Whether you train in a CrossFit box or spend your time on the lifting platform, Olympic lifts have long been a staple for anyone looking to build explosive power. But unless you’ve spent time learning the clean, snatch and their variations, their technical demands can make them difficult to master.
That’s where the barbell high pull comes in. Sitting somewhere between traditional strength work and Olympic lifting, the explosive movement removes much of the complexity while still requiring you to extend powerfully through your hips, knees and ankles before transferring that force through your entire body. The result is an exercise that develops explosive power while also building full-body muscle.
‘The high pull allows you to move with intent,’ explains Men’s Health fitness director Andrew Tracey. ‘You accelerate the load and then control it back down – recruiting higher-threshold motor units in the process.
‘This won’t just help build explosive power, but will also train your body to move as a unit, rather than as an isolated collection of muscles.’
Strength coach Judd Lienhard is also a fan of the movement, particularly for lifters who aren’t proficient in the Olympic lifts.
‘I rarely see people doing high pulls in the gym,’ says Lienhard. ‘Most people cannot do the Olympic lifts. This leaves a gap in their training.
‘Heavy ballistic exercises are important for performance, and while I absolutely love heavy sandbag shoulder tosses (perhaps the most underrated exercise for other reasons), they don’t provide an eccentric overload.’
Unlike exercises where the load is released, the high pull requires you to control the bar all the way back to the starting position, adding an eccentric training stimulus alongside the explosive concentric effort.
Lienhard came to the exercise after his own experience with Olympic lifting.
‘I loved the Olympic lifts growing up,’ he explains. ‘I was good at cleans and push jerks. But in my late thirties my left shoulder arthritis, which began from college injuries, progressed to the point where that was too painful. I turned to high pulls.’
Why the High Pull Isn’t Just an Upright Row
Despite looking similar at the top of the movement, the high pull isn’t simply a faster upright row. It’s driven by explosive hip extension, making it a full-body power exercise rather than an isolation movement for the shoulders. It also removes the catch required in Olympic lifts, making it a lower-skill way to develop explosive barbell power while still handling relatively heavy loads.
That doesn’t mean Olympic lifting isn’t worth learning. If you have the opportunity, Tracey recommends mastering the power clean, which not only develops full-body power but also unlocks a wide range of other athletic movements.
How to Do the High Pull
Stand tall, holding a barbell at your waist with an overhand grip.Brace your core, hinge slightly at the hips, then explosively extend through your hips and knees, pulling the bar towards your chin while driving your elbows high and outside. Keep the bar close to your body throughout.Lower the bar back to your waist under control rather than simply dropping it, maximising the eccentric portion of the movement.