Although the lower body is dominant during all phases of the movement, the upper body assists in driving the weights upward to your shoulders and stabilizing the weights during the squat.
You’ll learn to coordinate the upper and lower body as you transfer force from the legs, hips and glutes to the upper body and extend through the knees and hips.
Your core muscles help stabilize the trunk as you lift, so although the squat clean is a full-body exercise, your core muscles are key drivers.
The aim is to avoid pulling all the weight with your arms or allowing the weights to travel too far from the body.
If your goal is to build power and strength or improve functional fitness, the squat clean is a brilliant exercise to consider adding to your programs and if you want to learn to lift heavier weights, the barbell is endlessly loadable.
the movement so you can drill down on your mechanics early on before bad habits creep in; to do this, you’ll need to lift a light enough weight, especially at first.
If you plan to learn Olympic lifting and hone your technique on moves like clean and jerks and snatches, the squat clean should absolutely be one to add to your programs.