10 Best Power Clean Alternatives for Hip Drive

The Power Clean depends on a fast pull and a fast drop under it, and each swap keeps that speed or trades it for a slower one. The closest one is the Clean: same bar, same pull, same catch, but you ride the bar down into a front squat before standing instead of catching it high. For the pull without the catch, the Clean Deadlift pulls off the floor with the same hip and knee drive and stops at standing; the Stiff-legged Barbell Deadlift keeps only the hinge, starting standing with knees still.

Original Exercise: Power Clean

Power Clean
Primary Muscle
Hamstrings
Equipment
Barbell
Difficulty
Advanced
Type
Compound
Secondary Muscles: Glutes, Quadriceps, Calves
How to Perform Power Clean
  1. Start with the barbell on the ground in front of you, with your feet shoulder-width apart.
  2. Bend down and grip the barbell with an overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
  3. Keep your back straight and chest up as you lift the barbell off the ground, extending your hips and knees.
  4. As the barbell reaches your mid-thigh, explosively pull it upwards, shrugging your shoulders and pulling your elbows high and to the sides.
  5. As the barbell reaches its highest point, quickly drop underneath it, rotating your elbows around and catching the barbell on your shoulders in a front squat position.
  6. Stand up with the barbell, fully extending your hips and knees.
  7. Lower the barbell back down to the starting position, keeping control of the weight throughout the movement.
  8. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Ranked Power Clean Alternatives

Best Match
Clean

1. Clean

91.4% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. With a barbell on the floor close to the shins, take an overhand (or hook) grip just outside the legs. Lower your hips with the weight focused on the heels, back straight, head facing forward, chest up, with your shoulders just in front of the bar. This will be your starting position.
  3. Begin the first pull by driving through the heels, extending your knees. Your back angle should stay the same, and your arms should remain straight. Move the weight with control as you continue to above the knees.
  4. Next comes the second pull, the main source of acceleration for the clean. As the bar approaches the mid-thigh position, begin extending through the hips. In a jumping motion, accelerate by extending the hips, knees, and ankles, using speed to move the bar upward. There should be no need to actively pull through the arms to accelerate the weight; at the end of the second pull, the body should be fully extended, leaning slightly back, with the arms still extended.
  5. As full extension is achieved, transition into the third pull by aggressively shrugging and flexing the arms with the elbows up and out. At peak extension, aggressively pull yourself down, rotating your elbows under the bar as you do so. Receive the bar in a front squat position, the depth of which is dependent upon the height of the bar at the end of the third pull. The bar should be racked onto the protracted shoulders, lightly touching the throat with the hands relaxed. Continue to descend to the bottom squat position, which will help in the recovery.
Stiff-Legged Barbell Deadlift

2. Stiff-Legged Barbell Deadlift

88.8% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Intermediate Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Grasp a bar using an overhand grip (palms facing down). You may need some wrist wraps if using a significant amount of weight.
  2. Stand with your torso straight and your legs spaced using a shoulder width or narrower stance. The knees should be slightly bent. This is your starting position.
  3. Keeping the knees stationary, lower the barbell to over the top of your feet by bending at the hips while keeping your back straight. Keep moving forward as if you were going to pick something from the floor until you feel a stretch on the hamstrings. Inhale as you perform this movement.
  4. Start bringing your torso up straight again by extending your hips until you are back at the starting position. Exhale as you perform this movement.
  5. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Clean Deadlift

3. Clean Deadlift

88% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Intermediate Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Begin standing with a barbell close to your shins. Your feet should be directly under your hips with your feet turned out slightly. Grip the bar with a double overhand grip or hook grip, about shoulder width apart. Squat down to the bar. Your spine should be in full extension, with a back angle that places your shoulders in front of the bar and your back as vertical as possible.
  2. Begin by driving through the floor through the front of your heels. As the bar travels upward, maintain a constant back angle. Flare your knees out to the side to help keep them out of the bar's path.
  3. After the bar crosses the knees, complete the lift by driving the hips into the bar until your hips and knees are extended.
Kettlebell Dead Clean

