Russian Glossary for Weightlifting

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
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Gentle readers,

Some of you have asked me for a glossary of Russian terms for olympic weightlifting. Below is one that I put together off the top of my head. I don’t have my Russian language materials with me, but if I left something out or you have a question, I’ll try to give an answer.

I also threw in some terms related to weight training and the iron game in general.

I am using the Library of Congress system for transliteration (see http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/lc.html for a guide to pronunciation).

Tiazhelaia atletika - literally ‘heavy athletics’. This is the official word for the sport of weightlifting. Several decades ago, it was also used to refer collectively to masculine sports like wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling, boxing, sambo, etc. in addition to weightlifting. Today, however, it is pretty much reserved for weightlifting proper. The term ‘legkaia atletika’ (i.e. light athletics) means Track and Field.

Shtanga - This is the colloquial word for the sport of weightlifting. It also means a bar loaded with plates.

Dvoebor’e - Literally, ‘two struggles’. This term is used occasionally for weightlifting, and refers to the two lifts, the snatch and clean and jerk.

Silovoe troebor’e - Literally, ‘three power struggles’. Means the sport of powerlifting (squat, bench press, deadlift). When speaking, though, Russians just say ‘pauerlifting’.

Shtangist - Weightlifter (i.e. an Olympic style weightlifter only).

Tiazhelyi atlet - A more formal, and rarely used, word for weightlifter.

Grif - A naked barbell. For a bar with weights, see shtanga above.

Pomost - Platform.

Remen’ / poias - Belt.

Liamki - Straps.

Blini - Plates.(literally, ‘pancakes’).

Shtangetki - Weightlifting shoes.

Trenazher - Any machine or apparatus used for weight training.

Zal shtangi - A gym equipped for weightlifting. Literally, ‘hall of weightlifting’.

Trenazhernyi zal - A gym equipped with weight training equipment.

Pauerlifter - Powerlifter.

Kul?turizm - Bodybuilding.

Kul’turist - A formal term for ‘bodybuilder’.

Kachok - Colloquial for ‘Iron pumper’.

Kachat’sia - To pump iron.

Kachalka - A small room, often underground in a basement, used to weight train or ‘pump iron’.

Kachkovyi zal - A gym for pumping iron and general weight training.

Rvat’ - To snatch

Ryvok - The snatch. Can also be called ryvok klassichesskii (classic snatch) to distinguish it from variations.

Ryvok s visa - Snatch from the hang.

Ryvok s plinta - Snatch from the blocks

Ryvok s polupodsedom - Power clean. Literally, ‘snatch with a half squat.’

Tolchok - The jerk.

Tolknut’ - To jerk

Vziat’/Brat’ na grud’ - To clean. Literally, ‘to lift to the chest.’

Pod’em (vziatie) na grud’ - The clean. Literally, ‘the lift to the chest.’

Pod’em na grud’ s visa - Clean from the hang.

Pod’em na grud’ s plinta - Clean from the blocks.

Pod’em na grud’ s polupodsedom - Power clean.

Podryv - ‘Explosion,’ refers to the second pull.

Sed, podsed - Stance in the squat position. ‘Polnyi sed’ refers to a lift done with a full squat. Polupodsed refers to a half squat.

Zhim - The press. To be more specific, sometimes ‘zhim stoia’, standing press, is used.

Zhim lezha - Bench press. Literally, ‘the lying press’.

Shvung - Push press.

Prisedanie - Squat

Prisedanie so shtangoi na spine / na plechakh - Backsquat. Literally, ‘squat with the barbell on the back’ or ‘on the shoulders’.

Prisedanie so sthangoi na grude - Front squat. Literally, ‘squat with the barbell on the chest’.

Prisedanie v ‘nozhnitsy’ - Squatting in scissors style, i.e. lunges.

Tiaga - Pull.

Tiaga s uzkim khvatom - Clean pull. Literally, pull with a narrow grip.

Tiaga so shirokim khvatom - Snatch pull. Literally, pull with a wide grip.

Tiaga so srednym khvatom - Literally, pull with a medium grip, i.e. between a clean and snatch grip.

Podkhod - Set, or attempt.

Povtorenie - Repetition.

Naklony cherez kozla - Hyperextensions. The word kozel means goat, but here means the hypertextension apparatus.

Naklony stoia so shtangoi na spine - Good-mornings.

Prizhki so shtangoi na spine - Jump squats.

Zabaranit’ - To bomb out, miss all attempts in competition. From the word, ‘baranka’, which is similar to a thin bagel with a huge hole, thus resembling a big ol’ zero.

