Olympic Lifting Day

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

After not having any real specific goals I finally decided to focus on my martial arts training and use weights to help me. I was thinking of a squat day, chin up day, and an olympic lifting day for lack of better descriptions. These would consist of 5x5 on the squat/chin on the first two days, plus some assistance exercises.

As for the olympic lifting, I was thinking of this:

Clean and Jerk, 10 singles
Dumbell Snatch, 5x5
Deadlift, 5x5

Is this too much/little or would this work? I am looking for a coach to check my form on the lifts, but want to start in the mean time.

2

that would depend on the intensity for each of the lifts. >90% or going to failure? yeah thats too much

3

Not going to failure on any of the lifts, the singles at about 90% of 1RM, the other lifts at about 80%.

4

No one can tell you over the Internet whether something is too much for you. Start lifting. Listen to your body.

5

thats something I’ve been thinkin myself.
what’s your sport?
I just have time for 2 day split thou.
I train NHB for 5-6 days per week.
I’ve tought to split it further as a Barbell day and a Sandbag day.

trying to mix the best “bang for the buck”
barbell exercises and some that I just want to do w/ sandbag.

like thus:

first phase 2 months accumulation

barbell day

warm-up:
overhead squats, power snatch’s & chins or pull ups

the work:

clean pull to ribcage height 3x4
(work to 6x6 in few months and take a 1RM test every fourth week before the work set)

squats 3x6 (progres gradually to 5x8)

Sandbag day

this day is hard and fun. Do a “clean”, a press, a squat and a pull. rotate the lifts by feel.

General warm up: anything goes but this is a good time to do some extra sprawls or shadow boxing or both but you’ll get warm with push ups, bodyweight squats, sprawls, burbees etc.

the work, an example:

“body curls” (grap the bag while its on the floor and “reverse clean” it up)

“press from the floor” (this is a bench press lying on the floor using a sandbag as a resistance. try it with a "heavy weight and you’l see it’s a bitch. play around with different grip variations.

“rowing deads” Deadlift the bag and do a
bent over row. Try it and find your way, could be a romanian deadlift or a regular one. do it with some effor, dont stop between dead and the row, more like dead it to a bent over row… confusing?

“bearhug squats” hug the bag like you would lift a barrel and squat with it. youll notice you have to use a semi-wide stance.

the reps for you might vary. if you do a complex then it depends on the weight of the bag, for an example you might do 6 reps for body curl and 12 for the huggy squats, its ok for a complex. but as a general rule think of this as a dynamic repetition effort day… just dont over do it.

after two months

the intensification for a month or so only switch the clean high pull as a power shrug and the squat as a deadlift.
the reps start to revers as the weight goes up. notice that you DON’T have to 1RM at this poin. more like up the weight and lower the reps.
you could go for an almost 3rm, the next week work a 3x3 with the same weight.
next week shoot for a 3rep max and take the following week as a deload week.

there’s some ideas. if your wrist’s can take it do the clean or power clean for the high pull but my wrists are done for
after grappling and punching that I dont need any extra torque for them…

happy new year, every one.

p.s. got a bit carried away and a bit off topic… sorry.

6

I think that going at 10 singles at 90% of your 1RM on the C&J would be too much in several respects. First, from a burn-out standpoint, I think this would be difficult for the CNS to take. Second, if you are not highly skilled in the lifts, you’d be much better served to drop the weight back to something like 70% and drill your form. Ten to twenty singles with 70% of your 1RM C&J to drill form would be a good way to go. Add weight slowly. When you find a coach, you can start to push the weight increases, but until then I’d work on honing the groove.

If you want to move heavy weight in a manner that will build the supporting strength you need for oly lifting, I’d concentrate on RDLs and push presses. I can’t imagine that any coach would be disappointed about working with a trainee who is (1) flexible and (2) very strong in the back squat, RDL, and push press. Maybe toss in the overhead squat after some time. That would give you all of the raw materials for oly lifting without any of the technical stuff.

7

sorry for my lenghty post, that had zero info (almost) on oly lifting. just was thinkin from the combat athlete stand point…

I got the impression that you wanted to focus on your sport while starting to practise the olympic lifts…

therefore the execution of overhead squats and power snacthes in the warm up would be appropriet while adding strength in the clean or clean and jerk ( the clean pull in the example).

I would do cleans if I could, but as the weightlifting is there to assist, I wouldn’t want to stress any injuries further.

you have to oest ypur lifts to a point where you find it difficult to manage a comfortable form and take that as your 100% if you are new to the type of lifting you want to learn and count your numbers from there. some say that ypu learn the technicue best on 75-80& of your 100%.

you have to have some resistance to work from, but not to much.

I have edited this message.
edit- and you wouldn’t belive it…

ox

8

Power lifting “explosive lifts” are great for martial arts and sports in gereral. For example I used to do a lot of cleans, deadlifts and push presses for football. Now I do them for wrestling and grappling. I currently can clean and push-press 195 lbs and I weight 205 lbs. This translates well when grappling. If I can throw up 195 lbs in the gym, I can do the same on the mat. Now Im doing the same training for strongman comps.

Good luck!

9

[quote]eic wrote:
I think that going at 10 singles at 90% of your 1RM on the C&J would be too much in several respects. First, from a burn-out standpoint, I think this would be difficult for the CNS to take. Second, if you are not highly skilled in the lifts, you’d be much better served to drop the weight back to something like 70% and drill your form. Ten to twenty singles with 70% of your 1RM C&J to drill form would be a good way to go. Add weight slowly. When you find a coach, you can start to push the weight increases, but until then I’d work on honing the groove.

