Beginner O Lift Routine?

have just started getting into Olympic lifts and was hoping i could get some feedback of a routine i cobbled together and plan to use for the next few months.

I have been doing O lifts and various assistant lifts with a broomstick for the last 3 weeks and this week i finally found a place where i can lift with bumper plates. It’s a crossfit facility and simply too expensive for me to sign up for regular coaching but i can use the equipment there and get to one class (o lifting) a week. My previous background is rockclimbing for the last two years.

I seem to naturally have the required flexibility in ankles, back shoulders. This week i tested myself out on bumper plates.

Snatch - 30kg
Clean and jerk 60kg
Overhead Squat 30kg
Front Squat 60kg

I weigh 60kg. I could have cleaned more but i didn’t want to push it. 60kg is about right for my front squat though my max would probably be 65ish i think. 30kg is really my max for snatch and overhead squat, i can power snatch 60kg but i feel very weak going deep in the overhead squat.

This is the plan I am thinking of, in regards to the 10 sets / 2 reps - the first ‘5’ sets are warm up sets slowly increasing the weight up to the working ‘5’ sets. There is no rack so all overhead, front and back squats will have to be cleaned first. If i don’t get enough recovery between sessions i might drop one ‘workout’ off, or lower the loads so i can retain the extra volume as i want to imprint all the movement patters of the lifts in. Also, i am continuing to do the lifts with a stick everyday outside of these sessions. I will have a coach looking at my form on the sat in case i am doing anything terribly wrong. And before people ask - yes i could get a program off him but it costs more money and i am broke at the moment. Also i figure for a total newb something like this is probably fine for 4 -6 months anyway? I have also left out any supplementary back exercises as I am getting a good back workout just from the lifts at the moment and i don’t want to over do it.

Training goals (with no particular time frame): 60kg Snatch (bodyweight snatch) 90kg Clean and Jerk

Any advice is appreciated.

Monday
Snatch 10 x 2
Clean and Jerk 10 x 2
Overhead Squat 3 x 5
Front Squat: 3Ã?5

Wednesday
High pulls 10 x 2 (from knees)
Power Snatch 10 x 2
Power Clean 10 x 2
Push Press 10 x 2
Deadlift (with O lift form) 3 x 5 (60 â?? 70% max)

Thursday
LIGHT DAY (this day is to really just keep imprinting the movements into my body with the feel of a little weight)
Overhead Squat 1 x 30 (stick)
Snatch 1 x 10 (bar)
Clean and Jerk 1 x 10 (40kg)
Back Squat 1 x 10 (40kg) (i’d do more but over 40 with no rack it gets hard for me to clean and press it onto my back)
Core: Suspended knee raises / medicine ball turns

Saturday
Olympic Lifting Class
(in the class they do a mix of power cleans / snatches / high pulls / shrugs ect)

Looks okay mate,

Any routine for a beginner will be good as long as you get consistent coaching.

The first 5 sets are warm up so don’t count them, so your doing 5sets of 2sets.

I’d advise you to do ‘bar work’ before you lift and do it after the warm up. This is the fastest way to get good technique. MOST people ignore this and fail to see why they can power a clean to nipple height but fail to rack it? They are pulling with their arms so their arms are loaded and they are unable to rack the bar.

I’d also do pulls to mid thigh but this could be what yoru doing with your deadlifts, pull to mid thigh keeping shoulders over the bar and your back straight.

I would avoid the power snatch and power cleans if you want to improve your full lifts. I’d do do the full lifts again on that day. Doing the power lifts as beginner is the slowest way to hamper your full lift progress imo. It’s easy to transition from full lift to power lifts. Just use less weight and receieve the bar higher.

How much do they charge out of interest? At my club in Surrey England it costs £65 for a year and you get bwla membership and insurance and programmes and coaching. You only pay the price to enter the facility that we use which is £5 a session or £30 a month…my coach doesn’t charge for ‘coaching’ but a membership fee to help with the up keep of equipment and to run comps. It’s £35 for guys that compete also so even less!

Koing

Congrats on getting started. If you’re doing O-lifts for the metabolic effect, okay, have fun and when your back and knees start hurting, do box jumps. If you’re going to be at all serious about the olympic lifts, doing them correctly, and actually getting a training effect… First and foremost, evaluate your flexibility and get some lifting shoes.

Stay above your knees with hang clean until you can take the bar quickly and quietly with your shoulders, then progress to below your knees and eventually from the ground. With Snatch, same progression but just work lower as you feel more balanced and strong over head.

