Olympic Lifting

As a strength and conditioning coach, the Olympic lifts can be a really useful tool for developing whole-body power, strength and speed for an athlete. Whether you’re a rugby player, footballer, sprinter or distance runner - they are a brilliant addition to your training when coached and programmed effectively.

The main Olympic lifts are:
- Snatch (pictured below)
- Clean and Jerk
- Clean and Press

The lifts themselves are technically demanding and complex to perform but are worth the time and effort to include in your training - especially as a part of a power phase. If you’re an advanced lifter, incorporating some Olympic lifting as a new challenge will help improve your overall power, mobility and coordination but also serve as an accessory exercise to improve other big lifts (bench press, front squat, shoulder press).

For a beginner or intermediate gym user, Olympic lifting can be built up slowly using a lighter bar and coaching the separate phases with exercises such as the power clean, hang snatch and overhead squat until the athlete is more confident and technically able. These accessory exercises can also be useful in their own right to improve mobility, speed and power as part of any training programme.

To summarise, Olympic lifting can be a superb addition to many training settings if you:
- get coached
- start light
- build up slowly
- enjoy it!