Legs · Barbell
Barbell Clean High Pull
How to do the barbell clean high pull, the muscles it works, and the mistakes to avoid. Pulled straight from the Kovo app's exercise library.
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Logged as
- Weighted reps
- Movement
- Hinge
- Mechanic
- Compound
How to do it
Set up over the barbell with a shoulder-width grip, hips down and back flat. Explosively extend your hips and knees, rise onto your toes, and as the bar passes your hips pull your elbows high and wide to drive the bar up to chest height. Control the bar back down and reset.
- 1Explosive leg and hip drive launching the bar upward
- 2Traps and shoulders finishing the pull with high elbows
- 3The bar staying close to your body the whole way up
Common mistakes
- Pulling early with the arms before the legs finish
- Letting the bar swing out away from your body
- Rounding your back or yanking the bar off the floor
Muscles worked
The barbell clean high pull mainly works the quads, upper traps, and glutes, with the lower back, upper abs, lower abs, hamstrings, side delts, forearms, lats, mid traps, calves, front delts, and rear delts assisting.
- QuadsPrimary
- Upper TrapsPrimary
- GlutesPrimary
- Lower BackSupport
- Upper AbsSupport
- Lower AbsSupport
- HamstringsSupport
- Side DeltsSupport
- ForearmsSupport
- LatsSupport
- Mid TrapsSupport
- CalvesSupport
- Front DeltsSupport
- Rear DeltsSupport
- BicepsMinor
- Lower TrapsMinor
- ObliquesMinor
Kovo programs the barbell clean high pull for you and tracks it every session.
We build your whole program, drop the right lifts into each workout, and adjust your weights as you get stronger. Free on iOS and Android.
More quads exercises
- How to do the resistance band squat
- How to do the resistance band squat to press
- How to do the resistance band thruster
- How to do the resistance band squat walk
- How to do the barbell squat
- How to do the barbell bulgarian split squat
Last reviewed June 2026.