PAS' PROGRAMMING FOR WEIGHTLIFTING

Programming For Weightlifting (Part 1)

Posted by Alex G

Programming for Weightlifting is not difficult (at the very basic level). There are only two movements you have to practice. The Snatch and the Clean + Jerk. Everything else is an assistance to help improve those lifts. As mentioned in the previous post, you want to Snatch before you Clean and Jerk. The reason being that the Snatch is faster and technically more difficult to complete than the Clean and Jerk and also requires the lifter to move faster over a larger distance. So you want to fresh be for this. The weight used in the snatch will generally also be lesser than in the Clean + Jerk and any later exercises. If you were to Clean very heavily first, you would be fatiguing your body when it comes time to Snatch, making it difficult to hold good technique throughout the lift.

After the Snatch is complete you will normally move onto Clean + Jerk. The Snatch having warmed your body up for movements with lighter weight, you won't be cold going into heavy lifts. Sometimes the lift will be separated into Cleans or Jerks isolated from the other half of the movement, depending on which area requires more work, or just to reduce effort on the lifter (Most people can Clean more than they can Jerk, so it may be that you Clean very heavily one day, but if you were to only Clean to a Jerkable amount, you would be limiting your Clean progress).

After the two competition lifts have been completed, you can move onto assistance exercises. These generally consist of Squats, Front Squats and variations of the two main lifts. And then once these have been completed, the less 'functional' exercises can be completed. Things like Rows, Bench Press, Chinups, exercises that don't have much direct transfer to the two lifts, but will give the person greater overall strength and/or size. Depending on their goals.

So using these concepts, we can assume that a very basic layout for an average day would look like:

Snatch
Clean and Jerk
Squat
Pull

And a person who chose to stick with just that routine multiple times a week would have a very successful routine. There is no need for anything fancy like supersets, drop sets etc. You won't find bodypart days in a weightlifters routine either. They do not train their body, they train the two lifts they need to, and their body is just the tool they use to complete those lifts and as such needs modifying in specific ways.


Programming for Weightlifting (Part 2 - How Often Should I Train?)

Posted by Alex G

The simple answer is 'as often as you can'. If you look at all the most successful Weightlifters, you'll notice they all have one thing in common, they train a lot. The more often you do something, anything, the better your body will be  adapted to performing that task efficiently and effectively. Somebody who lifts once a week has almost 7 days for his body to forget the movement patterns he spent a few hours learning one day. A person who lifts 3 days a week only has a day or two between each session to forget, a person who trains every day has almost no time to distance themselves from the movement, and a person who trains multiple times a day? Well you can work it out.

Now, for a beginner, or somebody who plans on having a life outside of lifting weights; training 12-14 times a week is a little excessive and difficult. However it is a good target to aim for and to keep in mind when you think you're training too frequently.

3x a week is the absolute minimum you should be training the Snatch/Clean and Jerk. And at that low a frequency, pretty much every session will need to be with maximal or near maximal weights, or very high volume (lots of setsxreps). Now, if you add in sessions on the days between those Maximal days, you can play with the loading of weight a bit more.
Different types of training

There are basically 4 different ways to train the Snatch and Clean + Jerk

Maximal Loading - Mimicking the overall goal of the lifts, to lift as much weight as possible and increase strength in the lifts

Repetitions - Increasing your stamina and ability to routinely perform lifts with proper technique

Technique - Hitting the correct positions and technique without worrying about weight

Speed - Increasing your ability to move quickly in certain patterns

Maximal Loading

Quite simply, this is lifting as much weight as you can lift successfully and it will fulfill the bulk of your training. As a weightlifter your goal is to lift weights, and the best way to train this skill is to lift weights. This loading is not always training to your absolute limit. It may be 5-10kg off your best, or it may be the maximum amount you can lift for a set of 2 repetitions. But the emphasis is on loading the bar with enough weight that you are approaching your physical limit. Of course, if the weight is SO great that your technique is falling apart then you need to take weight off the bar again, because you are no longer training the correct movements with heavy weight,  you are training improper movements in ways that you cannot hope to reproduce effectively every time.


Repetitions

Repetitions/Reps/Rep Work is quite familiar to anybody used to lifting weights, especially those inclined to do so for the purposes of body building. Strength sports, and weightlifting in particular generally avoid higher rep ranges however, as the weight required to perform those repetitions is not normally of a significant enough weight to actually have any benefit to getting stronger. As such, anything over 3 reps for the competition lifts is generally considered to be quite high rep work.
That's not to say that higher repetitions have no place in training however. As mentioned, Bodybuilders use higher rep ranges to stimulate muscle growth. And if a Weightlifter is looking to gain weight in 'sensible' areas for weightlifting, then rep work can be used to induce hypertrophy.

Rep work also increases your cardio vascular stamina in a way that is specific to weightlifting. It won't do much to improve your stamina in each single lift, because the lifts are so fast that there is no real reason to increase that ability. However it can allow the lifter to be less exhausted/out of breath after each lift. Which can be quite useful when going for heavier attempts, it's difficult to concentrate on snatching correctly when you can't breathe properly yet.

