Olympic Weightlifting has massive transfer to sports performance. Force production, limb alignment, triple extension, rapid flexion, stability… The list goes on! One issue you may have discovered yourself, it’s really technical. If you are a complete beginner or relatively new to olympic weightlifting, check out these 6 tips to improve your performance.

 

Improving Your Olympic Lifting

  1. Get a coach, or a training partner who knows what they are on about. If in doubt, video yourself and send it through to a coach or training partner with coaching experience. Without an experienced eye, your progress can be severely limited.
  2. Watch & learn. There is masses of content available online, however, where do you start? A couple of good resources to mention are;
    1. All things gym – take it all in.
    2. Catalyst Athletics – great basic programmes and routines to follow.
    3. Mike Burgener – Learn from the best.
  3. Practice your positions, so you have an idea of the movement but it doesn’t feel right. Break down the movement and hold each option for a minimum of 3 seconds. You should be able to hold these positions comfortably, even under tension. If you cannot hold an empty bar solidly over head, you probably shouldn’t be snatching.
  4. Improve your mobility. Olympic lifting requires rapid expressions of force through a large range of motion. Take an extra 10 minutes in your warm up to actively spend time working on your mobility. You may find problem areas around your hips and thoracic spine.
  5. Do your accessory work. You may have chosen to olympic weightlifting because of functionality. You may have moved away from isolation exercises (single limb/muscle group) in order to improve sports performance. However, imbalances can effect how well you can perform your high skill movements. Use isolation accessory work to fix your weaknesses.
  6.  Don’t get ahead of yourself. Take your time and trust the process. Making sure you do the small things well, will mean faster progression. Simple things, done well.

 

Final Note

If you are interested in Olympic Lifting our Elite Personal Training Staff in Twickenham, London, are more than willing to help you learn and improve. We can help identify your weaknesses and break the movements down in order to provide suitable and attainable exercises to help you improve.

Toby Williamson