To all the OLY lifters out there , what program would you recommend to a beginner as there are Absolutely no OLY lifting gyms in my side of the world. Am looking into mastering the Snatch and Clean and Jerk.
Start with 3-4 weeks of empty bar work. Possibly with a broom stick.
Practice
Drop Snatch
Snatch High Pulls
Full Snatch from Hang (or Blocks)
Clean High Pulls
Cleans
Clean and Jerk
Followed by 5x5 of squat to maintain base strength.
This is what you should start with.
I don’t olift but I was going to say probably a shitload of technique work and a lot of squatting meanwhile- do my best to condition myself so i can get used to squatting 3-4x a week. Glad to know I wasn’t far off.
[quote]Invictica wrote:
Start with 3-4 weeks of empty bar work. Possibly with a broom stick.
Practice
Drop Snatch
Snatch High Pulls
Full Snatch from Hang (or Blocks)
Clean High Pulls
Cleans
Clean and Jerk
Followed by 5x5 of squat to maintain base strength.
This is what you should start with.[/quote]
That sounds pretty good. I was planning on starting doing some weightlifting, at the moment i’m just doing powerlifting and its safe to say i’m not as flexible as i should be. I definitely can’t overhead squat past a quarter way, which means that all my snatch work will definitely be with an empty bar for now 
Would you use a variation of the snatch and a variation of the clean once a workout for 5x5? or would you use the same workout 3x a week?
[quote]tmcg86 wrote:
Would you use a variation of the snatch and a variation of the clean once a workout for 5x5? or would you use the same workout 3x a week?[/quote]
If you’re just starting, same workout with bar or lighter for 5x5 on all prescribed movements. Begin with dynamic stretching each workout. For clean and jerks, Clean once and Jerk twice for every “rep”. When I first started, I did this for 6 days a week for 2 weeks (I think, I can’t really recall). The goal is to get at least 12 of these workouts in before you start stacking additional weights on.
The purpose of this introductory cycle is to accustom your body and nervous system to all the movement patterns.
Following this, you would test your Snatch and Clean and Jerk Max, then base your Phase 2 workout on those maxes.
However, there are probably many methods for a beginner. This is merely what the coach gives the new athletes in my team. I’m sure there are many other methods that I am not aware of.
Look into Thib’s Black Book of Training Secret… damn fine Oly lifting program in there.
Dan John has some good programs.
Check out his free e-book. It has some programs.
Thanks for the input. Really helpful stuff. Peace!
You may have seen the post on Articles About Olympic Weightlifting ( http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_strength/articles_about_olympic_weightlifting ) or another recent post asking about programs ( http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_beginner/olympic_lift_programs ).
You’ll find (from the former) some programs from the Queensland Weightlifting Association ( http://www.qwa.org/programs/content.asp ).
Also, if you are looking to work on technique there is an episode of the Video FitCast with Dan John who reviews some of the ideas behind the snatch ( http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6529481301858251744 ) and a number of videos by Manuel Buitrago ( http://www.youtube.com/user/mhbuitrago ) that you may find helpful.
I taught myself my doing lots of singles of the full lifts. 10-20 of each per session. I kept rest periods short, and with any left over time at the end I did some other stuff (squat variantion, ab work, back extensions, pullups).
My warmups consisted of shoulder dislocates, drop snatches, snatches from full extension, cleans from full extension, and light hang cleans.
I’m in no way an Olympic lifter though, so…
[quote]Ryan71 wrote:
Dan John has some good programs.
Check out his free e-book. It has some programs.
x2 and if you’re willing to spend a little bit of money get his dvd package it will give a foolproof grounding and education