Podtiagivanie - Pull-ups

Podtiagivatsia - To do pull-ups.

Otzhimanie - Push-ups.

Otzhimat’sia - To do push-ups.

Banki - Slang for biceps. Literally, ‘cans’ or ‘jars’.

Krylia - Slang for lats. Literally, ‘wings’.

Russian-language weightlifting websites to check out:

http://www.shtanga.kcn.ru/index.htm
http://www.wsport.narod.ru

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thanks, i really appreciate that.

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Spasiba, tavarish Ajax.

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These could have come in Handy when I met Igor Shestakov. The world record holder for squat at the 80kg weight class spoke no English then.

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[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
Spasiba, tavarish Ajax.[/quote]

Ne za chto, drug moi!

Here are a few more terms that occurred to me today:

Silach - Strongman (as in any big, strong guy, not necessarily a strongman competitor).

Gantel’ - Dumbbell.

Giria - Kettlebells.

Girevik - One who trains or competes with kettlebells.

Girevoi sport - The competitive sport of kettlebells.

Here is one o-lifting exercise/movement for which I do not know the English. It is called “ryvok v protiazhke,” or simply “protiazhka.” A rough translation might be something like “stretch snatch” or “snatch in the stretch.”

To do it, you execute a snatch, but with no second bend. You lift the bar in one smooth motion past your legs, waist and catch it over head with outstretched arms with no squat whatsoever and ideally with no pressout of any sort. Needless to say, the weight you can use is much less than that in a snatch or even power snatch.

Russian shtangisty (and probably others) use it to warm up, to test their strength without subjecting their nervous system the full effects of a classic lift in the tapering period just days before a competition, in cases when injury makes a snatch or power snatch impossible or unwise, and finally just for some variation from time to time.

I don’t think I have come across a description of this movement in English. It is fairly intuitive and easy to perform. There must be a name for it in English.

Does anyone know it?

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[quote]Ajax wrote:
Here is one o-lifting exercise/movement for which I do not know the English. It is called “ryvok v protiazhke,” or simply “protiazhka.” A rough translation might be something like “stretch snatch” or “snatch in the stretch.”

To do it, you execute a snatch, but with no second bend. You lift the bar in one smooth motion past your legs, waist and catch it over head with outstretched arms with no squat whatsoever and ideally with no pressout of any sort. Needless to say, the weight you can use is much less than that in a snatch or even power snatch.

…

I don’t think I have come across a description of this movement in English. It is fairly intuitive and easy to perform. There must be a name for it in English.

Does anyone know it?[/quote]

That sounds a LOT like the description I have read for the “muscle snatch”, although I can’t remember if the muscle snatch calls for rebending the knees. Not that I know how to do the lift properly or have seen pics or videos of execution, but the paper descriptions read the same.

Nick

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[quote]The_Incubator wrote:
Ajax wrote:
Here is one o-lifting exercise/movement for which I do not know the English. It is called “ryvok v protiazhke,” or simply “protiazhka.” A rough translation might be something like “stretch snatch” or “snatch in the stretch.”

To do it, you execute a snatch, but with no second bend. You lift the bar in one smooth motion past your legs, waist and catch it over head with outstretched arms with no squat whatsoever and ideally with no pressout of any sort. Needless to say, the weight you can use is much less than that in a snatch or even power snatch.

…

I don’t think I have come across a description of this movement in English. It is fairly intuitive and easy to perform. There must be a name for it in English.

Does anyone know it?

That sounds a LOT like the description I have read for the “muscle snatch”, although I can’t remember if the muscle snatch calls for rebending the knees. Not that I know how to do the lift properly or have seen pics or videos of execution, but the paper descriptions read the same.

Nick[/quote]

I agree that the muscle snatch would be the closest, although the way I heard the muscle snatch described it involved a press out, so I guess it depends on what you call a “muscle snatch.”

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If you guys start calling each other Comrade I’ll hunt you down and beat you with my clubbell :wink:

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“Muscle Snatch” does ring a bell… thanks!

If I recall correctly, Art Drechsler uses that term in his Encyclopedia of Weightlifting. That is about the most comprehensive text on o-lifting, so it should be in there somewhere.

As to pressing out on the muscle snatch or whatever it is called, there’s nothing wrong with pressing out per se, since its not a competition lift. Obviously, though, if you are doing it to warm-up, or just to test your strength before a competition, you don’t want to expend energy pressing out.