Dumbbell Clean & Press
You may have seen absurdly strong Olympic weightlifters doing the clean and press, but this is an extremely efficient exercise for building muscle, strength, and explosive power for people of all fitness levels. Doing the clean and press with dumbbells actually is arguably a better choice for most people rather than its barbell predecessor. It has far less of a learning curve, less risk for injury, with all the same benefits.
The dumbbell clean and press is truly a full body exercise. To execute this movement, take a shoulder width stance and take the starting position with shoulders, hips, and core engaged, and hips, knees, and ankles bent with a neutral spine. Then begin the upward explosive movement, keeping the dumbbell close to your body’s midline and catch the dumbbell in a squat in the front rack position. Finish by explosively pushing the dumbbells overhead and stand tall.
Some benefits of the dumbbell clean and press are getting a full-body workout, encouraging muscle symmetry, activating your stabilizer muscles, using a full range of motion, and it is a great conditioning exercise for burning fat as well. This exercise heavily emphasizes the posterior chain and works multiple muscles and joints simultaneously. The muscles at work are the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles in the calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes abdominals, spinal erectors, traps, lats, rhomboids, forearms, biceps, deltoids, upper pecs, and triceps.
