maratoolOpen Palm Kettlebell Clean
How to do the open palm kettlebell clean
- Place one kettlebell between your feet. Clean the kettlebell by extending through the legs and hips as you raise the kettlebell towards your shoulders.
- Release the kettlebell as it comes up, and let it flip so that the ball of the kettlebell lands in the palms of your hands.
- Release the kettlebell out in front of you and catch the handle with both hands. Lower the kettlebell to the starting position and repeat.
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 glutes finish hip extension; the lower back keeps the spine from rounding; the quadriceps straighten the knee and take load on the descent.
The shoulders take a share of the work as well.
Every exercise for:HamstringsGlutesLower backQuadricepsShoulders
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 hamstrings too, using equipment this one does not:
- Power Cleanbarbell
- Reverse Hyperextensionmachine
- Stiff-Legged Dumbbell Deadliftdumbbell
- 90/90 Hamstringbody only
- Ball Leg Curlexercise ball
Difficulty
Listed at expert level. It asks for range, stability or speed that takes time to build, and it punishes a rushed set-up much harder than an easier movement would.
Of the 86 hamstrings exercises in this database, 8 are listed at expert level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.