Dumbbell Clean
Also known as: dumbbell cleans, db clean, double dumbbell clean, dumbbell power clean
- Secondary muscles
- Hamstrings, Quads, Calves
- Body part
- Upper Legs
- Position
- Standing
- Laterality
- Bilateral (both sides together)
- Category
- Strength
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Dumbbells strip the technical barriers out of the clean: no rack-position mobility, no bar path to manage, just a hard hip extension that floats the weights up to the shoulders. Use it to learn triple extension before touching a barbell, or as the pulling piece of dumbbell complexes in conditioning work.
How to do the Dumbbell Clean
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand with an overhand grip.
- Bend your knees and lower your hips into a squat position, keeping your back straight and chest up.
- Explosively extend your hips and knees, driving through your heels to jump off the ground.
- As you jump, shrug your shoulders and pull the dumbbells up towards your shoulders, keeping them close to your body.
- Catch the dumbbells at shoulder height, with your elbows pointing forward and your palms facing up.
- Lower the dumbbells back down to the starting position by reversing the movement.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Tip: Keep the bar close, extend the hips fully and let the legs, not the arms, generate the speed.
Muscles worked
Primary
Glutes · Legs
The glutes fire hard at the top of the second pull to snap the hips forward and drive the bar upward.
Secondary
- Hamstrings — The hamstrings load in the hang position and extend the hip through the pull, which is where most of the speed comes from.
- Quads — The quads push the floor away off the ground and drive you out of the catch on a full clean.
- Calves
Common mistakes
- Pulling with the arms early — the arms are just hooks until the hips have fully extended; if the elbows bend before the bar reaches the thighs, you have lost the power.
- Catching with a soft rack — on a clean the elbows should come through fast and the bar should sit on the shoulders, not in the hands; if the wrists take the weight, work on elbow speed.
- Rushing the first pull — the bar should leave the floor at a controlled speed with the back set, and the speed comes in the second pull from the hips.
- Looping the bar — the bar should travel straight up and stay close; if it swings out and back you are muscling it with the arms.
Where it fits in a workout
Olympic lifts go first in a session, before squats or deadlifts, while you are fresh and explosive. Pair a clean with a front squat to make a complex.
How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.
Variations and alternatives
When to talk to someone
- Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
- Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
- Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.
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More exercises
Sources
- ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
- ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
- ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
- CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)
Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.
Animation and exercise data: ExerciseDB, licensed to SetGrip. General information, not medical or coaching advice.