4. Kettlebell Dead Clean

86.6% Match
Hamstrings Kettlebell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Place kettlebell between your feet. To get in the starting position, push your butt back and look straight ahead.
  2. Clean the kettlebell to your shoulder. Clean the kettlebell to your shoulders by extending through the legs and hips as you raise the kettlebell towards your shoulder. The wrist should rotate as you do so.
  3. Lower the kettlebell, keeping the hamstrings loaded by keeping your back straight and your butt out.
Sumo Deadlift With Bands

5. Sumo Deadlift With Bands

85.1% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. To deadlift with short bands, simply loop them over the bar before you start, and step into them to set up. Ensure that they under the back half of your foot, directly where you are driving into the floor.
  2. Begin with a bar loaded on the ground. Approach the bar so that the bar intersects the middle of the feet. The feet should be set very wide, near the collars. Bend at the hips to grip the bar. The arms should be directly below the shoulders, inside the legs, and you can use a pronated grip, a mixed grip, or hook grip.
  3. Take a breath, and then lower your hips, looking forward with your head with your chest up. Drive through the floor, spreading your feet apart, with your weight on the back half of your feet. Extend through the hips and knees.
  4. As the bar passes through the knees, lean back and drive the hips into the bar, pulling your shoulder blades together.
  5. Return the weight to the ground by bending at the hips and controlling the weight on the way down.
Sumo Deadlift With Chains

6. Sumo Deadlift With Chains

85.1% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. You can attach the chains to the sleeves of the bar, or just drape the middle over the bar so there is a greater weight increase as you lift. Attempt to keep the ends of the chains away from the plates so you don't hit them when you lower the weight.
  2. Begin with a bar loaded on the ground. Approach the bar so that the bar intersects the middle of the feet. The feet should be set very wide, near the collars. Bend at the hips to grip the bar. The arms should be directly below the shoulders, inside the legs, and you can use a pronated grip, a mixed grip, or hook grip. Relax the shoulders, which in effect lengthens your arms.
  3. Take a breath, and then lower your hips, looking forward with your head with your chest up. Drive through the floor, spreading your feet apart, with your weight on the back half of your feet. Extend through the hips and knees.
  4. As the bar passes through the knees, lean back and drive the hips into the bar, pulling your shoulder blades together.
  5. Return the weight to the ground by bending at the hips and controlling the weight on the way down.
Reverse Band Deadlift

7. Reverse Band Deadlift

84.8% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Set the bar up in a power rack. Attach bands to the top of the rack, using either bands pegs or the frame itself. Attach the other end of the bands to the bar.
  2. Approach the bar so that it is centered over your feet. You feet should be about hip width apart. Bend at the hip to grip the bar at shoulder width, allowing your shoulder blades to protract. Typically, you would use an overhand grip or an over/under grip on heavier sets.
  3. With your feet, and your grip set, take a big breath and then lower your hips and bend the knees until your shins contact the bar. Look forward with your head, keep your chest up and your back arched, and begin driving through the heels to move the weight upward.
  4. After the bar passes the knees, aggressively pull the bar back, pulling your shoulder blades together as you drive your hips forward into the bar.
  5. Lower the bar by bending at the hips and guiding it to the floor.
Sumo Deadlift

8. Sumo Deadlift

84.8% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Begin with a bar loaded on the ground. Approach the bar so that the bar intersects the middle of the feet. The feet should be set very wide, near the collars. Bend at the hips to grip the bar. The arms should be directly below the shoulders, inside the legs, and you can use a pronated grip, a mixed grip, or hook grip. Relax the shoulders, which in effect lengthens your arms.
  2. Take a breath, and then lower your hips, looking forward with your head with your chest up. Drive through the floor, spreading your feet apart, with your weight on the back half of your feet. Extend through the hips and knees.
  3. As the bar passes through the knees, lean back and drive the hips into the bar, pulling your shoulder blades together.
  4. Return the weight to the ground by bending at the hips and controlling the weight on the way down.
Wide Stance Stiff Legs

