Should You Use The Olympic Lifts With Your Athletes: Pros and Cons?
When developing muscular power in the weight room, choosing which exercises and when to use them can be tricky. The concept of strength and power development is frequently confused. First off, I would like to clarify what power is.
In physics, power is the amount of energy transferred or converted per unit time. Muscular power is mainly determined by muscular strength, maximum movement velocity, and neuromuscular activation (Moritani T, 2005). On the other hand, muscular strength is a muscle's capacity to exert brute force against resistance. Therefore, power is determined by strength, but they are different, and too often, weight room training is solely designed for the development of absolute strength, which is great, but the speed of exercises is less.
Therefore, power development is limited. So, what do you do? There are many ways to work on power output, whether in the weight room or on the field, such as jumps, plyometrics, med ball throws, Olympic lifting, etc. In this blog, I want to touch on the use of Olympic liftings for athletes in team sports and track & field.
What are The Olympic Lifts?
Olympic lifts use the weightlifting movement patterns used by lifters in the Olympic Games. The two official lifts are the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk.
Snatch: The snatch involves the lifter moving the barbell in one continuous movement from the floor to the overhead position. The athlete lifts the weight from the ground using a wide grip and then catches it overhead with straight arms while in a deep squatting position. From the squatting position, the lifter emerges in one fluid movement to standing up straight, completing the lift with the weight above their head.
Clean & Jerk: This exercise has two distinct components. For the clean phase of the movement, the lifter uses a shoulder-width grip to pull the weight from the floor and then catches it in a front squat position. The jerk phase of this lift involves the athlete jumping into a split stance while pressing the weight up overhead until the arms are locked out. To complete the lift, the athlete must bring the feet underneath the hips.
These two lifts have many variations, such as from hang and block positions. Some pull variations using dumbbells instead of barbells, behind the neck position for Jerk, kneeling snatch, bilateral or split stance catching position.
The Pros of Olympic Lifts?
Snatches and Clean & Jerks produce some of the highest power outputs in all lifting exercises (Garhammer, 1993). Power, the product of strength and speed, is the key ingredient to helping athletes run faster and jump higher. Incorporating the Olympic lifts into workouts is the most effective way to build power and speed. The Olympic lifts require an athlete to exert a force into the ground through a quick and coordinated "triple extension" of the ankle, knee, and hip, mirroring what happens in sprinting and jumping, the core components of most sports.
Additionally, the forceful impact of catching the weight will boost the eccentric capacity of muscles; thus, the force absorption on the field and deceleration will be improved. In this context, it may help to reduce the non-contact injury rate. The other benefit is enhancing coordination and dynamic stability. These movements require precise coordination, rhythm, and timing while pulling and suddenly catching the weight.
The Cons of Olympic Lifts
Even though Olympic lifts provide plenty of benefits, they may not be the best option for every athlete. Every lift has its place, so the key is to use all of them wisely. One negative aspect of Olympic lifts is the complexity of the movement. If we only have six weeks to improve strength and power, it's hard to justify using that time to learn new, complex movements when you could have them perform more basic movements.
Even if athletes learn the movements relatively quickly, they likely will not be able to load the movement significantly and move the bar at the required speed during a short off-season period. To transfer to sport-specific power, like the vertical jump, the bar needs to move at 1.4m/s or faster during the clean.
My final concern is the risk/reward of performing Olympic lifts. Training already has some risks, and our job is to minimise them as much as possible for our athletes. Olympic lifts are very technical and require good mobility, coordination, and power. If your athlete lacks mobility and the strength base, the priority should be gaining these abilities rather than loading the bar with weights. So, doing lightweight Olympic lifts in warm-up could help with this.
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How do you use and implement it into an athlete's program?
These lifts have two 'pulls': the first pull is from ground to knee level, the second pull is from knee to hip level and between them, there is a transition point. The research shows that the bar speed is higher at the second pull than at the first pull (Harbili E, 2014). Instead of trying to teach the whole movement, which is complicated and needs more time to master, starting with only the second pull is more straightforward to prepare and has the same power output. That means the variations of these lifts are more learnable and beneficial for athletes in a limited time period.
I incorporate hang and block (just above the knee level) cleans and snatches into my athletes' programs. Intensity is mostly between 75%-92% of 1RM for 3-5 sets and 1-5 reps. In a single workout, we do them right after the warm-up (or after our sprint work) while the nervous system is still fresh. Rest should be 3 minutes between sets; effort must be 100% for each rep, or it will turn into conditioning rather than power development.
Here is an example of a simple 4-week workout plan for beginners:
Wrap It Up!
In conclusion, there are good and bad sides to Olympic lifts for athletes. They are training tools just like other exercises, so it depends on the coach's discernment to use them or not. BUT these lifts are unique because of the combination of coordination, power, stability and dynamic balance in one exercise. Lastly, no other exercise allows you to produce these high-power outputs. As a coach, I advise analysing our athletes and learning how to use these lifts with our athletes. Athletes who have never done Olympic lifts will see considerable improvements in vertical jump and sprint performance. It is worth teaching them in the long-term athletic development of the athlete.
REFERENCE
1. Moritani, T. Motor unit and motoneurone excitability during explosive movement. In: Strength and Power in Sport. Komi, PV, ed. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 2005. pp. 27-49.
2. Garhammer, J. A review of Olympic and Powerlifting power output studies: Methodology, performance prediction and evaluation tests. J. Strength and Cond. Res. 7(2):76-89. 1993.
3. Harbili E, Alptekin A. Comparative kinematic analysis of the snatch lifts in elite male adolescent weightlifters. J Sports Sci Med. 2014 1;13(2):417-22.
Fatih Alpay
Strength & Conditioning Coach
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