A Powerful Challenge

If you’re looking to challenge yourself in your workouts, and I mean REALLY challenge yourself, than look no further than the Olympic lifts. Most of you know these as the heavy, explosive lifts you see the athletes perform every four years when the Olympics are on TV. The ones where super-human strength and power culminate in a quick, one time, all out effort to move some very heavy weights. These include but are not limited to the clean, clean and press, clean and jerk and the snatch. These exercises can be done from different positions (from the ground or a hang) and can also be performed in various ways (full or power). The Olympic lifts, or O-lifts for short, are a tremendous tool to have in your exercise arsenal, if you know how to perform them and use them in your workouts correctly.

Since the O-lifts are some of the hardest exercise movements to master, you must first ask yourself if you are ready for such a technical and challenging movement. First, you should be very familiar with the squat, deadlift and overhead pressing and be able to execute these with excellent form. You should also be fairly flexible in the shoulders, hamstrings and hips. If any of these movements are hard for you, or you have poor range of motion through the shoulder capsule, then the Olympic lifts may not be for you. If however you have no limitations in these areas, then adding some O-lifts could really benefit your current training program, no matter what your fitness goals are.

The benefits of the O-lifts are numerous. Since you are taking a heavy load and moving it over a vast distance in a ballistic manner, the energy you are expending is enormous. Most of the O-lifts will have you bringing the loaded barbell from the ground to all the way above your head. This is a farther distance that the bar must travel than any other exercise I can think of or that you would probably be performing in your program right now. That translates into a large number of calories being burned in a very short amount of time. The lifts like the clean & jerk and the snatch are mainly designed however to train for power output, explosive strength and speed (Power = strength x speed.) The faster you are with the weight, the faster you can create momentum and elevation on that barbell, and the more powerful you become. The more powerful you are, the stronger you will be. This is a cycle that can be highly addictive and rewarding. And the carry over to other exercises is very useful when trying to gain strength or get that new personal best.

So if you’re interested in testing yourself in a way you never have before, and seeing how powerful you really are, then I challenge you to learn an O-lift. It will not be easy to learn, and it takes a long time to become fluent and competent with these exercises. But with the help of a good trainer or coach, you too can learn how to do Olympic style weightlifting. And I promise it is worth the hard work to learn them. Remember: start slow and use light weights at first. Then you can slowly progress as you get better and better. Then you can achieve more speed and strength faster than you thought possible. I mean let’s face it, who doesn’t want to be a stronger, faster, more powerful version of themselves? I know I do.

Nick Johnson