Last weekend I attended a course on Olympic Weight Lifting run by The UK Strength & Conditioning Association. My aim was to improve my own technique in The ‘Clean & Jerk’ and The ‘Snatch’ and to improve my own coaching skills of the movements so I can incorporate more of the lifts into the training programmes of my clients and athletes.
Now if you’re wondering what those lifts are, it is the weight lifting done at the Olympic Games. So you now may be asking why these lifts are beneficial to athletes and people in general. Well, these lifts have similar movement patterns to many sports. Therefore, they strengthen the athlete in movements that will help them to become stronger and faster in their sport.
As most sports require speed, Olympic Lifting is a great training modality. It helps to build strength, power and speed. Now you may remember from a previous post, it is essential to build optimal strength before moving on to power and speed training.
Olympic Lifting can also be used to increase muscle mass, flexibility, posture and endurance too by correct manipulation of load, tempo, rest, reps and sets of the exercises. So it can be used as a whole body training system. Stay tuned to find out how you can incorporate Olympic Lifts into your training programme to maximise your performance.