Scrap high pulls, waste of time and they teach you to pick the bar up, with your arms, you need to focus on pushing the earth down, with your legs. I’d skip deadlift and do clean and snatch pulls to the knee or to mid thigh like Koing said. Throw in some RDL on day two and you look like you’ve got a decent program going. Good luck stay consistent and try to educate yourself as much as possible.

Thanks for the responses guys. It’s about $170 a month for full membership, which is a bit too much for me. Also, i am only interested in the O lifting not the crossfit side, i know enough to put together my own GPP workouts if that’s what i wanted to do. Or i could go to the boxing class down the road that does essentially the same thing for 4 bucks a class.

I am not interested in lifting Olympic style for metabolic effect, in my lay opinion it’s never a good idea to do any lift that has a reasonable technical component while tired because your form will slip and it a) teaches you bad form B) more likely to get injured. That’s my only problem with the endless reps i see some crossfit places put out with deadlift and O lift work outs. My mate did one where it was 30 deadlifts at 70% of ur 1 rep max. i think that is far too heavy for 30 reps. Any way that is another argument and not all crossfit places are the same of course.

I will take your advice Koing and slot in more bar work after the warm up. What is a reasonable amount - 10 x 2 with just the bar?

To wolfpack - i seem to have enough flexibility already, i can clean and snatch from the ground and stay in good form (just not with lots of weight). For example i can snatch 30 kilos dropping properly into a full ass to grass overhead squat and stand up. I’ll have the coach look over my form again this sat but last sat he thought it was ok. Is it still worth starting the pulls from higher up to fine tune form do you think?

I plan to get lifting shoes next week, i have been lifting barefoot :slight_smile:

I will take your guys advice and scrap the hang pull and power cleans / snatches. replace deadlift with clean / snatch pulls to the knee / thigh and add in a RDL.

Thanks for the advice guys. By the way - these lifts really kill my traps!

While i have you guys here could i get some advice on overhead squat form?

I have been told to ‘press into’ the bar on the OH Squat, and one guy told me to imagine my arms being raised up to the ceiling and to ‘push up’ i did this while he was watching me - but where he said was good is essentially an OH shrug. That doesn’t seem sound to me as an OH shrug with decent weights seems crazy.

What i have normally being doing, this is my interpretation of ‘press into’ the bar is this:

|||| LH -------BAR----------- RH ||||

<------- Force ------>

If that diagram makes any sense - basically i pushing into the bar but the force feels like it travels into the sides somewhat because the weight pushes me down. When i do this i seem to generate good upper body tension to be able hold the weight up there. But is this bad form?

Sounds like you’ve got some good direction with regards to reps and your gpp. With pulls, remember the first 5 inches of the lift have alot to do with what the weight does on your shoulders and overhead. So pulls from the ground to the knee are for technique, dont load up on them with too much weight or too much volume as doing too much can take away from technique. with pulls from blocks at different heights, also good technique, just make sure you arent useing your back or swinging the bar away from you.

With OHP, make sure your elbows are under the bar, palms facing the sky, take a deep breath, abs tight, dont arch your back. And you’ve got the right idea with force, treat the band almost like a rubber band… and just be consistent, once your body gets used to the new lift, strength will come quickly.

[quote]Blazinator wrote:
Thanks for the responses guys. It’s about $170 a month for full membership, which is a bit too much for me. Also, i am only interested in the O lifting not the crossfit side, i know enough to put together my own GPP workouts if that’s what i wanted to do. Or i could go to the boxing class down the road that does essentially the same thing for 4 bucks a class.

I am not interested in lifting Olympic style for metabolic effect, in my lay opinion it’s never a good idea to do any lift that has a reasonable technical component while tired because your form will slip and it a) teaches you bad form B) more likely to get injured. That’s my only problem with the endless reps i see some crossfit places put out with deadlift and O lift work outs. My mate did one where it was 30 deadlifts at 70% of ur 1 rep max. i think that is far too heavy for 30 reps. Any way that is another argument and not all crossfit places are the same of course.

I will take your advice Koing and slot in more bar work after the warm up. What is a reasonable amount - 10 x 2 with just the bar?

To wolfpack - i seem to have enough flexibility already, i can clean and snatch from the ground and stay in good form (just not with lots of weight). For example i can snatch 30 kilos dropping properly into a full ass to grass overhead squat and stand up. I’ll have the coach look over my form again this sat but last sat he thought it was ok. Is it still worth starting the pulls from higher up to fine tune form do you think?

