Hi everyone, Hope you all are having a strong week in the gym and a disciplined week in the kitchen! I have a little Midweek treat for you all, this was what I missed off last Friday's update....
As previously stated in my last post, I have been getting to grips with some Olympic lifting. I want to share my experiences training like this and some of the benefits of partaking in Olympic lifting (which doesn't mean actually going to the Olympics).
If you follow me on Twitter you may recall me posting this picture at the beginning of the year as a physique I admired and one I would like to attain.
I often look back on my blog and try and remember how I was training and how I was feeling when I wrote the entries, It's just something I do. I read the blog I put on at the beginning of Jan and as I read it I remembered this picture. I then got to thinking about what he has done to create his body; he looks strong as an ox and has a low body fat %. I knew this fella's name, Pyross Dimas. I don't know why I hadn't done this before but I Googled him and found a load of information on Olympic Lifting. I then set about reading up on how to perform Olympic Lifts and watched countless videos on YouTube. I wrote how my first session went in my last post. I have decided to just learn how to perform the snatch for now and will progress to the the clean and jerk when I feel I have perfected my form on the snatch. Friday's session went reasonably well; I managed to get 60kg above my head which isn't far off body weight. I have found videoing my lifts so beneficial, especially as I train alone and have no-one to point out my mistakes.
I recorded this Last Friday
Still a lot of work to do on my form but I will get there!!
The benefits of Olympic lifting
So what is it about the Olympic lifts that work such magic on the human body? Most simply, they engage nearly all of your muscles to move weights farther and faster than conventional exercises. In fact, each repetition takes only a second or two from start to finish, which allows you to target your fast-twitch muscle fibres. These are the muscles with the greatest potential for size and strength, and the ones that are typically ignored in most weighted workouts.
Then there's the pure vanity aspect. The Olympic lifters (who aren't heavyweights) are among the leanest, and they're certainly the strongest athletes in the world. One study of elite athletes found that Olympic weight lifters burn almost as many calories per day as marathoners do, and another report says that, on average, the majority of lifters have a single figure percentage body fat. Granted, these men and women are moving more than 80,000kg in a typical training week, but they also eat 6,000 to 8,000 calories a day. Now I'm obviously talking about the highest level of Olympic competitor, and probably a bunch of crazy Russians Russian lol.
(Excerpt from Appendix 3 - Training on the Snatch and Clean and Jerk: A Key to Athletic Excellence)
The truly remarkable abilities of Olympic style weightlifters are certainly due in part to genetic qualities of these athletes and to their outstanding physical condition. However, they are also due in no small measure to the kind of training that weightlifters do: performing the snatch and the clean and jerk (C&J).
Almost any form of resistance training can improve an athlete’s strength, but the snatch and C&J are unique in their ability to develop strength and explosive power at the same time. And the benefits of practising the Olympic lifts are hardly limited to developing strength and power. Here is a partial list of other added benefits:
1. The mere practice of the Olympic lifts teaches an athlete how to explode (to activate a maximum number of muscle units rapidly and simultaneously). Part of the extraordinary abilities of the Olympic lifters arises out of their having learned how to effectively activate more of their muscle fibers more rapidly than others who are not so trained (in addition to having developed stronger muscles).
2. The practice of proper technique in the Olympic lifts teaches an athlete to apply force with his or her muscle groups in the proper sequences (i.e., from the center of the body to its extremities). This is a valuable technical lesson which can be of benefit to any athlete who needs to impart force to another person or object (a necessity in virtually every sport).
3. In mastering the Olympic lifts, the athlete learns how to accelerate objects under varying degrees of resistance. This is because the body experiences differing degrees of perceived resistance as it attempts to move a bar with maximum speed through a full range of motion. These kinds of changes in resistance are much more likely to resemble those encountered in athletic events than similar exercises performed on an isokinetic machine (which has a fixed level of resistance or speed of resistance throughout the range of motion).
4. The athlete learns to receive force from another moving body effectively and becomes conditioned to accept such forces.
5. The athlete learns to move effectively from an eccentric contraction to a concentric one (through the stretch-shortening cycle, the cycle that is activated and trained through exercises that are often referred to as plyometrics).
6. The actual movements performed while executing the Olympic lifts are among the most common and fundamental in sports. Therefore, training the specific muscle groups in motor patterns that resemble those used in an athlete’s events is often a by product of practicing the snatch and C&J.
7. Practicing the Olympic lifts trains an athlete’s explosive capabilities, and the lifts themselves measure the effectiveness of the athlete in generating explosive power to a greater degree than most other exercises they can practice.
8. Finally, the Olympic lifts are simply fun to do. I have yet to meet an athlete who has mastered them who does not enjoy doing the Olympic lifts. While making workouts enjoyable may not be the primary objective of a strength coach, it is not an unimportant consideration in workout planning. Athletes who enjoy what they are doing are likely to practice more consistently and to be more highly motivated than athletes who do not enjoy their workouts as much.
Pretty cool huh ? Speaking of cool I did come across this video that was posted by @gbweightlifting
Ok then, let’s see If I can bring this Blog to an end.
I think I have provided enough information on why I think training with Olympic weightlifting is a good idea, but you may not feel comfortable going into your gym and attempting these lifts. With that in mind I thought it may be useful to break down some of the main movements included in the Olympic lifts so if you aren't feeling confident to perform a full movement you could at least reap the benefits in some other way. I'm good to you aren't I ...?
Twice a week, insert these two mini-routines into your current workout, performing them before you do any other exercises. Alternate between Routine 1 and Routine 2 so that you do only two of the modified Olympic lifts each session. A couple of pointers: The high pull and the jump shrug are speed exercises, so use a weight that requires a strong effort to lift it quickly, but isn't so heavy that you can't control the bar. As for the front squat and push press, use the heaviest weight that allows you to do all the prescribed reps.
Routine A
Hold a barbell just below your knees, with a shoulder-width, overhand grip [A]. With your back flat and arms straight, pull the bar upward as fast as you can by thrusting your hips forward and explosively standing up. As the bar passes your thighs, continue moving upward onto your toes and pull the bar as high as possible by bending your elbows and raising your upper arms [B]. Return to the starting position and repeat for three sets of three to five repetitions, resting 90 seconds after each set.
Grab a bar with an overhand grip that's just beyond shoulder width and hold it on the tops of your shoulders. Raise your upper arms so they're parallel to the floor and let the bar roll back so it's resting on your fingers, not your palms. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your back straight [A]. Without changing the position of your arms, lower your body until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor [B]. Then push back up to the starting position. Do three sets of six to eight repetitions, resting 90 seconds after each set.
Routine B
Hold a bar just below your knees, with an overhand grip that's twice shoulder width [A]. Keeping your back flat and arms straight, simultaneously thrust your hips forward, shrug your shoulders, and jump straight up [B]. Land on the balls of your feet and repeat. Do three sets of three to five repetitions, resting 90 seconds after each set.
Grab a barbell with a shoulder-width, overhand grip. Stand holding the barbell at shoulder level, your feet shoulder-width apart. Dip your knees slightly [A] and push up with your legs as you press the bar over your head [B]. Then lower the bar to the starting position. Do three sets of eight repetitions, resting 90 seconds after each set.
Be sure to warm up fully, especially your shoulders!
I think that will just about do it!
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