Pick the log off the floor and send it overhead. Full body strongman power.
Clean it onto your chest in one smooth pull, don't try to curl the log up.
The log clean and press is a full sequence, lap it from the floor, roll it up your torso onto your chest, then use leg drive to send it overhead where the shoulders finish the job and the triceps lock it out. The log's thick body and neutral handles shift the whole lift forward of where a straight bar would sit, so the delts work overtime just keeping the load from drifting away from you. It earns its place as the ultimate test of ground-to-overhead strength, every rep starts from a dead stop on the floor.
The log's diameter pushes the load further from your body at every stage, and the neutral grip stops you whipping it around like a bar. You have to roll it up your torso and re-set your whole position before each press, which taxes your breathing as much as your shoulders.
Depends on your goal. Cleaning every rep, as in this movement, builds conditioning and total-body power. If pure overhead strength is the goal, do the log press variation and take the log from a rack or clean it once.
Trying to curl or muscle the log up with the arms instead of rolling it up the body and popping the hips. Keep it close, use your lap as a shelf, and let the hip extension throw it onto your chest in one motion.