I plan to get lifting shoes next week, i have been lifting barefoot :slight_smile:

I will take your guys advice and scrap the hang pull and power cleans / snatches. replace deadlift with clean / snatch pulls to the knee / thigh and add in a RDL.

Thanks for the advice guys. By the way - these lifts really kill my traps![/quote]

I’d do 3reps x 3sets from
chest
waist
straight arms
bent over hang

Koing

FWIW, let me just say that I also lift at a Crossfit facility. What is my opinion of Crossfit? Like anything, they have some good ideas and some not so good. Fortunately, the Olympic lifting club is separate from the CF. Everyone there seems to recognize that, and as yet, no one has tried to “convert” me to CF. The weights that CF uses for their metabolic conditioning are ridiculously light (or they’re supposed to be given the “scaleable” nature of the workouts), so the risk of injury is fairly low.

However, there is a risk of picking up some bad habits lifting light weight for numerous reps. For conditioning, I’ll either do hill sprints (great for the glutes and hamstrings) or kettlebell swings (also good for the glutes and hams).

Now that we got that out of the way, I think the advice given was sound. Eventually, you’ll have to find which assistance exercises work for you and which ones don’t. And some of this will be based on your own level in the lifts. For example, I am a Masters lifter which is a nice way of saying that I’m old and slow. While the elite lifters can pull the bar a few inches above their waist and then duck under real fast, I need to pull the bar higher. I still do the power versions.

I’m experimenting with high pulls, but Koing is right in that they do encourage pulling with the arms, so I may drop those. RDLs and front squats seem to solve many problems. Lately my assistance work has been very minimal - I just seem to do the lifts a lot with varying weight.

I would also add that you shouldn’t be afraid to add weight to the bar. Yes, we all know that you should practice technique with an empty bar and then slowly add weight. I do this myself and I’m not disagreeing with it. However, things change when the bar gets heavier and technique flaws that you can “cover up” with lighter weight suddenly stand out big time when the weight goes up.

This recently happened to me with my snatch and with the help of my coaches I was able to fix a major technique flaw in my snatch. So don’t be afraid to miss - that’s what bumper plates are for.

Most importantly, have fun. This is a simple sport. You start with the bar on the ground. You try to get the bar overhead. The person who does it with the most weight wins. There are no style points or points for artistic expression. Just lift the damn bar.

[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
FWIW, let me just say that I also lift at a Crossfit facility. What is my opinion of Crossfit? Like anything, they have some good ideas and some not so good. Fortunately, the Olympic lifting club is separate from the CF. Everyone there seems to recognize that, and as yet, no one has tried to “convert” me to CF. The weights that CF uses for their metabolic conditioning are ridiculously light (or they’re supposed to be given the “scaleable” nature of the workouts), so the risk of injury is fairly low.

However, there is a risk of picking up some bad habits lifting light weight for numerous reps. For conditioning, I’ll either do hill sprints (great for the glutes and hamstrings) or kettlebell swings (also good for the glutes and hams).

Now that we got that out of the way, I think the advice given was sound. Eventually, you’ll have to find which assistance exercises work for you and which ones don’t. And some of this will be based on your own level in the lifts. For example, I am a Masters lifter which is a nice way of saying that I’m old and slow. While the elite lifters can pull the bar a few inches above their waist and then duck under real fast, I need to pull the bar higher. I still do the power versions.

I’m experimenting with high pulls, but Koing is right in that they do encourage pulling with the arms, so I may drop those. RDLs and front squats seem to solve many problems. Lately my assistance work has been very minimal - I just seem to do the lifts a lot with varying weight.

I would also add that you shouldn’t be afraid to add weight to the bar. Yes, we all know that you should practice technique with an empty bar and then slowly add weight. I do this myself and I’m not disagreeing with it. However, things change when the bar gets heavier and technique flaws that you can “cover up” with lighter weight suddenly stand out big time when the weight goes up.

This recently happened to me with my snatch and with the help of my coaches I was able to fix a major technique flaw in my snatch. So don’t be afraid to miss - that’s what bumper plates are for.

Most importantly, have fun. This is a simple sport. You start with the bar on the ground. You try to get the bar overhead. The person who does it with the most weight wins. There are no style points or points for artistic expression. Just lift the damn bar.[/quote]

TOTALLY agree mate. NO STYLE POINTS…

As a result my jerks have started to looke ven more ropey on the limit! BUT I am hitting 135-140 much more frequently in training. I’ll eventually iron it out but for the time being I just want to lift as much as possible. Thats the No.1 goal. And also to not get injured in the process is the other objective.

