I am an intermediate weightlifter who just turned 30. At this point in my life I am trying to enjoy training and take it as a hobby. Due to work commitments I will be living abroad for a year, away from my usual environment and gym, and also away from a coach that can write a program for me.
I have found a Crossfit gym near where I will live now (away from home), I have all the equipment that I need for the lifts. I would like to ask you for recommendations regarding olympic weightlifting programs (free or not free) in the internet or in books. Are there any programs that you would recommend? If you would like some guidelines, here they go:
Current level: 100 KG Snatch / 130 KG C&J @96 KG (Best is 120/150. I would like to work towards that again).
Training availability: 4-5 times a week, 1-2 hours per day
I am very efficient at my lifts, for example I can C&J 130 KG but my front squat max is around 140 KG. So working on my strength could also be a good goal for the next 12 months.
Anyway, any recommendations will be appreciated. I do not mind paying for a program or book if you think is good, I can also consider free programs as well. Just let me know what is your experience with these.
Looking at your lifts you have better technique than strength so I advise the Developmental Olympic Program by Thibaudeau. I finished it a few weeks ago. it’s only 10 weeks but it might give you a good view of what works or not for you. Warning: this is the most brutal thing I’ve ever done. But in 6 weeks, despite poor nutrition and sleep my high bar squat went from the hardest rep of my life at 140kgs to a double at 150 and my wheels got bigger
Thanks! I read through the document and it looks very promising! There is a good emphasis on strength which is what I was looking for. I will review it in detail, thanks for the contribution!
That’s the book most people buy almost immediately. I was given the 3rd edition as a gift and I think it’s a good resource, especially if you’re wanting some basic programming. It isn’t a 100% perfect plan, but no plan is perfect, and it will likely get you where you need to go.
If you want to go deeper on the programming side “The System” by Parker has some fantastic ideas on how to approach what I believe to be a genuine example of how professional weightlifting can be structured. It’s based off of the “Soviet” model (whatever that means). It’s complex, frustrating, time consuming and it might not work for you even though you work really hard for a long time, but that epitomizes weightlifting perfectly. You can kill yourself trying and make absolutely ZERO progress (you can actually get worse by trying too hard), but that’s a different story for a different time.
The thing to beware about this book is that it’s written by American football coaches so like anything related to football, you’re going to have to wade through a TON of bullshit and meaningless dogma. I’m American and I definitely don’t like football, and I tend to like the coaches even less. The book has a ton of “conditioning” (actually read: way too much running to ever be useful for anyone), sprinting drills, etc.
Again, all this bullshit is meaningless, overblown and unnecessary for 99% of the people who would probably buy this book, but the programming for weightlifting can be extremely valuable for anyone looking to program the lifts in an extremely organized manner.
Lastly, this one will be a long shot and I don’t know why I’m even listing it, but for the sake of being comprehensive. The “Old Soviet” manuals are available. These are the manuals that literally have “all the answers” for weightlifting found inside. I’m not kidding. The problem is they aren’t really organized in any logical manner and the manual I’m listing doesn’t actually have any full weightlifting “programs” in it. They also seem to be DIRECTLY translated from Russian, which makes for a tedious read sometimes.
It does have all the information on EXACTLY how many sets and reps you should do, how heavy you should go, when you should lift, how long your weekly/monthly cycles should last. How to structure short and long term training. Even how long to take between sets and how to incorporate plyometrics. They even go into great detail on the basics for different methods of training (maximal effort, dynamic effort, repetition method, etc).
The catch is, you have to gather this information piece by piece and organize it yourself. The EFFORT you have to put into this book to get anything out of it is enormous compared to the other books listed. You will be able to fill an entire notebook with notes from this text.
I will say that I’m completely obsessed with weightlifting, I have a master’s degree in human performance, I’ve been the author of an article published in the NSCA journal and I’ve won national championships coaching weightlifting (not intending to brag, just wanted to illustrate how much of my life is/has been/always will be weightlifting)… and I still had a tough time digesting this book. You need to KNOW weightlifting and more importantly you need to WANT TO KNOW weightlifting before you read this book. It has all the answers, if you can understand how to read it.