Learning the Olympic Lifts

Franks,

Great points! Let me try to address.

It can be used for a variety of reasons including increased muscle mass (by practicing highly accelerative lifts). Remember, Force = mass x acceleration. You can lift a light, moderate or heavy weight explosively to accomplish this (also what Westside recommends with their dynamic training days applied to the bench and squat). It’s also a great way to become conditioned and more athletic, as it does have much carryover to athletic movements.

Lift explosively using variations of the Olympic lifts that do not require as much coaching and technique to learn. Thus, the dumbbell and kbell have an easier learning curve for beginners or those not being taught by a qualified coach.

Have a decent amount of strength and flexibility.

[prior]I’ve struggled with learning the lifts for nearly a year now, and I’m taking a break from it for a while to get my body into better condition in terms of my flexibility and some bad-posture induced issues. I’ve always wished someone could come up with requisite requirements for things a person should be able to do before they attempt to perform exercises with additional loading. For example - “one should be able to squat with proper technique to beneath parallel holding a broomstick at the following tempo for x reps before attempting to introduce outside loads.”[/quote]

I’m not sure what type of requirements should be recommended since everyone is different. I’m sure others have addressed this in other articles/topics.

As for learning the Olympic lifts with a dumbbell or kettlebell, I believe they are much easier to learn and still have many benefits.

Correct. Largely because I taught a friend the Olympic lifts, then he went and hurt his lower back when his form broke down doing sets of 10 reps. (Not while I was around, of course.) He’s still struggling to recover from the injury.

Thread go crazy, thread go good.

First off I’m certainly no O lift expert, for that go to CT’s Lair. That said here is my spin on it.

The first assumption is that we are talking athletes/ bbers etc not those that want to compete.

O lifts have a tremendous benefit as far as explosiveness, conditioning etc go a they are so dynamic and utilise so many muscles and joints. This thread is a good example of people not giving it a go because they have no one to teach them. So what, yes a coach would be great but just do it anyway, you may not be able to lift as much but you will certainly get benefits and enjoyment from incorporating them in your routine. DO NOT GO TOO HEAVY, whether you keep reps low (5 or less) which I strongly recommend or go a bit higher, never lose sight that you want to move the bar explosively.

Re overhead squats, IMHO unless you are competing they have little place in an O lift dominated program, personally I use them as a stretch/ROM exercise before every workout but go very light with empty bar. If that is too heavy use a lighter bar, or piece of dowling (broom handle etc), foucs on full ROM and only increase as you can retain that ROM.

Personally I lift from the hang 99% of the time and this works fine. I will now throw in one of my theories for consideration and comment. If you lift ex hang squats and an athlete (or atthlete wannabe) your squats should be box variety. This is because you miss the posterior involvement of lifting from the floor. Opinions?

Re the db v bar, personal choice as both have there own advantages. I used 1 arm barbell and db’s early on and it didn’t work for me, but that is me. Try both and find what works best, just do them.

For good articles I reccomend The Other kind of Snatch in issue 181
Money exercises in issue 229

A really good program that incorporates both O and traditional lifts is Behind the Iron Curtain in issue 240 or HTT which can be found on the forum using High Tension Training (approx 1/2 way down).

Hey all,
The best thing a person can do is figure out how they learn best then proceed from there.
Many good points have been made.
From a purist point of view, no dumbbells and kettlebells don’t compare! From an athletes point of view they work since they teach the body to move in harmony, as Bruce Lee would say they teach “economy of motion” getting the body to function as a whole. Athelete don’t move in exactly the same way every time (think cutting left, cutting right, diving etc). And for those who think that because they are not training for a sport…ask yourself if there is any real life application of this. Remember your life is really how you should train, since that is your body in motion.
As for the loading negative. Is it really a negative? Why do dumbbell shoulder presses or dumbbell bench presses or dumbbell anything? They innervate the CNS in a different manner, and bring more stabilizers in to play, it provides variation.
I think Ian King has mentioned the benefits of dumbbell work for the very reason of how the CNS responds.
A good way to start also is with a broomstick to ensure flexibility.
Don’t limit yourself to any dogma. If you are ensure your back is “safe” and such don’t sweat it. My wife learned with dumbbells also and has added in the barbell and is currently working on the kettlebell.
Each, definitely hits different parts of the body as previously stated, no question, but don’t let that mean the overall effectiveness and preparation isn’t there.
And yes a coach can help with the basics since some things a picture can’t teach.
Peace,
T-Ren

I agree with Hyhnz’s above post.

Here’s my take on this discussion.

I wanted to learn snatches and cleans; therefore, that’s what I worked on.

One arm DB snatches and cleans are definitely a nice addition and change of pace. And I do perform those; as a matter of fact, on my one arm snatches, I’m up to 40’s. Haven’t done any DB cleans in awhile, but I was up to 40’s in those, too.

Jeff,

If you’re over in MD, you may want to try to get in touch with Marty Gallagher. He does a strength and fitness chat at the washingtonpost.com on Tuesdays at noon. The chat has many newbees with the same old questions, but Marty is knowledgeable and well connected - he could probably put you in touch with a coach in MD that could teach you the oly lifts.

The easiest way to learn them in the past was to attend one of Mel Siff’s workshops (inexpensive too), but alas, Mel is no more.

Good luck,
J.