It’s been more than four years since Dmitry Klokov unleashed this beast of a barbell complex on the world, and it’s still showing up in gym workouts and on the Instagram accounts of aspiring lifters worldwide.
The complex itself consists of five movements:
Clean Deadlift
Clean
Pause Front Squat
Push Press
Split Jerk with a Pause in the Dip
Is Klokov’s the most painful looking barbell complex in the world? Nope, and we’ve seen some with higher rep counts that would make CrossFit Games champions light in the head. But it’s a fantastic breakdown of the clean & jerk with emphasis on positioning at important points in both movements. It takes the pull, the squat, and overhead portions of the “king of lifts,” and the movements build fatigue on top of each other like few others.
Basically, it’s sort of beautiful in its simplicity. And watching Klokov execute it with 205kg/451 pounds provides enough weightlifting eye candy to get us up off the couch time and time again.
Klokov has been filming himself doing barbell complexes for years — including before his retirement from international weightlifting competition in 2015. Another one of our favorites is his “Complex for Good Snatch” from 2013, wherein he makes a 100kg barbell look like a PVC pipe (except we can’t even hit those positions with a PVC).
That complex — which displays Klokov’s elite mobility, barbell control, and body awareness — consists of:
Snatch Deadlift-to-Low Pull
Hang Snatch High Pull
Hang Muscle Snatch
Snatch Grip Press
Sotts Press
Overhead Squat
But it’s Klokov’s clean & jerk complex that holds the top spot in our hearts (and leaves us lightheaded just watching it).
(Want to see more of Dmitry Klokov? Check out his impressive, heavy conditioning circuit that includes weightlifting, kettlebells, tire flips, and a strongman log.)