Yesterday I was deadlifting in the college gym,and some tall guy walks in,I thought he was gonna deadlift beside me,he instead,loads up heavy on the bar,and does the clean and jerk(I think that’s what it was…u know,starting at the position top of deadlift,then lifting it onto the shoulder area…then restart again)
Anyway,it got me interested in it,I always do bench press,squat,deadlift but what about the other o-lifts?What are they and how do they benefit u?Maybe a link to details and forms of these lifts would be nice.Nothing impressed me more in that gym than that guy and his screams while moving that weight in good form.
That guy was doing a clean. The jerk is where you throw it overhead. O lifts & their varitions have given me a back stronger than I ever thought possible.
Sounds like the guy was doing hang cleans, not a clean and jerk. Hang cleans are a weightlifting assistance exercise. The clean and Jerk consists of bringing the weight from the ground to the shoulders (the clean) and then from the shoulders to a locked out position over the head (the jerk). The compeition lifts are the clean and jerk and the snatch. The snatch involves taking the weight from the ground to directly overhead in one smooth motion. The Olympic lifts (and their variants) build strength-speed (i.e., power). They also teach the body to operate as one synchronized unit. I am new to weightlifting (by that, I mean Olympic weightlifting, not weight training or powerlifting) so I am sure there are others who could provide you with a great deal more information than I can. A great resource is lifttilyadie dot com which collects a lot of good weightlifting sites on the web. Also drsquat dot com has some good articles concerning the use of the olympic lifts and their variants.
They build speed and power.
Apparently there was a massive test done durring the 1968 olympics (Mexico I think) and the olympic lifters were quicker over 25 yards than any other group of lifters (including 100 metre sprinters) and had a bigger veritical leap than anyone (including high jumpers and basketballers). More information about the 1968 (I think) study and other olympic lifting can be found at drsquat dot com.
I should also add that I peform an OL variant exercise 6 days per week, but I am still learning technique right now, so these exercises are not taxing. Later on, I will probably start using Chis Thibideaux’s suggestions (from his article on Dr. Squat dot com) and have use OL variants 3 days per week, with one snatch-based w/o, one clean-based w/o and one jerk-based w/o plus a fourth day for remdial exercises. This looks like a good overall routine for power and limit strength. Another really good site is JV Askem’s site (the cable/bar guy, which you will find a link to on lifttilyadie). I have loosely based my current program around some of the info I learned there (I posted my program under the heading dealing with working the body as a whole versus a split routine).
I have seen the olympics and the guys are pretty damn muscular. Not in the sense as volume size but that hard as steel look. And please don’t tell me about the heavyweights, I know they are a little fat but you do need it to hoist 300 lbs. overhead. Those guys look strong and are strong. Another interesting point is the strongman contest. Those guys are massive.
Yes, you can do o-lifts for reps and build more mass that way than doing singles. O-lifters, though unbelievably powerful, are not that muscular. Compare the great Pocket Hercules’ physique to that of any bodybuilder and he can’t match them aesthetically. Nevertheless, I’d rather have Pocket Hercules’ power than a bodybuilder’s physique, but that’s another topic…
You can build serious muscle using oly lifts, it just takes a lot longer. Remember Suleimanoglu had been training for probably 25yrs to get as thick as he was.
For info on technique and coaching help contact the USA Weightlifting Federation at www.usaweightlifting.org and they’ll hook you up with literature and possibly a local club in your area.
The primary reason to do O-lifts is to compete in the O-lifts. The secondary reason to do them is that they’re a great assistance exercise for athletes. The drawback is that they take a relatively large amount of training to become competent. The real kicker is that you need to become fairly competent at the lifts to start to see the benefits of explosive strength gains. I’ve done both O-lifting and bodybuilding training and can say that O-lifting is not the best way to stimulate hypertrophy. A good approach for many people is to learn the power clean and incorporate this into their existing bodybuilding or powerlifting routine.
If you want to have a thick back, big legs and big traps with normal-sized arms and chest, and you wanna be way, way stronger than you look, then Olympic lifting is for you. If you want to look like a bodybuilder, then stick to bodybuilding-movements.
To learn the O-lifts and their variants (i.e., pull variants, power variants, etc.) do what I did and find a qualified coach. If you want to try to figure it out on your own from readin it on the web, you might want to go to ironmag dot com and look at Chris Thibaudeau’s four part series on the Olympic lifts, or you might want to read the deepsquatter archives… John Cissik (who also wrote a book about learning the Olympic lifts) has a two part piece there about Olympic lifting. J.V. Askem’s site (type “cable/bar guy” into a search engine and you should find the site) also has a lot of good pictures and descriptions of how to perform the O-lifts and their variants. There are several other web references that can be helpful but these three come to mind right away… spend some time poking around the websites listed on lifttilyadie dot com and you will find a lot of info out there. Also ask questions at goheavy dot com on their olympic weightlifting forum… lot’s of top coaches in the country post there.