I’m torn between Olympic Lifting and Powerlifting, ideally I’d want to do both but I know that in many ways they do not work well together because they train different types of strength. I was able to find this program because I have access to my school’s resources:
“A Combined Weightlifting/Powerlifting Program”
Piper, Timothy J. MS, CSCS; Erdmann, Loran D. EdD, CSCS
Strength & Conditioning Journal: December 1998 - Volume 20 - Issue 6 - ppg 15-19
I’ve attached a picture of the basic parameters. Was wondering what people thought, and if anyone has tried to combine Oly Lifting and Powerlifting before.
Should also include:
It’s 4 phases each phase lasting 2-6 weeks depending on how to adapt to the protocol. The order of the work outs don’t have to be the A-B-C, they can be A-A-B or A-C-B or B-C-A, etc.
Really? The question is do you want to compete in either or both. If you dont want to compete then you might as well just o lift and include bench press. If you olift you will get way better at squats and DL’s along with the SN and CJ. If you dont want to compete equipped then Oling is the way to go.
I would pick which ever one you can find a coach for.
Looks okay but wouldn’t the order of the program make a difference?
Like why would you do AAB?!
How profficient is your technique? thats the number one issue and imo doing power Snatch and power lifts WILL NOT help you learn the full lifts properly, but this is just my take on it. People who learn the full lifts struggle to transition to the full lifts due to not having spend nearly enough time doing it. I would bin the power lifts, spend a basic 3months learning the lifts and do your PL stuff. Then you should get on to a proper routine.
If your technique is pretty reasonable I could see it working. They will compliment each other apart from the bench press. If you can get in to proper OHS then your fine to BP. If youc an’t your f0cked…
I honestly want to compete in both. Obviously I don’t expect to become “the best” at either but I find competing fun and motivates me more in the gym. In some ways I feel like it legitimizes my training more than anything because I tend to be very logic based person (although I know overall pushing your body to an extreme is illogical in many ways). I have training my technique in Oly Lifting for 4 months, I would say that I can do them relatively well but my Snatch has been stuck at about 90kg for awhile now and my Clean and Jerk hasn’t moved much over 120kg, Cleans I’ve done 140kg easily, I weigh about 90kg. My coach says that I’ve kind of reached the end of where my brute strength will get me and now I need to really work on getting faster.
In powerlifting I’ve gotten a 205kg Squat, 135kg Bench, and a 260kg Deadlift all raw no belt, at either 90kg or 100kg.
Just wanted to know what some people thought overall. My coach also says that Oly lifting will never decrease my powerlifts unless I never bench at all. But the opposite is definitely not true because the technique and motor patterns associated with the Oly Lifts need to be trained regularly because they are so specific. I guess the really question I need to answer for myself is if I’m willing to accept small gains in both or bigger gains in one right?
Thanks for the responses so far! Again, this is really more to see if anyone else has done it and to share experiences.
[quote]Louchuck wrote:
I honestly want to compete in both. Obviously I don’t expect to become “the best” at either but I find competing fun and motivates me more in the gym. In some ways I feel like it legitimizes my training more than anything because I tend to be very logic based person (although I know overall pushing your body to an extreme is illogical in many ways). I have training my technique in Oly Lifting for 4 months, I would say that I can do them relatively well but my Snatch has been stuck at about 90kg for awhile now and my Clean and Jerk hasn’t moved much over 120kg, Cleans I’ve done 140kg easily, I weigh about 90kg. My coach says that I’ve kind of reached the end of where my brute strength will get me and now I need to really work on getting faster.
In powerlifting I’ve gotten a 205kg Squat, 135kg Bench, and a 260kg Deadlift all raw no belt, at either 90kg or 100kg.
Just wanted to know what some people thought overall. My coach also says that Oly lifting will never decrease my powerlifts unless I never bench at all. But the opposite is definitely not true because the technique and motor patterns associated with the Oly Lifts need to be trained regularly because they are so specific. I guess the really question I need to answer for myself is if I’m willing to accept small gains in both or bigger gains in one right?
Thanks for the responses so far! Again, this is really more to see if anyone else has done it and to share experiences.[/quote]
Decent lifts.
Why not ask your coach what he thinks?! He would be the best mate!
Or just add Bench press and some DL in to your Oly routine? Sure your back squat won’t be maximised if you do it Oly style just squat 200+ Oly style instead
If you want to compete in both, compete in both. There’s no law against it. Over time you may find you prefer one or the other and focus on it. This is also fine.
Both sports have a lot to teach you. Enjoy yourself.
I talked to my coach and we are going to work on putting together something that will allow me to do both. I’ll let you know what it will be but we was thinking of doing 3 days powerlifting / 1-2 days Oly Lifting for 3 weeks, then 4th week do 3-4 days Oly Lifting / 1 day powerlifting. I’ll be going far heavier with the powerlifting so that 4th week of doing only Oly would almost be like a de-load week.
