maratoolDumbbell Clean
How to do the dumbbell clean
- Begin standing with a dumbbell in each hand with your feet shoulder width apart.
- Lower the weights to the floor by flexing at the hips and knees, pushing your hips back until the dumbbells reach the floor. This will be your starting position.
- To initiate the movement, violently jump upward by extending the hips, knees, and ankles to acclerate the weights upward. Maintaining a neutral grip on the dumbbells, keep the arms straight until full extension is reached.
- After full extension, rebend the hips and knees to receive the weight in a squat position. Allow the arms to bend, guiding the dumbbells to your shoulders.
- Upon receiving the weight in the squat position, extend the hips and knees to finish in a standing position with the weights on your shoulders.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the hamstrings, which extend the hip and bend the knee, frequently at both joints in the same repetition.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first; the glutes finish hip extension.
The lower back, quadriceps, shoulders and traps take a share of the work as well.
Every exercise for:HamstringsCalvesForearmsGlutesLower back
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
Dumbbells let each side work on its own, surfacing a strength difference between limbs that a barbell would quietly cover for, and leaving the wrist free to rotate through the movement.
Every exercise using:Dumbbell
These train the hamstrings too, using equipment this one does not:
- Flutter Kicksbench + body only
- Front Leg Raisesbody only
- Glute Ham Raisemachine
- Good Morningbarbell
- Hamstring-SMRfoam roll
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 86 hamstrings exercises in this database, 35 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.