How to do Barbell High Pulls

A barbell high pull is an explosive pull from the floor to chest height. You drive with your legs and hips, the way a clean starts, then pull the bar high with your elbows. It’s used to build power for Olympic lifts and to train the upper back and shoulders.

1. Place the barbell on the floor just in front of you and stand tall and strong with your feet placed about shoulder-width apart

2. Keeping your back straight and neck in line with your spine, squat down and take a firm, overhand grip of the barbell with your hands placed at about shoulder-width apart

3. Explosively drive your feet into the floor and stand up, keeping the bar close to your body

4. As your hips straighten, keep the momentum going and pull the bar up to the bottom of your chest, leading with your elbows so they finish higher than your wrists

5. Lower the bar to your thighs, then back to the floor, and reset before the next rep

Benefits

The drive from the floor works your glutes, hamstrings and quads, and the pull works your traps, the back of your shoulders and your upper back.

The bar has to move fast, so the high pull trains power, the ability to produce force quickly that sits behind jumping and sprinting. It’s also a way to practise the explosive part of a clean without having to catch the bar.

Form tips

• Keep the bar close to your body all the way up.
• Stand up fully through your hips before your arms start pulling. The legs start the movement and the arms finish it.
• Lead with your elbows and keep them above your wrists at the top.
• Use a weight you can move fast. If the bar slows to a grind, it’s too heavy.

Variations

• Easier: start with the bar at mid-thigh instead of the floor, or use dumbbells.
• Slower and stricter: the upright barbell row trains the same pull without the jump.
• Next steps: the full barbell clean or the barbell snatch.