Squat, Bench and Power Clean: Why They Matter for Football

By 4Football Staff · September 24, 2026 · 10 min read

A closer look at the three lifts football programs measure and rank, what each one tells you about an athlete, how to learn the technique safely, and where their usefulness ends.

Ask a football strength coach which lifts they track, and the answer is nearly always the same three: the squat, the bench press and the power clean. Walk through a school weight room and you may see their record boards on the wall. Visit the scouting side of the sport and you will find the bench press used as a test of a prospect's strength and endurance.

Why these three? And are they as important as the posters suggest? The honest answer is that each lift tells you something real about an athlete, none of them tells you everything, and the way they are taught and loaded matters at least as much as the number on the bar.

This article looks at each lift in turn: what it develops, how the technique works, what goes wrong, and how it connects to football. It is general education, not a personal prescription. Anyone new to these lifts, younger than high school age, recovering from injury or dealing with pain should learn them from a qualified coach or athletic trainer, and ask a doctor about any medical concern.

Why these three became the standard

Each of the three covers a different part of an athlete's power.

• The squat measures lower-body strength: legs, hips and the trunk that holds everything stable.
• The bench press measures upper-body pushing strength: chest, shoulders and triceps.
• The power clean measures explosive power: how quickly the body can extend the hips, knees and ankles and move a load.

They are also practical. They are simple to load in small increments, easy to retest, and well understood, so a coach can compare an athlete with last year's self and with teammates. That makes them useful for tracking progress, as long as they are treated as a tool and not as a goal in themselves.

The squat

What it builds

The squat is a whole-body exercise in disguise. The legs and hips drive the movement, while the back, abdominals and breathing keep the spine stable under load. Strong squatting is associated with the force production football needs in blocking, tackling, accelerating and changing direction. Research on athletes has generally found that stronger lower bodies tend to go along with better sprinting and jumping, though strength alone does not make a player fast.

The technique, step by step

1. Set the bar. For a back squat, the barbell rests on the upper back, either on top of the shoulder muscles or lower across the rear shoulders, depending on the coach's method. The grip is secure and the elbows are positioned to keep the upper back tight.
2. Brace. Take a breath, tighten the midsection as if bracing for a punch, and keep the chest up.
3. Stand and set the feet. Feet are usually about shoulder width, with toes turned out a little. The athlete finds the stance that feels strong.
4. Descend under control. The hips and knees bend together. The knees track in line with the toes. The athlete lowers to a depth set by the coach and the athlete's mobility.
5. Drive up. The athlete pushes the floor away, keeping the chest up and the whole foot in contact with the ground, and finishes standing tall.

Variations

The front squat holds the bar across the front of the shoulders and demands a more upright trunk. The goblet squat, holding a single weight at the chest, is a gentle learning tool. Box squats, pause squats and split squats are used to address specific weaknesses. Different programs prefer different versions, and an athlete with a history of back or hip trouble may do better with variations that are easier on the joints.

Common faults and fixes

The bench press

What it builds

The bench press develops the muscles that push: the chest, the front of the shoulders and the triceps. For football, pressing strength is directly relevant for linemen, who extend their arms into an opponent, and useful for every position that blocks, stiff-arms or fights off a defender.

It is also the most widely quoted football lift, which is both its strength and its weakness. A bench press number is easy to compare, so it gets talked about far out of proportion to its role. A player with a huge bench but weak legs and a weak back is not a complete athlete.

The technique, step by step

1. Set up on the bench. Lie back with the eyes under the bar. Feet are flat on the floor and planted firmly.
2. Create a stable base. Pull the shoulder blades back and down, and keep a small natural arch in the upper back. The butt stays on the bench.
3. Grip. The hands take the bar slightly wider than shoulder width, with the wrists stacked over the forearms, and the thumbs wrapped around the bar.
4. Unrack and lower. The athlete lowers the bar under control to the lower chest or mid-chest, with the elbows at a moderate angle and not flared straight out.
5. Press. The athlete drives the bar back up and slightly back toward the face, finishing with the arms extended.

Safety is not optional

Bench presses are done with a spotter or in a rack with safety bars set at the right height, especially at heavy weights. The athlete should never press alone without safeties and should never bounce the bar off the chest. An athlete who gets stuck needs a plan: a spotter nearby, or safety pins to rest the bar. Collars on the bar keep plates from sliding off.

Common faults and fixes

• Elbows flared wide. This puts stress on the shoulders. Tuck the elbows to a moderate angle.
• Butt lifting off the bench. The legs are doing the wrong job, and the lift becomes unstable. Reduce the load and focus on the setup.
• Bouncing the bar. The bounce hides weakness at the bottom and can injure the chest or ribs. Use a controlled lower and, if needed, a brief pause.
• Uneven bar. One arm presses faster than the other. Dumbbell work can help correct imbalances.

