Olympic Weightlifting - Part 1: Movement, Alternatives and Application

Recently, a fitness professional posed a couple of fairly common questions that deserve a thorough answer. They asked:

1. "Do you think Olympic weight lifting should only be done by serious amateur and professional athletes?”
2. “Are there safe alternatives to Olympic lifting that are as effective?"

The simple answers to the questions are, no and yes, respectively. However, these answers are only opinion and regardless of someone’s experience or professed level of knowledge, there is no real way to quantify these answers or opposing answers, for that matter. What can be done, though, is to present some information relevant to Olympic lifting and the human body and let you draw your own conclusion. To quickly clarify what is meant by the term Olympic weightlifting, this article will refer to the lifts known as the “Snatch” and the “Clean and Jerk” that are usually performed at a high-intended velocity of contraction (as fast as possible). Other derivations of these lifts such as the hang snatch and hang clean and/or the push jerk or push press may also be included.

The remainder of this article will be divided into three parts dedicated to expanding on the answers given. We will start here in Part 1 with a brief history of Olympic weightlifting and then begin to address the first question, “ Do you think Olympic weight lifting should only be done by serious amateur and professional athletes? ” Here, we’ll explore the rationale for the answer and discuss human movement science as it relates to Olympic weightlifting.

Part 2 of this series will explore the flexibility and stabilization requirements necessary for proper biomechanical execution of the Olympic lifts noted. Then in Part 3, we’ll address the second question, “ Are there safer alternatives to Olympic lifting that are as effective? ” Here, we’ll explore some alternative training methods that are used in the health and fitness industry and discuss some programming strategies for using Olympic weightlifting with personal training clients.

Brief History

The sport of weightlifting stemmed more directly from the “strongman” or strength era of the late 19th and early 20th century. This era included men like Milo Steinborn, Charles Atlas and Louis Cyr, a 19th century professional strongman, who lifted weighted barbells weighing up to 273 pounds (which were said to be handled with ease) using the overhead "side press" style. ¹

Weightlifting (dumbbell and barbell lifts) was actually part of gymnastic routines in the modern revival of the Olympics in 1896 and again in 1904. The sport was discontinued until 1920 when it was revived using three different barbell lifts. A five-lift format was used in 1924, with the classic three lift format consisting of the press, snatch and clean-and-jerk being introduced in 1928. This format was sustained through the Munich games in 1972, after which the current two lift format consisting of the snatch and clean-and-jerk became standard. ^{1, 2}

With this being said, Olympic weightlifting is a highly skilled sport that evolved from the obsession of demonstrating strength by lifting heavy objects. It is important to note, that Olympic weightlifting is a sport, defined here as a specific physical endeavor bound by its own rules and agenda. In so being a sport, as is the case with any other sport, the objective is to win. In this case, winning is dictated by lifting the most weight, period. No style points and no points for technique. This is no different than a touchdown pass in American Football. It doesn’t matter how pretty the pass is, if it goes for a touchdown, it’s still counts for six points. This will become important when we begin to talk about Olympic lifting as repetitive human movement used for training and conditioning.

Is Olympic Weightlifting Only for Pros and Serious Amateurs?

ANSWER: No.

Rationale

When looking at Olympic weightlifting, we must remember that it is simply skilled human movement – no different than ice-skating, rock climbing or jump-roping. Would we say that only serious athletes should perform these other sports mentioned? Probably not. So what is the difference between these sports and Olympic weightlifting? Anecdotally, it may be the fact that most people perceive Olympic weightlifting to be what they see on television or in magazines, men and women lifting extremely heavy weights that seem at times to distort their physical bodies. But, this is the elite side of the sport of Olympic weightlifting, not an everyday training routine for the typical person.

Olympic weightlifting is also a great form of total body resistance training, which has been shown on numerous accounts to have a substantial affect on overall health and well being. ^3,4,5 Furthermore, regardless of the load lifted, these movements require high levels of the energy, flexibility, stabilization, strength and coordination. Don’t get caught up in the sport you see on television, think of the actual movements themselves.

