Olympic Weightlifting

**Uber$winG** · December 8, 2010

I know what some of you may be thinking when it comes to the idea of Olympic lifts… a hairy and husky Bulgarian guy (or girl) wearing a Soviet Block singlet, standing over a barbell loaded with multi-colored weights that are measured in kilograms. And that’s what I thought Olympic lifting was all about until about a year ago when I sought the counsel of a certified strength coach.

Olympic lifting develops strength, power, speed, balance, and flexibility.

The two lifts I perform are hanging cleans and hanging power snatches.

Olympic lifting is technical lifting, almost as technical as the golf swing in terms of the biomechanics involved, so seek out qualified instructors.

**newtogolf** · December 8, 2010

Olympic lifts are exactly what you state, they represent overall body strength and all the other items you mention. Problem is they aren't the glamorous lifts that the general public cares about (bench press and curl) so they get little air time on television or news coverage.

**saevel25** · December 8, 2010

From what i heard, one of the best exercise to do is the turkish get up.. Its pretty much a full body in one exercise. Not sure if Olympic Weightlifting is worth it. A guy i know blew out his ACL just doing a basic jump squat, he's pretty ripped, lifts weight constantly. I am not a fan of high impact exercising.

**Rugger** · December 8, 2010

Maybe not totally necessary for golf, but you're right, and olympic or compound lifts are THE BEST thing you can do for muscular and skeletal health if you are concerned with strength, speed and power. And no, you don't have to use huge weights, or get bulky. There are some sexy slender women who use olympic weight lifting. If you want more power and distance, do not ignore these lifts. I think deadlift and snatches would be the best for golf.

**Leftygolfer** · December 8, 2010

Its good stuff. I'm not sure what Clean you are referring too. I do the one where the weight starts on the ground as I was going to do a dead lift, then it goes into the millitary press position at the end. I don't do a ton of wieght but it really hits alot of different muscle groups.

I do squats and dead lifts quite a bit as well. I believe there no leg exercises compete with them. I've transformed my hams, glutes, and quads in 6 months doing those once a week along with lunges. I go heavy and lots of sets. Actually just got back from the gym. Did 8 working sets of squats and after that I did leg extensions and couldn't feel the contraction b/c my legs were so spent. I did standing and setted calf raises and that was it. I will be particularly sore tomorrow.

**SteelCitySlice** · December 8, 2010

From what i heard, one of the best exercise to do is the turkish get up.. Its pretty much a full body in one exercise. Not sure if Olympic Weightlifting is worth it. A guy i know blew out his ACL just doing a basic jump squat, he's pretty ripped, lifts weight constantly. I am not a fan of high impact exercising.

Turkish get-ups are fantastic. Great full body exercies...works basically every muscle in your body while demanding balance and body control. However, I don't agree with your assessment of Olympic lifts not being worth it. I tore my ACL and partially tore my MCL in both knees, each 1 year apart, playing high school soccer. My legs have been the weakest part of my body BY FAR ever since my reconstructive surgies. I recently started getting back into working out on a regular basis and have been doing a ton of olympic lifting (squat cleans, snatches, jerks, overhead squats, etc) and it has done wonders for my legs and my knees! It's unfortunate what happened to your friend, but if all he was doing was a basic jump squat, my guess would be there was an issue with his form (possibly knees in rather than tracking over his feet...not sure). And him being ripped and lifting weights wouldn't matter. Form is king in oly lifting...

**saevel25** · December 8, 2010

Well i know, after messing up any ligiment, they can't repaire themselves like muscles do, so you got to build up the muscle strength around them. My left ankle is shot, i had a high level ankle sprain in highschool, now i can still nearly have my ankle go 90 degrees sideways and it wont hurt much afterwards. But i do balance to work my muscles around my ankles, i have't sprained it again.

When i read up on Olympic Weighlifting, there so much weight and so much technique involved, it just seems something can go wrong quick. I am not discounting the beneifts of it.

**Leftygolfer** · December 9, 2010

I'd love to train with someone who was into those workouts and could help me. I've just never had the chance so I stick with the old dead lifts and squats.

**srjorion** · December 9, 2010

Crossfit incorporates a lot of olympic weightlifting into the various workouts. You don't have to throw a lot of weight onto a bar to get a good workout either. I'd venture to say that most people would get a great workout with just the bar their first few workouts. Of course doing the exercises safely is the first priority.

**newtogolf** · December 9, 2010

While not an olympic lift, many of the Kettlebell workouts incorporate similar exercises with many compound movements.

