How to Train for Olympic Weightlifting
13 Sep
Olympic weightlifting involves athletes compete in lifting the maximum weight possible in two movements, which are Snatch and Clean and Jerk.
The benefits of Olympic weightlifting are numerous. They will help you in becoming, strong and agile at the same time. The actual Olympic lifts of Snatch and Clean and Jerk are not the type of exercises that you can just start performing from your very first day in the gym. You need to slowly build up to it. So in this article lets go over how you can build up on your Olympic lifts.
Section 1: Training Fundamentals
Olympic weightlifting requires muscle strength, muscle flexibility and explosiveness (i.e. quickness of movement). So in order to be good at Olympic weightlifting you need to build a strong base for these three things. I have done full posts on all these aspects previously. In short here are the guidelines for each of these, along with the links.
Strength: Perform heavy compound lifts to improve on your strength. The exercises to include will be Squats, Deadlifts, Shoulder Press, Bench Press, Pull-ups and Rows. Five sets of five reps with 2–3 minutes of rests in between sets are ideal for strength development.
Flexibility: Perform static and dynamic stretches for all your muscle groups to improve your flexibility. Common areas needing flexibility work include the hips and the shoulders. I am not sure what your limitations in terms of flexibility are, I recommend discussing it with a trainer or a physiotherapist.
Explosiveness: It is an absolute beauty to see the Olympic weightlifters fling the weight overhead so quickly. This needs a lot of explosiveness in your muscles. A lot of athletes in other sports use easier versions of Olympic lifts for building up on Explosiveness and you should do that too (more on this later). In addition you should include plyometric exercises in your program. So include exercises such as Squat Jumps, Box Jumps and Split Jumps in your workout.
Section 2: Tips for Olympic Lifts
1.Get Proper Shoes: Pay attention to the Olympic Weightlifter’s shoes. They are hard soled and have an elevated heel. Never perform heavy Olympic lifts on running shoes or any other soft soled shoes. Hard soles provide you with a solid foundation to stand on. Elevated heels allow you to drop deeper into squat easily, which helps you in lifting heavier weights, as you do not have to fling the weight much higher.
2. Learn Hook Grip: While lifting the bar, tuck your thumb under your fingers. This will provide you a good grip of the bar and will help you in lifting heavier weights. Hook grip is going to make your thumbs sore initially, but eventually you will get used to it.
3. Always perform warm ups: Your muscles become more elastic as they heat up. So it is very important that you do 5 minutes of cardio such as biking or jump ropes before getting on with your Olympic lifting workout. This will improve your performance and decrease your chances of injury.
4. Be Patient: There is a learning curve for the Olympic lifts, it is not like bench press, where you go in the gym the first day and start pushing weights around. It will take sometime for you to get there. Just keep working on it and you will get there eventually.
Section 3: Training for the Olympic Lifts
The full snatch or full clean and jerk is a technical lift and difficult to perform. A lot of people initially just work on their strength and flexibility thinking that they should build on these first to be ready to perform the actual lifts. This is a wastage of time, as the best way to learn Olympic lifts is by actually performing them. However you cannot just go in the gym and start doing reps and reps of snatches. Therefore you should first perform an easier version of this exercise. Then as you master these easier versions, you gradually move over to the more difficult ones. So lets go over these for each of the lifts.
- Clean and Jerk
Dumbbell/Kettle-bell Power Clean and Press: This is a great movement for beginners as the shoulder and wrist mobility requirements are not as strict. You can perform it with dumbbell or kettle-bell. Lift the weight from the ground, while keeping your back straight. As the weight crosses your knees, in a quick and explosive pull bring the weight up to your shoulders (this is the clean portion of the lift) and then press it up. Bring it down the same way and repeat.
Hang Power Clean and Press: In this version the starting position is where the bar is held in your hands at the level of your hips. Now bend forwards slightly to move weight close to your knees and then fling the weight vertically up catching it at your collarbones. Now press the bar up.
Power Clean and Press/Jerk: In this version you start the lift with the bar lying on the floor. With a straight back start lifting the bar up as in a deadlift. As the bar gets close to your knees, fling the bar vertically up and catch the bar on your collarbone while being in a quarter squat position. Now come out of the squat and press the bar up.
As your initial clean movement gets better your lift is going to be limited by the pressing movement of the lift. You can then lift more weight by adding a jumping movement while pressing the bar up. This will be the clean and jerk movement.
Clean and Jerk: After you have mastered power clean and jerk, you can now move over to the actual clean and jerk. The only thing now you need to do is increase the depth at which you catch the bar. You can do this gradually. Your basic strength and flexibility workouts, will assist you in increasing this depth.
NOTE: Even after you have mastered the real clean and jerk, you should still perform all the above-mentioned variations, as they will help with the overall improvement of your actual clean and jerk movement. As an example power clean and jerk is more effective in developing explosiveness over actual clean and jerk.
2. Snatch
Snatch is even more technical than clean and press, however with commitment the movement can be mastered. Below we describe the progression.
Hang Dumbbell / Kettle-bell Snatch: The movement is great for beginners as it is very simple to master. Take a kettle-bell or a dumbbell in one hand and with the triple extension of the hip knee and ankle fling the weight up overhead in a single movement.
Snatch Pull: This is the first half of the snatch movement. With the bar lying on the floor grab it with a wide grip and start lifting it from the ground while keeping a straight back. As the bar gets up at the level of the crease of your hips, you perform a shrug and lower the weight down
Hang Power Snatch: In this version of the exercise the barbell is at the level of the crease of your hips and hanging from your arms, while you are standing upright. Start the movement by bending forward slightly and then performing the full snatch pull. Lower the bar to the hang position and repeat
Power Snatch: After mastering snatch pull and hang snatch, all you need is the merge these two movements into a single movement and you would have performed the power snatch.
Overhead Squat: Pick a barbell out of a rack. Use a very wide grip, and start with the bar on the traps. Once out of the rack, push press the bar up into a locked position. Perform your squat with your chest up and go as deep as possible. This is tough exercise and requires a lot of flexibility. Initially start with just a half squat and gradually increase the depth.
Hang Snatch: After you have attained good depth in your overhead squat, you can start performing the hang snatch. Start from a hang position and fling the weight slightly, not as much as you did in the hang snatch. While bar is moving up, you go down to perform the full overhead squat and catch the bar at the bottom of the squat. Initially start with lightweights and gradually increase the weight.
Snatch: Finally you start performing the full snatch by lifting the weight up from the ground and then as the weight passes your knees perform a hang snatch.
So there you have it, how to train for Olympic lifts. I hope this was helpful.
Originally published at www.kaa-yaa.com.
