Hang Cleaning More Than You Full Clean and How To Fix It

Every week I answer questions submitted by you on my podcast, The Last Set Best Podcast which you can find on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! This weeks question comes from @anon…

“I hang clean more than I full clean, is this a problem and how do I fix it?”

Great question, and one many lifters struggle with!

Why Do Some Lifters Clean More From The Hang Than From The Floor?

It's not uncommon to see both beginner lifters AND elite lifters hang clean more than they clean from the floor, but WHY this happens matters.

Some lifters may have a background in CrossFit or sport strength and conditioning which tends to place more of an emphasis on cleans from the hang than they do cleans from the floor. This means you might have hundreds or thousands more reps under your belt with the hang clean, and are likely to be much better at it. But this doesn't really mean you're better at the hang clean, it just means you're bad at the full clean.

On the other hand, some elite lifters may feel stronger with the hang clean because they are able to utilize the stretch-reflex of the movement which doesn't exist when pulling from the floor. The key to making this work is actually spending enough time with both variations of the clean to perfect your technique. Without the years of getting your reps in, you won't be able to truly take advantage of the hang clean in the same way elite lifters do.

How To Fix Your Technique

So if you hang clean more than you clean from the floor and you're not an elite weightlifter, then here's what I recommend...

Practice Cleans From The Floor

Frequency is the easiest tool to get better at weightlifting.

If you’re only hang cleaning, and doing that one or two times a week, then the easiest way to get better at full cleans is to stop hang cleaning as much, and to focus on doing full cleans more often.

I recommend doing full cleans from the floor at least twice a week to get maximum chances to get better at the lifts. I recommend doing your higher volume, lighter weight cleans early in the week, then maybe a lighter power variation in the middle of the week, and finally a heavy, low volume day of cleans towards the end of the week. This is exactly what we do in our OlyStrong Team Program, which you can start a free week trial of here.

Dial In Your Start Position

Your start position is where 99% of technique issues can go wrong.

Especially if you’re better at hang cleans, you might not even know where your start position should be! Now, it’s easy to get hung up on fixing other technique issues in your clean like speed or bar crash, but without a proper start position, all that other stuff doesn’t matter.

Aim for the textbook start position, then make small modifications to personalize it for you. 

Start with your front squat grip, your stance slightly narrower than your squat stance, and set your hips  low enough so your back is flat or arched, you have midfoot balance, and that when viewed from the side the back of your armpits are directly in line with the bar. This should generally be an ideal position for most lifters, but feel free to drop your hips lower or high to achieve midfoot balance. 

Don't Rush It

This one is really important. 

The reason you feel better on hangs is likely because you can feel the speed and acceleration as you pass the knees and come back up in your pull. But if you start your clean from the floor too fast, you'll actually slow down as you pass the knees, which is probably the biggest reason why you don't clean more from the floor.

Instead, use the Acceleration Framework I teach in my free beginner program, Weightlifting101!

The rule of speed in weightlifting is that we must always get faster throughout the pull. But if you start too fast, you’ll actually slow down later in the pull. Instead, start “slow”, and aim to get faster as you complete the pull. Think “Slow, Faster, Fastest”, where the slowest part of the pull will be from the ground to just above the knees, then you’ll get faster from the knees until the bar reaches the power position/hip crease, and the fastest part of the lift will be from extension to the bottom of the squat. 

This is the natural tempo of a max effort lift from a well trained weightlifter, but as a beginner, you’ll need to mimic this tempo even though you could go faster at the start.

Balance Is Everything

In your start position, you need to have midfoot balance, but you also need to keep this balance. 

The most common mistake I see people make is shifting their balance back to the heels as the bar is passing the knees. This balance shift costs you a ton of leg drive and slows down the lift, neither of which helps you lift more weight.

Try using drills like the Tempo Clean to help you learn proper balance. 

By slowing down the pull to 4-seconds, you give yourself plenty of time to practice doing things correctly, and slow pulls are one of the best ways to practice patience in the lift as well as fixing rushing the lift. You can read more about the Tempo Clean in this article here!

Hopefully you found this article useful! You can find the full episode of the podcast linked below as well as on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. If you have a question you’d like to submit for the podcast, click here!

If you’re new to the olympic lifts, then check out my free Weightlifting101: Beginner Guide + 6-Week Program here.

And if you’re looking for an affordable training program with guaranteed PR’s, then check out my OlyStrong 3-Day and 5-Day Teams!

You’ll get workouts, daily video feedback, and unlimited coach messaging to ask as many questions as you’d like! Click below to start a free week trial and learn more today!