I’ve been doing olympic style lifting the past few weeks and I llove it. What I’ve noticed, however, is a straining of the shoulders. Mostly snatches and pulls, after heavy sets I can feel it a lot in my shoulders. My only qestion is: Am I doing this incorrect or will the pain subside as I get used to the lifting more?
What kind of pain are you having? It is from the shoulders being stretched too much? Or from effort of holding the bar? When you do snatches remember that you need flexible shoulders so that the bar sits back in the right position, that way you won’t have to worry about your shoulders fatiguing while holding the bar overhead.
Imagine how much more your shoulders would have to work to hold the position during a shoulder press if you were holding the bar a few inches ahead of you, instead of pressing straight up. You don’t want to have to do this. During your snatches or jerks.
Another thing is you might be muscling the weight up too much. Your arms should be straight during the initial leg drive, and should not be adding any force to the bar as it comes up.
Do a search on Overhead Squatting. There has recently been a couple of threads where the members have addressed how to properly execute an Overhead Squat. The same should be applied to snatch.
You might also not be upright enough in the full snatch-squat position. If you aren’t your arms will be WAY behind your head instead of just in line with your ears. Watch out for that.
Thanks for the advice so far. The pain is like a dull ache in my shoulders after the set is complete, it’s not excruciating just annoying. I need to start working on the overhead squats, too, that’s a good point.