Are The Olympic Lifts Worth It?

Olympic Weightlifting, or just weightlifting, consists of two lifts. The Snatch, a 1-phase lift, and the Clean & Jerk, a 2-phase lift.

The Olympic lifts require great strength, speed (strength-speed), mobility, balance, and coordination. Therefore, it is easy to see how they have benefits to athletic performance.

However, they are also very technical and require a fair bit of practice to get the basics right, let alone master them. Therefore, the learning curve can often be deemed too steep/long to justify programming them.

Note: Some of the world’s most elite athletes are relative novices within the gym/under the barbell.

I personally really enjoy the Olympic lifts. However, I rarely program the full lifts with the athletes I work with, other than the weightlifters or Crossfitters that I work with, of course. This being said, I do program a lot of breakdowns/variations of the lifts.

Anyone who has worked with me will know I am a huge advocate of the overhead squat, and I like all my athletes to achieve one, even if it is just with an unloaded barbell.

Here are some other examples of exercises and adaptations I take from the Olympic lifts - for both strength and hypertrophy (building muscle):

• I always program upright rows from a clean or snatch grip – it feels better and has greater specificity to other lifts.

• I use clean and snatch pulls but often coach them in a straightforward way where a deadlift is continued (explosively) onto the balls of your feet and a shrug of your shoulders - adds that extra big “umpf” at the top!

• The Pressing Snatch is a great way to warm up and mobilizes the entire body – I use these a lot!

• I use a lot of push and power jerks to make overhead work far more explosive.

• Hang power cleans, when done right, are an incredibly explosive exercise. I usually do them from the low-hang (just below the kneecaps).

In conclusion, it is key to understand that Olympic Weightlifting is a sport. Therefore, if the athlete is not an Olympic weightlifter or Crossfitter, the Olympic lifts should be seen as a tool within your toolbox but not the backbone of the program.

I always suggest programming the Olympic lifts (or variations of the lifts) if the athlete has an interest in learning and performing them. However, if, on the flip side, the athlete has minimal interest in them, then there are countless alternatives that provide the same or sometimes greater benefits. For example, hex/trap bar jumps.

Remember, a good coach has a toolbox packed full of tools, and they know exactly what tool is right for the job – there is no such thing as a bad exercise, just bad exercise prescription!

Do you incorporate Olympic Weightlifting into your training/coaching?

Author

Jason Curtis