If you want to move heavy weight in a manner that will build the supporting strength you need for oly lifting, I’d concentrate on RDLs and push presses. I can’t imagine that any coach would be disappointed about working with a trainee who is (1) flexible and (2) very strong in the back squat, RDL, and push press. Maybe toss in the overhead squat after some time. That would give you all of the raw materials for oly lifting without any of the technical stuff. [/quote]

Good post here.

OP, I would first recommend James Smith’s article “An Examination of the Overhead Olympic Lifts in MMA Athletes” at elitefts.com. Not sure if that’s the exact title but it’s close.

As to whether the ideas behind this microcycle would work, we’d have to know the answers to a few questions first.

  1. What are some of your weight room numbers? (Note: If you exaggerate these numbers like many on the internet do, then the help you get here will not be as good)

  2. How long have you been training consistently?

  3. What are your goals in martial arts? I.e. do you plan on becoming a pro fighter or just for fun?

10

Thanks for all the advice I’ve gotten so far.
As to Carters question, I have been weight training consistently for about a six months(went from 170 to 205lbs at 6’2", didn’t gain any height but some was probably still normal growth, I’m only 17).

My numbers reflect this:
Bench 70kgs for 6
Deadlift 90kgs for 5

I can’t squat do to growing too quickly, which led to bad flexibilty. I do split squats with 60lbs dumbells for reps, though, and am working on the flexibilty.

I don’t want to turn pro, but I’m an instructor and compete for fun now and then, so my practice sessions are too frequent to gain lots of lean mass quickly (8 hours and upwards of technique training, plus 2 hours and upwards of conditioning a week, trying to cut back a bit though). Because of this, I guess what I’m doing is trying to add as much mass as possible, albeit in a “sport specific” way.

Several people (in real life, not T-Nation) have asked me if I wasn’t afraid of burning out, but with proper nutrition it works. Berardi recommends 8 hours or more a week for G-Flux, and I have been training that much for a long time (started lifting 3x a week while also playing soccer for 3x a week when I was 12), and my body has gotten used to this.

11

[quote]Robert P. wrote:

As to Carters question, I have been weight training consistently for about a six months(went from 170 to 205lbs at 6’2", didn’t gain any height but some was probably still normal growth, I’m only 17).

My numbers reflect this:
Bench 70kgs for 6
Deadlift 90kgs for 5

I can’t squat do to growing too quickly, which led to bad flexibilty. I do split squats with 60lbs dumbells for reps, though, and am working on the flexibilty.

I don’t want to turn pro, but I’m an instructor and compete for fun now and then, so my practice sessions are too frequent to gain lots of lean mass quickly (8 hours and upwards of technique training, plus 2 hours and upwards of conditioning a week, trying to cut back a bit though). Because of this, I guess what I’m doing is trying to add as much mass as possible, albeit in a “sport specific” way.

Several people (in real life, not T-Nation) have asked me if I wasn’t afraid of burning out, but with proper nutrition it works. Berardi recommends 8 hours or more a week for G-Flux, and I have been training that much for a long time (started lifting 3x a week while also playing soccer for 3x a week when I was 12), and my body has gotten used to this.
[/quote]

So it looks like these are your goals:

  1. Increase body mass
  2. Increase strength
  3. Gain flexibility
  4. Become a better martial artist (if you think of a pyramid, this is at the top with the other 3 goals below)

Here’s how I’d address these:

  1. Make sure you’re eating a surplus of calories based on calories burned with all of your training. That will give you the mass you’re looking for with proper weight training. Remember that staying lean and getting bigger contradict one another usually, so don’t be afraid to put on a little fat.

  2. Six months is something you should be proud of for sticking with, but when it comes to the weight room and strength, you have to be honest with yourself and realzie you’re still a beginner. This means that advanced training methods aren’t necessary.

I would work on getting my strength up using basic compound movements. There’s really no need to focus on explosiveness at this point because you’re still weak. Once your strength is up, then you can incorporate explosiveness training. I think this was your goal with the O-lifting so hopefully you can see how it’s not necessary, especially without someone to coach proper technique.

If you want a template, let me know but I’m going to assume now that you already have something in mind focusing on squats, deadlifts, presses, and pulls full body routines with varying rep ranges.

  1. This one is a little weird to me. I have never met someone who claims to be a martial artist and lacks enough flexibility to do a squat. I have seen too many people right off the street do a proper squat.

But whatever, STRETCH. PNF stretches work great when your muscles are already warmed up.

  1. As you probably already know, training your sport is what gets you better at it. Martial arts is your sport. Technical training is the only thing that will get you better although physical preparedness will go a long way.

Hope this helps and I hope you realize that incorporating the Olympic lifts into your training, especially with your strength levels, is not necessary.

-Carter

12

[quote]carter12 wrote:
Robert P. wrote:

A lot
[/quote]

Thanks for all the info. I have a basic template, and I’m pretty sure I know how to gain weight, even though I am a beginner, as you said. However, I did not realize that the olympic lifts wouldn’t do me much good.

For the squat problem, I know. I just grew extremly quickly, except for my achilles tendons. This means I can squat, but only to just above parallel with a wider stance and toes pointed out, currently. I am easily able to put my palms on the floor with straight legs, put my head on my knees with straight legs when sitting, and am very close to the splits statically. Dinamically, as in a kick, I can do full splits.

Anyway, I guess I overestimated my level. I just picked up Kelly Baggets vertical jump bible (I also step on stage from time to time, not as a bodybuilder but to do some wu shu, so vert is important for me) and I found out I’m a plyometric jumper, with more height off one leg, so I will definetly be working on strenght first.

Thanks for all your advice.