**Robato** · December 9, 2010

I totally recommend the squat and even the power clean for all golfers. The squat stimulates all the muscles of the legs. I saw a video of Vijay Singh doing squats, and you know he knows how to turn the clock back. Even one of the Remax champions stated that his main exercise is the deadlift and squat. I see the results too. I finished the Smolov routine, hell of a routine, and that just made my driver insanely long. I was outdriving the longdrive guys at the range with their extra long shafts and trampoline driver heads. One tip though: dont do half and quarter squats with more weight and think that it is more impressive. They can really be bad for the knees. I say squatting deep is the way.

**Leftygolfer** · December 10, 2010

I've been looking into this more online and I'm highly considering doing power cleans and maybe even some jerks. The jerks look difficult to learn of of youtube.

But the point of the post is I don't see how any other activity to could be better for getting longer. The "jump" in the golf swing is one of the biggest power moves in the golf swing and that is all the clean is about. If the jump is done correctly at the right time it adds more power than anything. It is the turbo charger of your move at the right time and what I believe is the biggest factor if you can hit it a long way or not.

**saevel25** · December 10, 2010

True on the jumping part, but muscles involved in jumping is the whole lower body, especially the quads, hamstrings, and gluts. Which are worked out with the olympic weightlifting. But i could easily say that just doing normal squats and other leg excersizes will have tremendous benefits for any golfer. Greg Norman was quoted saying he would walk up a hill near his home with the golf clubs on his back to work out. He was one the best drivers of the golf ball ever, maybe the best ever.

**Uber$winG** · December 10, 2010

I understand “heavy” is a relative concept, but I don’t go heavy with the cleans and snatches. I concentrate on form and the speed at which I perform the movement.

As Leftygolfer indicates, the jump move in the golf swing relates to the triple extension move in Olympic lifts.

Think about this too, these lifts are really developing fast twitch muscle fibers. That is to say, when you perform these lifts you are working on developing your muscles to fire in a fluid and fast manner.

**Leftygolfer** · December 10, 2010

Squats and dead lifts are different than these explosive moves. I squat every two weeks really heavy and tons of sets and my focus is on form and not speed. If anything, I like to do them as slowly as possible to really engage everything from my core all the way down to the floor. I'm also going heavy (for me, its only 225, the most I've ever squated was 255) and low reps. I've gotten great results and do see the stronger base as being very benifical in golf. But I'm going to incorporate cleans into my workouts as soon as my legs heal from Wednesday. Right now walking up stairs is super painful so I'm not pushing them right now.

Question: How much wieght should I be able to do? I straight leg dead lift 245, good deep squat 225. I've cleaned before but unaware of the proper form so maybe I did too much weight. I was thinking of around 100 pounds to start doing 3 sets of 10. I've watched a bunch of videos on you tube on form and I think I understand how not to hurt myself. Any advice for a novice cleaner?

**Uber$winG** · December 10, 2010

Question: How much wieght should I be able to do? I straight leg dead lift 245, good deep squat 225. I've cleaned before but unaware of the proper form so maybe I did too much weight. I was thinking of around 100 pounds to start doing 3 sets of 10. I've watched a bunch of videos on you tube on form and I think I understand how not to hurt myself. Any advice for a novice cleaner?

You may even be better served by going lighter (something like a 10lb plate on each side) until you really feel you have the technique down pat. Also, your sets are different in Olympic lifting – you would actually do the reverse of what you indicated, i.e., you would do 10 sets of 3 reps.

Let me clear up some misconceptions regarding different types of lifting exercises… Squats and dead-lifts are not Olympic lifts proper – they are essentially power lifts. Now Olympic style lifters may perform these lifts to strengthen their overall physique, but they are not Olympic lifts. Check this guy out…

**glbrum** · December 11, 2010

I wouldn't worry about how much weight you should be able to do right off the bat, especially with an intricate lift such as cleans or any other oly lift for that matter. I'd start with a dowel like the videos on this thread. It's better to hammer the technique with no weight then to jump in and risk an injury. If your ego's too big to practice with the dowel then use an empty bar, but I wouldn't put any weight on it

**Wiley** · December 11, 2010

I agree with a the previous two posts, really try and concentrate on learning the lift before really concentrating on weight. In-turn since you are not going to be using much weight you can perform the lifts more often than you think even daily. Learning this lift is more complex than people think. Look for some videos that teach the lift in pieces and explain the proper body mechanics. On the other hand it would be beneficial to find someone at your gym who knows these lifts. But all in all this is a great lift for overall dynamic strength.

To answer your question about weight I feel the clean becomes most effective, for building dynamic strength, when your clean is close to 1/2 of your deadlift.

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Olympic Weightlifting

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