BUILDING STRENGTH WITH OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING
Technique and Tips
Building strength is one of the top reasons anyone goes to the gym. Building strength makes your mind and body feel better, builds your confidence, and makes actions in our daily life easier. One of the ways this is commonly done is through forms of resistance training, or as many understand it, lifting weights. Today we are going to talk about how one style, Olympic Weightlifting, can help you build up your strength and some tips for how to train for it.
Your Starting Point
One of the first steps is understanding what your starting point is. By this I mean, you need to assess yourself and your current level of fitness. Do you have some exercise background like running or playing sports? Have you trained in other styles of strength sports like bodybuilding, strongman, or powerlifting? Maybe you’re just starting out and you’ve never done any of these previously mentioned options and this is your first outing at training or exercise. My advice for each of these would be as follows:
Former athlete/someone who frequently exercises
Start with an intro weightlifting program 2-3 times a week. This program should be a step-by-step learning process that not only gives you the basics of the snatch, clean, and jerk, but also has a periodized strength progression for squats, deadlifts, presses, pulls, and other strength movements. Your body is accustomed to exercising regularly so all you will be doing is changing the focus of that exercise. It's not to say it will be easy but you will definitely be at a good starting point.
Former strength athlete (bodybuilder, strongman, powerlifter)
Start with a program that has an emphasis on the technical aspects of the lifts. Being a person who already has a decently high level of strength means that you should spend more time initially learning the ins and outs of the technique. Spending time in positions like an overhead squat, front rack of a clean or front squat, split or power jerk position. These positions will help to build the necessary mobility in the hips, ankles, shoulders, wrists, and knees that is required to be a healthy and successful weightlifter. You can still maintain and build strength in your other strength exercises but slightly favor your technical work overall.
Fresh Starter
Everyone starts somewhere in weightlifting. Your body is a blank slate that is ready to learn the movements, get stronger, and improve overall. The most paramount concept when you first start weightlifting is to learn safe and consistent technique. Any other skill you learn in life takes repetition, patience, and diligence. So much of the sport of weightlifting is teaching your body how to be aware in space in relation to the barbell. You are in the moment, feeling where you are and where the bar is going. It’s not easy by any means but it is very rewarding once you learn it. The best part is that as you master the movements your strength, speed, and awareness will all build together. As long as you give yourself time to learn through the consistency of training, you will improve, and have a lot of fun doing it!
Any program you follow should generally have these principles:
General to specific: Technique in weightlifting should build over time. For example, starting snatches or cleans from a hip position as this is the least similar to the whole technique. As the program progresses, the lifts become more similar to the entire movement, in this case, snatching or cleaning from the floor.
Low to high intensity: Intensity here refers to the percentage of the one rep max. Even if you don’t have an established number for it, a lifter typically builds to heavier attempts as the program progresses. This allows us to lift safely, allows our bodies to adapt and recover over time, and build our technique along with our strength. High intensity too long leads to injury and burnout. Low intensity too long leads to a drop in improvement and loss of proper training stimulus. This is true for snatches, clean and jerks, and strength movements.
Intentional changes in volume: The amount of repetitions we do is what will have the greatest effect on us. Any good weightlifting program will have intentional changes in the amount of reps or work you are doing. Too high volume and we will start to see a breakdown of our bodies because they cannot recover properly. Low volume can be good but if it's too low you will not make the necessary gains in strength or build the solid technique required to perform the snatch and clean and jerk. In most programs volume starts high but the intensity remains low. This is done for strength movements to build up muscle size and strength. For the lifts themselves, it allows us to build movement competency and learn without heavier weights that could fatigue you faster. As the program progresses, volume drops and intensity builds. This is done to allow your body to express its newfound strength through performing high-intensity snatches, cleans, jerks, and all the other strength movements.
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