Intermediate · Movement lesson
How to Do a Kettlebell Clean
Learn the kettlebell clean with loose-arm power, wrist-friendly timing, and rack-position cues.
Trevor · Founder & head coach · 7 min read
Full video · 3:57 · Trevor
Key takeaways
- Keep the bell close so it does not bang the wrist.
- Guide with a loose but connected arm.
- Finish with elbow forward and knuckles at or below chin level.
What it is
The clean brings the bell from the floor into the rack position at your shoulder. Done right it lands softly on your forearm; done wrong it bangs your wrist. The fix is a loose, guiding arm and power from the legs, hips, and core.
How to do it — step by step
- Hike the bell back between your legs like the start of a swing.
- Snap your hips and, as the bell rises, pull it into you at about belly-button height rather than swinging it out and away.
- Keep the bell tight to your body — imagine a wall a foot in front of you that you cannot hit on the way up or down.
- Let your hand and forearm meet the bell so it wraps into the rack instead of flipping onto your wrist.
- Finish in the rack: elbow forward, knuckles at or below chin level, body tight.
Common mistakes
- Gripping too tight and muscling the bell with your arm.
- Swinging the bell out and away so it flips over and crashes onto your wrist.
- Curling the bell up like a biceps curl instead of pulling it close.
- Expecting it to feel smooth immediately — it is a timing skill that takes reps.
Muscles worked
- Glutes, hamstrings, and hips — the ballistic drive
- Core — bracing and transferring power
- Forearms and grip — guiding a loose, fluid arm
- Upper back and shoulders — receiving the bell in the rack
Variations and alternatives
- Double kettlebell clean once your single-arm clean is repeatable.
How to program it
The clean sets up rack squats, presses, lunges, and thrusters, so drill it until the rack feels automatic. In the app it is programmed as a skill before the movements that depend on it.
Frequently asked questions
Why do I keep banging my wrist on kettlebell cleans?
Your arm is too tight and the bell is swinging out and flipping onto your wrist. Keep the arm loose, pull the bell into you at belly-button height, and keep it close so it wraps into the rack instead of crashing down.
What is the rack position?
The finish of the clean: the bell rests against your forearm and body with your elbow pointing forward and your knuckles at or below chin level. It is the starting position for presses, squats, and thrusters.
How long does it take to learn the kettlebell clean?
Expect a few weeks of practice and the occasional wrist bump. It is a coordination and timing skill — thousands of reps make it feel natural, so keep the sessions short and frequent.
Video transcript
Read the video transcript
Alright, let's learn the kettlebell clean. So, this movement here, the movement where you probably always bang your wrist on, right? So, how do we not bang our wrist? Well, let me show you why you're banging your wrist to begin with, right? So, what we need to learn here, and this is going to apply to all the single-handed kettlebell movements that we learned from here on out, and all the double-handed kettlebell movements.
When it comes to ballistic movements in general, this is the trick, is you're keeping your arm loose, but it's not like dead, right? Your arm is still working to guide the kettlebell, but it's very loose, and all of the power is coming from your legs, hips, and core, similar to any sport you play, right? It's the same thing. If you're swinging a tennis racket, if you're throwing a ball, if you're throwing a punch, you've heard me probably say this on social media before, but it's so true.
That's what we're learning how to do here, and that's why this takes practice, because there is a little bit of coordination, a little bit of timing, a little bit of speed involved in all of this, right? That's what the clean is, right? So, you're using your legs, hips, and core to generate power to float this bell up onto your wrist, and you see how cleanly that got onto my wrist where most people, they're like that.
Why? Because they just sent way too much energy through their arm. Their arm was way too tight throughout that. I was gripping the kettlebell too tight, right? Where the first time I was loose, fluid, and then tight. That's the kettlebell right there, right? You're tight at the top, fluid in between, tight at the bottom, fluid in between, tight at the top. That's the case for all single-bell kettlebell movements we're going to learn from here on out, past the clean, right?
So, what do we do with the clean specifically? Just know that that aspect, that what I just told you about the loose arm, tight legs, hips, and core, that's going to take practice, right? That's going to take thousands of reps for it to feel smooth and natural. So, just know that. That will take practice. So, it's okay if you bang your wrist a few times. It's okay if it's frustrating and you can't really quite get it for the first few weeks.
It will come. Just keep practicing, okay? So, what we want to practice with the clean is just keep a few things in mind, similar to the swing. All the powers coming from our legs, hips, and core, which we talked about, but just a couple cues that really help is number one, as the kettlebell is coming up, I'm not thinking of swinging this bell onto my wrist. I'm thinking rather of pulling this kettlebell into me on the way up, right?
And specifically at like my belly button level, that's when you kind of tug that kettlebell into you, tug it into you on the way up, and that way your wrist meets that kettlebell on the way up versus just swinging it and then crossing your fingers and hoping to God, it doesn't crash too hard, right? No. You're bringing it up. You're pulling it into you as the kettlebell is coming up. Then the second point is as you bring it up, you're keeping it tight to your body, right?
As if you're standing like in front of a wall, like a foot away from a wall, and you cannot bash the wall with that kettlebell on the way up or on the way down, right? So, that forces you to keep it tighter to your body on the way up and down, which also really works to eradicate the possibility of it swinging, flipping, and hitting you, right? So, pull it into you on the way up at that belly button level and keep it as tight as possible to you on the way up and down like this.
And that's it. And remember, it's going to take practice. Hope this helps. Peace.
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