Nick Nilsson - The Best Shoulder Exercises Youve Never Heard of: Maximize Your Shoulder Strength

The Clean and Press is an explosive movement that is excellent for developing power and coordination in the upper body. Because it uses power and momentum, you hit your muscles in a far different way than with traditional bodybuilding exercises.

The Clean and Press is a two-part movement. The first part is the clean from the bar hanging at arms length in a standing position. The second part is the press up from the shoulders to an overhead position.

• Grip a barbell with a medium grip (about the same as your bench press grip or a little narrower). Start in a standing position with your arms hanging down. Your feet should be placed just wider than shoulder-width apart.
  
• Clean the weight up to your clavicles by either using muscular force (very light weight only) or with momentum (heavier weight - thrust your pelvis forward to start the movement).

The mechanics of the clean are as follows:

• Apply explosive upward power to the bar as though trying to pull it straight up to the ceiling.
  
• With heavier weight you will need to use your thighs and calves to get the most power possible.
  
• As the weight starts to come up, flip your arms up and back, racking the bar across your shoulders.
  
• There are two tips to remember as you are doing the clean: drop your body down then flip your wrists back.
  
• The drop down means that the bar doesnt have to go as high and the flip helps you to rack the bar across your shoulders.
  
• After you have completed the clean, press up from your clavicles and overhead in a military press.
  
• Lower the weight to your shoulders, then flip it back down to arms-length on your thighs and repeat.

• When heavier weight is used or when you begin to tire, you can drop down (bend your knees) as you clean the bar up then use leg drive to help press the bar up. The motion almost resembles bouncing the bar off your chest but in essence, you are catching the bar with your legs then using leg power to help push the bar up.
  
• This exercise also works your upper back quite well and is a good exercise to practice the timing of the clean movement for power cleans.

This exercise is very skill oriented and requires a lot of power.

• Doing this exercise is best when you have fresh lower back muscles.
  
• This means it should be done first in your exercise routine.

1. Not using momentum

This is one of the few exercises where you actually need momentum to do it properly.

• To do a proper clean, you must apply upward force to the bar then drop your body down underneath it.
  
• Without momentum this becomes a muscular rather than explosive movement. This is incorrect.
  
• You will see this when the bar travels away from your body as shown to the right.
  
• It reduces the amount of weight you are able to use and can actually lead to injury.

2. Not flicking the wrists

The wrist flick at the top is very important. It helps get the weight around the corner so that you can rack it on your shoulders.

3. Not dropping the body down as you rack the bar on the shoulders

Your legs should not remain stiff and stationary throughout the movement. As you flip the bar up and across your shoulders, you should bend your knees quickly and drop down as if catching the bar.

1. Resting between reps

In this exercise, there is a way to rest in between reps without putting the bar down. Simply squat down and rest the bar high on your thighs, which are now almost horizontal. This gives you a bit of a breather between reps to rest your grip.

2. Leg push

Use a push with your legs to help press the weight overhead. This is especially useful when you are using heavier weights than you are able to press with strict form. After you drop down to catch the bar on your shoulders, use your leg power to add a push to the bar to help move it up.

3. Straight path up

Imagine the bar going up in as straight a path as possible. This keeps the force of the bar upward rather than outward. If you start swinging the bar out and around, you lose some of the power that should be available for moving the bar up.

4. Dumbbell Clean and Press

This movement is executed essentially the same as the barbell variation, the only difference being you cant bang the barbell off your chest at the bottom of the press because you are using dumbbells.

• If you are using fairly light dumbbells, you can do the exercise without a great deal of body movement.
  
• If you are using heavy dumbbells, use a hammer grip for the clean.
  
• This will provide you with better control and power as it is a more natural hand position for this movement.
  
• You can rotate your hands as you press the dumbbells up or keep them in a neutral position.