I will be very interested to see what you put together, so please make sure you update this thread!
I’m doing 3 days power/2 days oly right now. I’m curious how your coach would have you proceed when training for a meet.
The guys from the 50s did this quite well and had great transfer - from one to another - think Bill Starr. However, I have a couple of issues with it. One is that the powerlifts and o-lifting is pretty technique specific think of a sumo deadlift vs conventional deadlift vs cleaning the weight, powerlifting squat vs a oly squat. One might not think so though. Although it would make sense that power cleans or squat cleans would help support you when you are not deadlifting, I found that this was not the case. I set up completely different for deadlift than I do for cleaning the weight. This was a huge difference. Also, if I did not go to a certain weight lifted of my deadlift max I did find that my deadlift did decrease - albeit not by much.
My two cents if you want to compete in both: Pick out some meets at the beginning of the year. Train for the olympic meets in straight olympic fashion and the powerlifting meets in straight powerlifting fashion. The only cross you would have to be cognizant of is to work the bench a little for technique in olympic phase and work light technique in olympic phase. Good luck.
At this point I’m not finding any issues training for both sports, and I got a 10lb raw DL PR last night, so the set up for clean vs DL is not problematic right now. In a few weeks I’ll start training in gear to prep for our Nationals (CPU/IPF), then things will get interesting. I will probably have to cut out the oly lifting due to time constraints and the fact I’ll have to head to a different gym for 6 weeks prior to the meet for shirt work. I am surprised that the snatch work has not affected my bench, but I’m not going very heavy on either right now, so it remains to be seen if my bench suffers or not.
This could be a real interesting thread, it would be great to hear from anyone else training at the 2 sports.
I’m not sure how this is helpful but I believe that Mark “Big Sexy” Henry pulled a WR in the deadlift at the same time as his Oly training back in the 90’s. So it can be done, no I do not have his program unfortunately but as someone else said just bench and deadlift too.
@Dianab:
The snatch does not affect the bench. Problems may come up when after years of benching you try to Snatch or Jerk all of the sudden. (I had to lay off benching for a while because my shoulders/upper back where too tight when I started).
Neospartan, I just find personally that after doing a lot of snatches my shoulders get pretty tired and I end up feeling weaker on the bench. Perhaps this will get better in time, I just started oly lifting again last month after 2 years of only PL. I think some better scheduling will help.
I started powerlifting when I was 18, I’m 20 now. At a bodyweight of 63/64kg my pbs are 115kg/140kg/185kg raw. Over the past year and half I’ve being attempting to become a competent Olympic lifter, it’s been a slow process!
I made the mistake(as many do) of doing far too much benching during my early years in the gym. I only started squatting a month before I started powerlifting. Madness, I know!
So as a result my shoulders are in bad shape, specifically my left scap; and it’s really slowing my progress with the OLs. My pbs are an embarrassing 52.5kg/75kg.
But recently I’ve stopped benching completely, and I’m really starting to improve. Even though the left scap is improving very slowly, my shoulder flexibility as a whole has vastly improved. I haven’t tried maxing, as I’m doing quite a lot of technique work, but my first competition is the 20th of this month, and I’m expecting a big improvement.
Basically what I’m trying to say is, if you’re new too Olympic lifting, stop benching for a few months and get your shoulder flexibility sorted. Your bench shouldn’t suffer too much. The rest has a great carryover. Since I’ve started olympic lifting my only squat training is olympic lifting orientated, yet my squat in powerlifting meets has increased. I also only train the deadlift the week before a powerlifting meet, yet it has increased significantly also. This is likely down to increased leg strength, a stronger posterior chain, and greater explosive power, all a result of olympic lifting.
I fully intend on returning to benching when I’m happy with my shoulder flexibility. To quote IrishMarc, since what he says is straight forward, and he’s a fellow Irish man! -
[quote]IrishMarc wrote:
Just train oly lifting and bench.
Thanks for your 2 cents ilikegym, its great to hear other people’s experiences.
I hear you about shoulder issues, I tore my right, then left rotators in the past 2 years. Thanks to a great osteopath and a lot of mobility exercises, I’m better than I was before the incidents happened.
I had been having just your plain old muscle soreness but it seems to have resolved itself now that I’ve gotten used to the new schedule (I think anyways). I won’t stop benching for now because I have the Canadian Nationals coming up, but after that meet if I’m having any problems I may cut way back on the bench for a while. I actually would not be doing both right now, but my 15 year old daughter just got into OL and she likes her Mom around so she can show off.
dianab, when I transitioned from PL to OL, I tried in vain to keep my bench up. My shoulders just can’t handle snatches + jerks + barbell benching. Now, I only dumbbell bench once a week and my shoulders thank me for it. In all honesty, I don’t even miss BB benching at all.
