25 forearms exercises in this database, 7 are listed at intermediate level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.