If I dance about in the Jerk but get it and I don’t get injured, JOB DONE :smiley:

Obviously I’m trying to iron the Jerks out but it’s different when the weight is 140 as oppose to 135…

Koing

Thanks for all the feedback guys. In response to the feedback i thought i would post the program i settled on, that way if any other newb like me is reading the forums they might find a similar program suitable. Here is the program, and underneath it i have explained it a ltitle:

WARMUP

  • Dynamic Stretches
  • sets of Lifts with a stick (including Koing’s example)
  • 5 Warm up sets building up to ‘Work set’

MONDAY
Snatch 5 x 2
Clean and Jerk 5 x 2
Overhead Squat 5 x 2
Front Squat: 5 x 2

WEDNESDAY
Drop Snatch 5 x 2
Push Press 5 x 2 (Each Set is power cleaned first to get it racked)

FRIDAY
Snatch 5 x 2
Clean and Jerk 5 x 2
Overhead Squat 5 x 2
Front Squat 5 x 2

EXPLANATION

This explanation is more for a noob like me who is reading this. I went for 3 over 4 days a week training because i did not have sufficient recovery. I come from a rock climbing not weight lifting background and so i need some adaption. I have kept it as simple as possible to make it easier for me to keep up with it. I have not included any specific back or core work because i am finding i get plenty of lower back and core stimulation already from these lifts and i don’t want to over do it. Also at one of the earlier O lift classes I did we did this exercise that was like a hanging deadlift and they had us doing a weight that in retrospect was too much for me (plus being unfamilar with the exercise i think i did it wrong). End result i don’t have back ‘pain’ per se, just a strange dull feeling in my lower back every now and again for last two weeks.

I am basically doing the two O lifts plus two ‘assistance’ lifts (Front Squat / OH Squat). The assistance lifts are to build my strength for the ‘core’ lifts. Technically, i think i could just snatch and clean but i find at my basic level going through the front and OH squat slowly is helping me get a feel of the positions and alignments. The push press is in there because i like the way the movement feels and i am assuming it’s probably not a bad movement for developing upper body explosiveness and strength and probably help the jerk a bit perhaps?

So far program is simple, quick to get through and fun. Makes you feel like He Man when you drop the weights. I plan to do this for three months then reassess where i am at.

[quote]

I am basically doing the two O lifts plus two ‘assistance’ lifts (Front Squat / OH Squat). The assistance lifts are to build my strength for the ‘core’ lifts. [/quote]

Dude, where’s the deadlift and the back squat? How are you going to “build strength” without those two?

[quote]tiburontiburon wrote:

I am basically doing the two O lifts plus two ‘assistance’ lifts (Front Squat / OH Squat). The assistance lifts are to build my strength for the ‘core’ lifts.

Dude, where’s the deadlift and the back squat? How are you going to “build strength” without those two?[/quote]

You don’t think you can ‘build strength’ with just the Snatch and Clean and Jerk? Of course you can. The deadlift and back squat are excellent lifts and i am sure they have a reasonable amount of carry over to Olympic lifts but you can build plenty of strength in an Olympic lifting routine without either one.

Look at the amount of squating already in my routine.
Overhead Squat
Front Squat
Clean and Jerk (involves a front squat)
Snatch (involves an overhead Squat)

That’s a lot of squating already. While you can move more weight in the back squat versus the front squat you can still build plenty of strength in the front squat alone. Because i can’t handle the increased volume of the back squat it gets the boot for now as i view the front squat as more central to the development of my Olympic Lifting.

I’d also point out that both the Snatch and the Clean require a kind of ‘modified’ deadlift just to get the weight of the floor. So your already deriving similar benefits. Again, your going to move far greater weight in a pure deadlift but i don’t see it as neccessary as my other lifts for building up my O lifts. When i can handle a greater volume of work i might include it in. Also, i’ve never really deadlifted before but i tested myself out last week and my base level is 120kg for 1 rep max. That’s a lot more than i’m Clean and Jerking.

So basically, only a fool would claim that the deadlift or back squat are useless. They are great lifts. They probably have some excellent carry over to the snatch and the clean. But at this beginner stage i am in they are more peripheral to my core lifts of the Snatch and Clean and I can generate more than enough strength development for my purposes without them.