Power cleans

A power clean is a traditional Olympic weightlifting movement. Place the barbell on the floor and find a grip that is comfortable, usually just wider than shoulder width. Bend your knees and bring your hips low so you’re squatting slightly and hold the barbell with your arms straight, keeping your back straight too. Lift the barbell off the floor, keeping it close to your body and driving through the hips until it lands in a front rack position, bending your legs slightly as you catch the bar.

Lower the weight to modify this movement or use a dumbbell. You can also replace this with squats or deadlifts if you’re unfamiliar with the movement.

Power snatches

The power snatch is another Olympic weightlifting move. Start with the barbell on the floor with a wide grip, bend your knees and lower your hips before driving upwards with your entire body, keeping the barbell close to you and shrugging your shoulders to bring it overhead, locking out your arms. Bend your knees slightly as you catch it overhead and then return to the floor. Read our full guide to the barbell snatch here.

To modify this movement, lower the weight or use a dumbbell to do single-arm snatches.

Kettlebell swings

Hold the kettlebell in both hands in front of you, keeping your arms straight. Hinge from the hips to drive the kettlebell forwards up to shoulder height. “Make sure it’s a hinge movement and not a squat to avoid back injuries,” Ashby recommends. Read our full guide to kettlebell swings here.

Use a lighter kettlebell to scale this movement.

Pull-ups

Hold on to a pull-up bar with your hands shoulder-width apart and facing away from you. Pull your entire body weight up until your chin is over the bar.

To scale this movement, wrap a long resistance band around the bar and put one foot in it to help distribute your body weight or jump up to the bar before pulling yourself up for extra drive.

Knees-to-elbows

Hanging off the pull-up bar, with your grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and your arms fully extended, bend your arms slightly to pull your knees up towards your elbows, flexing at the hips.

If you struggle with this movement, you can do sit-ups instead.

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