I've noticed a few threads recently about people doing olympic lifting, and thought I might be able to give back to 2p2 by creating this thread. I lifted competitively for about 10 years, from 10 to 20 years old, now 23. My primary weight class for most of my career was 56kg (123 lbs). My best snatch was 98 kg (215 lbs) and best c&j was 125 kg (275 lbs). I have made numerous international teams and broke several junior national records.

To be honest, I'm not sure how much I can help just over the internet, simply because it is nearly impossible to learn correct technique w/o having someone there coaching you, but ask away and I'll see what I can do.

How can I start learning the Olympic lifts w/o having someone there coaching me?

Did you play any other sports while lifting? I'm an old guy but still active and like to play basketball & some football. How much would oly lifting help me at those particular sports?

Also can it be hazardous on the knees for someone with some arthritis? Or if done properly (ie, drive from the heels and not the toes) can it actually help?

WHat is your vertical jump?

Sorry always comes up in these so I had to .

nice lifts. Got any videos or anything? That's crazy.

What was your training and progression like?

Like I said before, it's incredibly difficult to learn the movements by just reading about it and watching some tapes. It has been done before though. That being said, I would try to scout around and see if there are any gyms in your area that actually have the proper equipment to do olympic lifting. This means an olympic bar (different than the usual bar you do benches and stuff on, it has a spring inside that allows it oscillate when the weight becomes heavy), bumper plates (that can be dropped), and of course a platform. It is very unusual for a local gym like a 24 hr. fitness or YMCA to have this kind of equipment, though it is becoming more and more common as time goes on.

What you really need though, is a coach. You can start by posting your location on this forum and they can probably help you: www.goheavy.com/forums/olympic. Where are you located btw? Let me warn you though, that there are a lot of coaches that aren't very good. They took a class or two on olympic lifting and think they know it all. The best place to learn would be to find a gym and a coach that actually has lifters competing.

When I was lifting competitively, no, I didn't do anything else. A little bit of swimming to cross-train, but that's about it. Olympic lifting would definitely help you in basketball and football. It is very good for developing explosive strength in your core and legs, as well as just getting stronger overall. It is much more applicable than bodybuilding stuff like bench and curls.

However, I would NOT recommend you do the full movements, ie go into the full squat position when cleaning and snatching. Stick to power movements. Doing full movements while running and pivoting will inevitably mess up your knees (I used to do soccer and lift when I was first starting out, and I had knee pains).

I'm not a doctor so I can't really say for sure about the arthritis thing, but I would proceed with caution. The first few months while you learn technique will be very light anyway, and shouldn't be remotely heavy enough to cause you joint pains. Once you get technique down, proceed from there.

Hmm never really measured it. In high school I was fooling around and I think it was around 30".

Does the quality of the bar make a large difference?

I don't think there are any videos of me online. I have a few lying around somewhere. My dad started me out lifting at 10, and I went to my first junior olympics at 13 and won. I won a couple more of those in the following years, along with a bunch of junior nationals wins as well. In 03, 04, and 05 I went to the junior world championships in mexico, belarus, and korea respectively.

As far as training goes, my schedule was pretty basic. I would train about 4 times a week, doing mainly snatch, c&j, squats (front and back), and pulls (snatch grip and clean grip), with some other supplementary exercises and variations of the lifts mixed in, but mainly those 4. When getting ready for a big meet, I'd try to go heavy in the lifts about once a week. Sorry, I'm not sure if this answered your question. If you want more detail just let me know.

If you're talking about comparing an olympic bar to a regular bar that people do benches on and stuff (they look the same), then yes, there is a HUGE difference. Non-olympic bars don't have that spring in them that allows them to oscillate, and in turn take the dropping. Regular bars will simply bend and stay bent if dropped like an olympic bar.

If you're talking about the quality of different olympic bars, then my opinion is that no, it doesn't make a big difference. I have my little preferences (ie some spin too much, some spin too little, some have really sharp knurling, etc), but overall it doesn't make too much difference to me.

Cool thread. Good points about full movements v power movements.

> How did you get into o-lifting at 10?

> What errors do you normally see in lifters (non-competitive) doing the power clean and hang clean?

> What do you think of crossfit?

> Did you use any CNS/nootropic type supplements?

to add to this, I read in a sportnivy article that over 30% of the upward force transferred to the bar in the jerk can come solely from the storing of elastic energy in the dip and drive. So the elasticity of the barbell is pretty important. I've tried lifting with a regular barbell in a gym and it just doesn't have the same snappy and whippy feel as a good Olympic bar.

Why did you stop competing?

I have decent clean technique, but seem to have horrible power clean technique because I've gotten used to catching in a full squat and it feels very strange to me not to do that. any tips?

Thank you.

If you remember them, could you post your strength progression for the 10 years? Like what your best lifts were approximately every year? I think it would be interesting to see the progression so those of us who are just starting out can see what near optimal training situations can lead to.