Where the bench press fits at the next level

Evaluators sometimes use a bench press test at the college all-star and professional pre-draft level. The NFL Scouting Combine, for example, has long included a test of how many repetitions a prospect can lift at a fixed weight of 225 pounds. The test measures a mix of strength and muscular endurance, and it is only one data point among many. We cover how teams use such tests in our article on combine preparation for college prospects. If you follow the pre-draft process, our draft page is the place to look for the current class, and it is worth remembering that evaluators weigh film and game production far more heavily than any lifting number.

The power clean

What it builds

The power clean is an explosive lift. The athlete pulls a barbell from the floor or thigh level to the shoulders in one fast motion and catches it in a partial squat. The point is not the strength of any one muscle. It is the speed with which the ankles, knees and hips extend together, often called triple extension, which is the same extension used in jumping and sprinting.

For football, that matters because the sport rewards the athlete who can produce force quickly, whether leaping for a ball or exploding out of a stance. Our article on vertical jump training explores how that quality connects to jumping.

The technique, in stages

Coaches teach the clean in pieces because it is a complex movement. Common stages are:

1. The start. The bar is over the middle of the feet, the grip is just outside the legs, the back is flat, and the chest is up.
2. The first pull. The athlete lifts the bar from the floor by extending the legs, keeping the back angle steady.
3. The transition. As the bar passes the knees, the athlete shifts the hips forward and under the bar.
4. The second pull. The athlete extends violently through the hips, knees and ankles, often rising onto the toes, and shrugs the shoulders.
5. The catch. The athlete drops quickly under the bar, rotating the elbows around and catching it on the front of the shoulders in a partial squat.
6. The finish. The athlete stands tall, then lowers the bar under control.

Many programs begin with the hang clean, starting with the bar at the thigh or just above the knees, because it simplifies the start and focuses on the explosive part of the movement.

Why it is taught carefully

The clean is a technical lift. Mistakes include pulling with the arms too early, letting the bar drift away from the body, and catching with poor wrist position. Athletes with limited wrist or shoulder mobility often have trouble with the catch, and coaches may use a modified version or a different exercise. Some programs replace the full clean with simpler options such as jumps, medicine ball throws or pulls from the knee. That is a reasonable decision, not a lesser one. The best explosive exercise is the one an athlete can perform safely and repeat well.

What the three lifts do not tell you

It is worth being direct about the limits.

• They do not measure speed. A strong squat helps, but sprint speed also depends on technique, tendon stiffness and practice, covered in the article on the 40-yard dash.
• They do not measure skill. A receiver's route running and a quarterback's accuracy do not appear on a lift chart.
• They do not capture durability. A player can have impressive numbers and still be injury-prone if his mobility, trunk strength or tissue quality are poor.
• They do not apply equally to all positions. A kicker's value is not measured by the bench press, and a lineman's needs differ from a defensive back's.
• They can be gamed. Shortened depth, bounced presses and sloppy catches inflate numbers without producing the strength the number is supposed to represent. A recorded lift should meet a clear standard.

Using the lifts in a program

A sensible way to use the three lifts looks something like this:

• Learn first. Spend weeks with light weights, getting the movements right.
• Build a base. Use moderate loads and repetitions to build strength gradually.
• Test sparingly. Heavy maximum tests are a stress on the body, so many programs test only a few times a year or estimate maximums from submaximal sets.
• Balance them. Pair squatting with hinging, pressing with rowing, and explosive work with plenty of recovery.
• Adjust for the athlete. Age, size, injury history and position all change what makes sense.

Our overview of strength training for football and the core lifts shows how these three fit into a fuller set of movements.

Age, safety and supervision

Young athletes can benefit from strength training when it is supervised and sensible. For younger players, the priority is learning movement and building general strength with bodyweight and light loads. Maximal testing in the squat and bench belongs later, under experienced coaching. The clean in particular should be taught by someone trained to teach it.

Stop and seek help from an athletic trainer or doctor for sharp pain, a pop in a joint, numbness or tingling, or any symptom after a head or neck injury. Muscle fatigue is normal, but pain that sharpens or lingers is not. And nothing in an article replaces medical advice from someone who has examined the athlete.

Seeing the lifts on the field

It helps to know what to look for in games. At the high school level, the athletes who dominate the line of scrimmage are often the ones who have been in the weight room longest, and a program's strength culture shows up in its fourth quarters. Our high school directory and college pages can help you find programs to watch. At the professional level, the players pages list the athletes, and you can watch how a lineman's drive off the ball or a safety's burst to the ball reflects the same qualities the three lifts are designed to build, even though no one on the field is lifting a bar at that moment.

The short version

• The squat, bench press and power clean measure three different qualities: lower-body strength, upper-body pushing strength and explosive power.
• They are popular because they are simple to load, retest and compare, which makes them good progress trackers.
• Good technique, a stable brace, controlled lowering and a full agreed range of motion matter more than the weight on the bar.
• Use spotters or safety bars for squats and presses, and learn the clean in stages from a qualified coach.
• The bench press has an outsized reputation; balance pressing with pulling and the legs and back.
• None of the three measures speed, skill or durability, and they apply differently at different positions.
• Younger and newer athletes should train under supervision, and any medical concern belongs with a doctor or athletic trainer.