Athletes and Olympic Lifting
By
Chad Smith
The power clean and other Olympic lifts are a staple in strength and
conditioning programs for many sports from high school to the pros. Many
Westside (Darkside, conjugate, whatever you want to call it) influenced coaches
despise it. I’m not one of those.
The Olympic lifts are good exercises. They help build explosive power, but
you won’t find it in either my or my athletes’ training programs.
We don’t Olympic lift because:
1. It takes too long to learn how to do effectively.
· An Olympic lift with poor technique isn’t safe or effective.
· Why should I take days/weeks/months teaching an athlete how to do
something when I could take minutes to teach them something else that yields the
same or better results? That is poor training economy.
· Many athletes aren’t strong in the right places (posterior chain)
to be able to execute proper technique. If you can’t get into the proper
positions to perform the lift correctly, why do it? Time would be much better
spent doing box squats, glute ham raises, and reverse hypers than performing
ugly cleans and snatches.
2. The Olympic lifts put unnecessary strain on the wrists, elbows, and
shoulders. Athletes need to be healthy to play their respective sport. Athletes
like football lineman are already banging up their bodies on a daily basis and
don’t need to place more stress on their joints in the weight room.
3. Other exercises are equally or more effective. At its essence, the Olympic
lifts are weighted triple extension.
What do I replace Olympic lifts with?
1. Jumps: Seated, standing, depth, onto a box, over a hurdle, weighted, or
whatever variety you choose, they are easy to learn and they work. Read Louie
Simmons’ article titled “Explosive Leg Strength” to learn more about these
methods.
2. Kettlebell or dumbbell swings, cleans, and snatches: These are much
simpler to learn how to perform, and they have the ability to exploit the
stretch reflex through eccentric loading. Single, double, alternating, between
the legs, outside the legs, against bands, from blocks, dead start, and swinging
start are all great variations of these exercises.
3. Tire flips and Strongman loading: These are easy to learn and fun to do.
These are great teachers of explosion and triple extension. They are also great
for creating competitive situations in team environments.
4. Medicine ball throws: These are great teachers of triple extension. There
are endless variations of them, and they are easy to learn and fun to do.
They’re an all around great choice.
5. Dynamic effort box squats: Do six to 12 sets of two with 40–60 percent of
an athletes 1RM (rep max). Bands and chains greatly improve the training effect
of these. However, they are my least favorite dynamic effort lower body movement
for athletes.
The Olympic lifts are a viable option in a training program, but after
assessing training economy, it is a choice that I don’t include when designing
training programs for myself and my athletes. However, there are athletes I
train who do Olympic lifts. This is a result of it being a testing component for
their sport at their respective schools. The way it is implemented is based off
of ideas adapted from Louie Simmons’ article, “If I Were an Olympic Coach.”
These athletes have achieved great results from following this training split.
Day 1
1) DE Olympic lift: 8–12 singles at 60–80 percent of 1RM in clean or snatch.
This also serves to activate the central nervous system before squatting, often
resulting in much improved squat numbers.
2) ME squat: Almost always a box squat variation. Different bars, box
heights, bands, and chains are all employed here.
3) Heavy unilateral work: Split squat, step-up or lunge variations.
4) Posterior chain: This is usually a lighter day of posterior chain work
because it was taxed through the Olympic lifts and squats.
Day 2
DE/RE upper body: Similarly set up to Joe DeFranco’s Westside for Skinny
Bastards.
Day 3
Off
Day 4
1) DE lower body: Jumping or throwing variations
2) ME Olympic pull: Work up to a 1–3RM on an Olympic pull from various
heights (i.e. from the floor or various height blocks, bands, and/or chains).
This serves as excellent posterior chain work.
3) Posterior chain
4) Unilateral work
Day 5
ME upper body
So to sum it up, the Olympic lifts are good lifts with many benefits, but
these same benefits can be derived through other simpler means. The choice is up
to you.
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