9. Wide Stance Stiff Legs

84.3% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Intermediate Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Begin with a barbell loaded on the floor. Adopt a wide stance, and then bend at the hips to grab the bar. Your hips should be as far back as possible, and your legs nearly straight. Keep your back straight, and your head and chest up. This will be your starting position.
  2. Begin the movement be engaging the hips, driving them forward as you allow the arms to hang straight. Continue until you are standing straight up, and then slowly return the weight to the starting position. For successive reps, the weight need not touch the floor.
Reverse Band Sumo Deadlift

10. Reverse Band Sumo Deadlift

84% Match
Hamstrings Barbell Advanced Isolation
How to perform this exercise
  1. Begin with a bar loaded on the floor inside of a power rack. Attach bands to the top of the rack, using either pegs or the frame itself. Attach the other end to the barbell.
  2. Approach the bar so that the bar intersects the middle of the feet. The feet should be set very wide, near the collars. Bend at the hips to grip the bar. The arms should be directly below the shoulders, inside the legs, and you can use a pronated grip, a mixed grip, or hook grip. Relax the shoulders, which in effect lengthens your arms.
  3. Take a breath, and then lower your hips, looking forward with your head with your chest up. Drive through the floor, spreading your feet apart, with your weight on the back half of your feet. Extend through the hips and knees.
  4. As the bar passes through the knees, lean back and drive the hips into the bar, pulling your shoulder blades together.
  5. Return the weight to the ground by bending at the hips and controlling the weight on the way down.

Why You Might Need a Power Clean Alternative

The Power Clean asks you to pull a barbell off the floor, extend your hips and knees hard, then drop under the bar and catch it on your shoulders, and that catch is the step most lifters have never practiced. A busy platform, no bumper plates, or simply wanting to skip the catch today are common reasons to swap it out. Every alternative here keeps a barbell or a kettlebell and the same drive through the hips, but changes how much speed and skill the finish demands. The Clean keeps the explosive pull and the catch, and takes it one step further by squatting all the way down under the bar before standing. The Stiff-legged Barbell Deadlift and the Sumo Deadlift drop the catch and the speed, so you load the same hamstrings and glutes through a slower pull instead.

How to Choose the Right Substitute

If you already have the technique, the Clean is the nearest swap: same barbell, pull and catch, except you keep descending into a full front squat and stand up out of the bottom instead of catching the bar high and standing straight up. If you want the hip drive without learning a catch, the Stiff-legged Barbell Deadlift loads the same hamstrings and glutes through a slower, controlled pull. If you want to work one arm at a time, the Kettlebell Dead Clean pulls a single kettlebell to your shoulder, one side and then the other. If you are already pulling heavy and want more grip and back demand, the Sumo Deadlift With Chains hangs weight that grows heavier as you stand, and the Sumo Deadlift With Bands sets up the same wide stance with bands looped over the bar instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which alternative loads the top of the pull hardest?

The Sumo Deadlift With Chains and the Sumo Deadlift With Bands both add resistance that grows heavier as you stand: the chains pile more of their own weight onto the bar and the bands stretch tighter, so the last inches near lockout get harder while the pull off the floor stays the same as a regular deadlift.

Which barbell lift keeps the Power Clean's pull and catch?

The Clean. It uses the same barbell, pull and hip drive as the Power Clean, and still finishes with a catch on your shoulders. The change is depth: the Clean keeps riding the bar down into a full front squat and stands up out of the bottom, where the Power Clean catches it higher. Both pull with an overhand grip, and the Clean is usually taken with a hook grip instead.

How do I train the Power Clean's pull without the catch?

Take the catch out and you are left with a deadlift. The Clean Deadlift and the Sumo Deadlift pull the bar off the floor with the same hip and knee extension and simply stop at standing, with no drop under the bar. The Stiff-legged Barbell Deadlift starts standing instead, lowers the bar toward your feet with the knees held still and drives the hips back through, so it keeps the hinge without the floor pull.

Can I load the Power Clean on one arm at a time?

Yes, with the Kettlebell Dead Clean. It keeps the same pull and hip drive as the Power Clean but moves it to a single kettlebell, pulled to your shoulder one side at a time. Both legs still drive every rep, so the hamstring and glute work is the same; what changes is that the load hangs from one hand, so each side gets its own set.

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