Also deadlift/bench/back squat numbers when you were at your peak?

Thanks.

no that's pretty good thanks =)

any details on your training (how heavy on the pulls compared to full lifts, how your training progressed, anything really) or recommendations in general would be cool

You didn't deadlift did you? Any near maximal clean or snatch position pulls or not useful?

yeah I was gonna ask about dl'ing, I think that's what he means by pulls, but maybe it's like high pulls or something? I dunno.

Did you train the overhead or bench press?

most olympic caliber lifters (in fact I'm not even sure I've heard of any) don't do conventional deadlifts

A pull is like doing the clean or snatch movement but not pulling under and finishing the lift. Some shrug and go onto the toes at the end, some don't, same for allowing the arms to bend and bar to travel upwards. And if it's heavy enough it will barely move up anyway.

Most I've seen online seem to do pulls around their best lift to drill the movement and some go a bit heavier than that, like to 120%. I think a high pull indicates finishing the pull and pulling the bar as high as possible, and a pull might mean no shrug/arms bending at the top, and people go heavier on those, so they're really the same thing.

That's my understanding anyway.

There was some vid of the Polish team lifting and their SHW went very heavy on clean pulls and did what was basically clean position deadlifts with 300kg.

Apparently Kendrick Farris does them. Pretty sure he had the best American performance too. Fact is that we are weak compared to the rest of the world and desperately need to get stronger. Deadlifts are a good tool to have and use.

meh or we should look at what the rest of the world has historically done. We are weak because weightlifting isn't popular here, while the countries that have historically dominated have been taking in kids and training them for generations.

I haven't heard of Kendrick deadlifting. I think I've seen a vid of him doing some really heavy snatch pulls. But I don't think what one lifter does has that much to do with what is optimal and generally practiced. I think the Russian training system has in the past had a huge number of assistance exercises but they still didn't deadlift. It isn't movement specific and is CNS intensive.

A very heavy clean pull is a little different from a deadlift but somewhat similar. Some lifters use them and some don't so I don't really know.

I'd like OP's input on this for sure

yeah found a vid, looks like Kendrick does deadlift. Or at least once =)

It's definitely not common practice as a regular training tool and I'd be very surprised if he trained them regularly. Seems like heavy conventional pulling would badly mess up your recovery and training capacity.

Some guy posted this on the vid as well:


jwilsey (2 weeks ago) Show Hide
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A clean pull mimics the first phase of the clean, so the back is arched and the scapula are partially retracted and the shoulders are over the bar. This puts one in a better position for the second pull of a clean, but makes it harder to break a heavy weight off the floor. In a deadlift, you can round your thoracic spine and relax your shoulders, which creates the effect of "lengthening" your arms and giving you better leverages for moving weight those first few inches off the floor.

My dad used to lift, so he got me into the sport at an early age.

Hmmm. Where do I begin. First and foremost, before we even discuss technique, there is the issue of flexibility. A lot of people simply aren't flexible enough to get into the right positions, mainly the deep squat position (not an issue if you are just doing power movements), racking the weight (where the bar lies on your shoulders after you clean it), and locking the bar out overhead in the jerk. A lot of the stiffness comes from previous weight training and doing a lot of half-squats and benching. These tend to tighten up the hips and shoulders making it very difficult to get into the right positions. That's why it is often easier to teach someone olympic lifting that has not previously had a lot of weight training. They don't have to undo all that stuff.

Now that we got that out of the way, onto technique. Man, often times i see people doing the lifts (mainly cleans), and they are doing just about everything wrong. First off the most common mistake is probably that people try to muscle, or arm-pull the weight. When you arm-pull, you are using your biceps and basically trying to reverse-curl the weight up to your shoulders. This is horribly inefficient. Your arms basically stay relaxed while cleaning, and you use your big muscle groups (hips, back, legs) to move the weight.

Other common mistakes are that the bar swings too far away from the body when being pulled. You want to actually scrape your thighs on the way up.

Another one is that people lean back too early when pulling. Coaches will often say to keep your shoulders over the bar. This is because when you reach the explosion point (about 2/3 of the way up your thighs), if your back is perpendicular to the ground or even leaning back, you have no "whip". Ideally at the explosion point you want to be slightly leaning over, with your shoulders over the bar.

Lastly I guess is that people will often cut their pull. They don't extend fully (up on your toes and shrugging as high as you can).

I've heard really good things about it, but never tried it myself. It is not very applicable to olympic lifting (assuming you are competing), because almost everything they do is aerobic. In olympic weightlifting it is the complete opposite, anaerobic. You train for one heavy rep.

Not sure what you are referring to exactly, but I did take protein and creatine.

It was kind of a combination of things, but I guess you could say the main one was mental burnout. It's very stressful mentally to keep yourself at a high level. Physically, I am 100% fine though.