So, what is Olympic weightlifting? It is a sport where athletes compete in two lifts with the ultimate goal of picking up a barbell of weight off the floor and getting it over their head. The athlete competes in two lifts and their result is the combined total of their maximums in both lifts. The first lift is the clean & jerk in which the athlete picks the weight up off the floor and gets it over their head in two motions - first the clean and then the jerk. The second lift is the snatch in which the athlete picks the weight up off the floor and gets it over their head in one motion. The name Olympic weightlifting comes from the fact that the sport is an Olympic event and distinguishes it as the sport apart from resistance training for health or aesthetics, powerlifting and strongman competitions.
Olympic weightlifting is especially popular in eastern European nations (Russia, Bulgaria, etc.) and has gained popularity in North America more recently thanks to crossfit. Crossfit is a training system that uses variations of the Olympic lifts as part of its very intense workouts. It has become very popular among those interested in fitness and is how I was introduced to Olympic lifting. I did an introductory crossfit trial and my favourite part was the strength lifting, which involved learning variations of the Olympic lifts before the actual crossfit workout. I have never had a great fitness capacity for endurance activities and with the intensity of crossfit workouts and my pretty weak fitness capacity, I decided to get involved with Olympic lifting.
I'm still very new to Olympic lifting and the thing that has surprised me most is how technical it is. It is a strength sport but you don't pick up and lift any significant amount of weight above your head and not injure yourself without using proper technique. My undergrad degree is in kinesiology so I'm familiar with biomechanics, which is basically the physics of the human body, and that has helped immensely in understanding the technical points. My biggest weakness is that I have very poor flexibility so without proper range of motion some of the positions are difficult for me to achieve.
Up until July, 2016 I had maxed out at 195 lbs in the clean & jerk and 135 lbs in the snatch. At that point I had surgery and took some time off. I attempted to get back into it after 4 weeks and things were going slow for about 2 weeks before I decided that I'd probably come back too early and needed some more time off. So, I took another 3 weeks off and have been lifting consistently again since September 1, 2016 largely without issue. I'd been getting back pretty gradually just trying to build back a strength base when the Genius Hour project was assigned. At that point I attempted maximums in each lift and was able to (eventually) complete a snatch of 135 lbs and a clean & jerk of 165 lbs. I thought it would be a good idea to use the time frame established for the Genius Hour project towards a focused effort to get back to or try and set new maximums.
To attempt this I will be using a 12 week program available online from Oleksiy Torokhtiy here courtesy of All Things Gym. Oleksiy Torokhtiy is a Ukranian weightlifter and won gold at the 2012 Olympics in the 105 kg weight class. I have never used this program before.
I will not be attempting maximums again up until the end. The style of training uses sub-maximum weights which includes technique focused days and strength focused days. Obviously I won't get through the entire 12 week program since the project is due in 4 weeks but I will report periodically to reflect on how things are going.
In the meantime, this a pretty cool youtube video of Soviet weightlifting champions from the days when the Soviet Union pretty much owned the Olympics in weightlifting.
In the meantime, this a pretty cool youtube video of Soviet weightlifting champions from the days when the Soviet Union pretty much owned the Olympics in weightlifting.