So, if Olympic weightlifting is simply skilled human movement that provides tremendous health and fitness benefits, then in reality, anyone can do it. Where issues arise are when we look at who is teaching and/or recommending this skilled movement to a client, what their level of knowledge is concerning Human Movement Science (Functional Anatomy, Functional Biomechanics and Motor Behavior), what is the flexibility and stabilization status of the client and what programming progression is used to prepare the client for this style of training. Let’s spend some time now to review some fundamental Human Movement Science so we can gain a deeper insight into the importance of flexibility, stabilization and program progression as they relate to Olympic weightlifting (or any human movement).

Human Movement Science

Unfortunately, many individuals do not understand that the human body is a linked system of muscles and joints ultimately controlled by the nervous system (Kinetic Chain). In order to move, we must create motion in our joints. The muscles associated with each joint are activated by the nervous system to achieve this. Therefore, muscles, connective tissue, joints and nervous tissues all work together and impact one another. So, whatever happens at one joint will directly affect the other associated joints and cause a chain reaction. Being able to maximize the synchrony of the kinetic chain (muscles, joint and nervous activation) is how we produce coordinated efficient motion. ^6,7,8

Looking at Functional Anatomy and Biomechanics, it is known that muscles and joints move in all three planes of motion during movement. ^7,8,9,10,11 For example, when the lower extremities “flex” and “extend” as seen during squatting for both the clean and jerk and the snatch, the ankle complex, knee, hip and shoulder must provide motion in the sagittal, frontal and transverse planes simultaneously. This is also known as lower extremity pronation (flexing) and supination (extending) ^7,8,11 shown in Table 1 and 2 below.

The importance of this information is that each joint must get the right amount of movement at the right time in ALL planes of motion to produce coordinated efficient movements. This is how the muscles, joints and nerves (Kinetic Chain) work intimately together. If muscles are not optimally working due to alterations in their resting lengths (length-tension relationships), the nervous system will not recruit them properly. ^12,13,14 When this occurs, the joints will not move properly and altered movement will occur placing increased stress on the kinetic chain. ^6,7,8 Ultimately, this leads to injury, regardless of whether you’re talking about Olympic weightlifting or walking. Thus to produce optimum human movement, the kinetic chain must have proper flexibility of the muscles and soft tissues to create and allow optimal joint motion as well as optimum levels of stabilization strength to maintain proper joint alignment.

The concepts of flexibility and stabilization will each be discussed in Part 2 specifically as they relate to the joint motions necessary for the proper biomechanical execution of the Olympic lifts.

References

1. [Anonymous]. York Barbell Company hall of fame and museum. http://www.yorkbarbell.com/hallfame/hall09.html
2. Fleck S.J., and W.J. Kraemer. Designing Resistance Training Programs (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1997.
3. Pearson D, Faigenbaum A, Conley M, Kraemer WJ. The NSCA Basic Guidelines for the Resistance Training of Athletes. Strength Cond J 2000; 22(4):14-27.
4. Mayo JJ, Kravitz L. A review of the cardiovascular responses to resistance exercise of healthy young and older adults. J Strength Cond Res 1999;13(1):90-6.
5. Stone MH, Fleck SJ, Kraemer WJ: Health and performance related adaptations to resistive training. Sports Med 1991;11:210-231.
6. Panjabi MM: The stabilizing system of the spine. Part 1. Function, dysfunction, adaptation, and enhancement. J Spinal Disord 1992; 5:383-9.
7. Clark MA. Integrated training for the new millennium. Thousand Oaks, CA: National Academy of Sports Medicine; 2001.
8. Clark MA, Corn RJ. Optimum performance training™ for the fitness professional. Thousand Oaks, CA: National Academy of Sports Medicine; 2001.
9. Nordin M, Frankle VH. Biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system. 3rd edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2001.
10. Neumann DA. Kinesiology of the musculoskeletal system. Foundations for physical rehabilitation. St. Louis, MI: Mosby, Inc.; 2002.
11. Gray GW: Chain Reaction Festival. Wynn Marketing. Adrian, MI 1996.
12. Sarhmann S: Posture and muscle imbalance: Faulty lumbo-pelvic alignment and associated musculoskeletal pain syndromes: Orthop Div Rev-Can Phys Ther 1992; 12:13-20.
13. Edgerton VR, Wolf S, Roy RR: Theoretical basis for patterning EMG amplitudes to assess muscle dysfunction. Med Sci Sports Exerc 1996; 28(6):744-751.
14. Janda V: Muscle Function Testing. London: Butterworth, 1983.