I’m posting to figure out which would build more explosive power, Oly lifts or powerlifts. I played O and D line in highschool, and my coach had us do alot of heavy/ass to grass squating, benchpress and power cleans. Since I am training to go to OCS with the Marines I have not lifted heavy in the past 2 years, mostly body weight movements and over head presses and cleans.
I was wondering how much explosiveness I could gain from doing more heavy powerlifts or trying to work on olympic lifts.
How about this…
mix BOTH of them.
Do Deadlifts, ATG Back/Front/Overhead Squats, Cleans, Snatches, Bench, and overhead press.
And still do your body weight stuff like pullups, dips, etc.
I see no need to “exclude” one or the other. The only thing u don’t need to do is box squats, as u can squat ATG (I assume).
Hell, I still do deadlifts, pullups, and will be benching once my upperback flexibility is where I want it to be. And train to compete in OL.
They both are great for building the ability to do that sport, and can be used to target specific things. No holy grail of explosive power in either one, but if you are going to OCS you need strength endurance way more than explosive or limit strength.
You would be better of doing some running, pullups, dips, and if youw ant low volume squats. Do your Oly lifts in a compressed time, say 8-12 doubles or triples in the power clean or full clean in 12 minutes.
You also do not want to go there too lean, because you will get skinny while you are there.
Good luck
Oly lifts by nature are more explosive than powerlifts, so I suggest you center your strength training around that (or more specifically, their power variations). Still do your squat and bench (raw strength is still important), but avoid deadlifts since the oly lifting is already hard on your back.
Jackreape is right, though. You also need strength endurance, so a good bout of EDT or HIIT would do you good.
unless you’re specifically an olifter or a powerlifter you should do both.
The one thing is, mixing both helps a lot. Get really good at front squats since they are a great tool to help in getting low. Also, don’t lift slow. Be explosive in every movement, but still retain good form. If you are explosive, it creates fast twitch fibers. And last but not least, do some cardio that invovles sled pulling or more importantly, car pushing. That will get you stronger and involve more fat loss, along with a sprint program.
Yeah people will always have different opinions. As others have said train both, they both bring quality and unique aspects to the table.
Do both, but you may want to spend more time with powerlifting because the lifts are less technical.
check out wetstside-barbell.com It basically takes your basic lifts, Bench, Squat, Row, Deadlift, etc. And you work them heavy (ME days), and you work them fast, (DE days). You’ll develop tons of power.
O-lifts definately have their place in every program, but they’ll take time to master, but you should still do them.
My advice here…listen to Jack.
thanks for the advice. and on the topic of OCS, do you know a good benchmark bodyfat% to shoot for in order to account for the drop in weight while there?
Do both.
[quote]Therizza wrote:
thanks for the advice. and on the topic of OCS, do you know a good benchmark bodyfat% to shoot for in order to account for the drop in weight while there? [/quote]
Don’t fret over the bodyfat%. It’s a silly number and it won’t matter if you ARE FIT and CAN DO the physical tasks they set for you.
[quote]dankid wrote:
Do both, but you may want to spend more time with powerlifting because the lifts are less technical.
check out wetstside-barbell.com It basically takes your basic lifts, Bench, Squat, Row, Deadlift, etc. And you work them heavy (ME days), and you work them fast, (DE days). You’ll develop tons of power.
O-lifts definately have their place in every program, but they’ll take time to master, but you should still do them.[/quote]
I disagree. I would say if you want to do both styles of lifting you should be able to:
jerk 1x a week
clean 1x a week
snatch 1x a week
bench heavy 1x a week
de/re bench 1x
Plifting squat 1x
deadlift at descretion
which IMO is pretty balanced. If anything learn towards oly lifting because they are more technical and you need to learn how to do them.
We’re sliding off track here, as has been said you’re primary goal should be strength endurance, so you won’t be training like a powerlifter or an olympic lifter. The balance of your training should be spent on calisthenics like dips, pushups, pull ups and chins, you will also want to be concentrating on improving your running (you’ll be doing alot of that where you’re headed).
As Jack said…
“You would be better of doing some running, pullups, dips, and if youw ant low volume squats. Do your Oly lifts in a compressed time, say 8-12 doubles or triples in the power clean or full clean in 12 minutes.”
If you decide to do squats stick too something moderatly heavy and low volume, ex. 5x5 with 70% or 3x3 with ~80%. Oly lifts can be for time with most of the focus on form, so weight should be kept at a minimum…its easy to lose your technique when you’re on the watch.
I think he was asking about explosiveness.
IMO if your gonna do olifts, you should do them with a high frequency. Thats what it takes to get good at them.