They will also strengthen your tendons and connective tissue, which can be just as important in weightlifting as the muscles themselves. The Elbows, Wrists and Knees which take most of the loading in this sport are not huge robust joints, so strengthening them is a very sensible idea.

Your ability to keep good form after multiple reps is useful as well, for much the same reason that the stamina issue can effect following lifts, being able to comfortable repeat the correct technique is essential.

Also higher rep sets tend to lead to fatigue during the set, causing you to slow down and become less precise. This, combined with the lighter weights you're forced to use in a higher rep set, can encourage poor technique, ingraining bad habits.- PAS
Technique

This is a bit of a strange name for this type of training. As every lift should be performed with the attempt at perfect technique. However that can be difficult when there is the factor of large amounts of weight fighting back against you as you attempt to do things properly. So dedicating a session to purely hitting the correct positions and getting the correct feel for the movements can be very useful. Now, the amount of weight actually used in these technique sessions can vary quite wildly depending on the purpose. If you have a problem keeping your back tight when pulling from the floor, you don't want to use so much weight that your back cannot handle it. But you also do not want to use so little a weight that there is no resistance whatsoever. Otherwise you are just training your back to keep straight against no resistance, which is no good when it comes to actually lifting the weights. Generally the weight used should be enough that you feel comfortable and are hitting the correct positions, but light enough that the resistance is not too great for you to hold these positions. It may be best to start light and slowly work your way to the point that you feel your technique is faltering, and then either reduce the weight and perform more repetitions, or stick at that weight and concentrate on holding perfect technique for that 1 rep, and do that for multiple sets. I would be inclined to drop down and slowly work back up to around the point that you feel your limit was.

Speed

This is quite simple really. The goal of these sessions is to perform the movements with as much speed as you can manage with the purpose of increasing your speed in the actual lifts. Very basically, you just perform whatever the movement is, and do it quickly. But you must take care not to alter your technique in doing so. A common example would be attempting to increase your speed under the bar in the snatch, but doing so by cutting your extension/pull short which will impede your ability to lift the bar high enough to actually utilise your  improved speed under the bar. For squats you will attempt to explode out of the bottom with as much force as possible (You should be doing this anyway, every set, every rep).

Weights used in speed work are generally quite light, anywhere from just the bar to roughly around 60% of your 1RM is quite common. Specific variations of the lifts can be used to emphasize speed too. Things like High Hang Snatches, Power Cleans/Snatches, Drop Snatches and many more.

So, with those 4 training types, you've already got 4 basic ways you can train with each day being a different version of the same basic template as shown previously. If you were to increase say, your Maximal days to 2 a week then you've already got a solid 5 day training regime.  I'll talk about other Exercises in the next article, with which you add even more variety to your routine.











Programming for Weightlifting (Part 3 - Other Exercises)

Posted by Alex G

Now, it is true that the Snatch/Clean + Jerk are the only lifts one NEEDS to perform in weightlifting. As they are the only lifts required in competition. And in fact many countries have routines focused almost exclusively on those two movements and squatting. Bulgaria under Ivan Abadjiev being the obvious example, who’s system was essentially Snatch, Clean + Jerk and Front Squat to a daily max every day of the week. Under this system, the Bulgarian team was incredibly successful. Producing a large number of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for the country.

However, this is a very hard, miserable way to train. And is quite pointless for somebody to attempt if they are doing anything with more personal importance than weightlifting (having a job, a family etc. being good examples). Using this system you will not enjoy your training, you will not feel motivated to go to the gym each day, and you will in fact make substantial decreases in the amount of weight you can lift (prior to increasing again).

Assistance exercises are useful for two main reasons. They strengthen you in ways that have a good carryover to the main movements, but they also add variety to hopefully keep the lifter interested in continuing to train. It should be noted however that people who use large numbers of assistance exercises do not do it instead of the main lifts; they do them in addition to. So the amount of work done is actually not all that dissimilar to the Bulgarian system, but it is spread over a larger number of exercises.

Squats are actually an assistance exercise, but because of their importance in any weightlifters routine, I will classify them as a basic, essential movement also. So, the three main exercises are:

Snatch
Clean + Jerk
Squat

Snatch Assistance

The difference between Snatch and Clean assistances exercises is not really that great, other than the distance the bar travels and the hand positioning, the movements are quite similar.

Snatch Pull

The Purpose of Pulling is to train the movement of the bar from the ground to the hips, sometimes less high than that, sometimes higher. Pulls are generally done slower than the complete snatch, but not always
Snatch Pull with Heavy weights

This is to strengthen your ability to pull weight from the ground whilst keeping good positions and form so that when it comes time to perform the full snatch, you are not hindered by weakness off the floor.
Snatch Pull with Medium weights

This is to train the correct movement paths and allow the lifter to feel the correct positioning and balance during the pull.
Snatch Pull with No/Light weights

Generally only used for warming up or for training beginners who need to be taught the correct movements.

Snatch Pull (segments)

Done to train a specific portion of the pull from the ground to the hips. If the lifter is weak or poorly positioned when pulling the bar up to knee level, then that specific section of the pull can be isolated. Similarly if a lifter is weak/mispositioned from the knees to the hips then a pull from the knees upwards (generally done by placing the bar on blocks so that the pull begins from knee height) can be used to strengthen that segment. Pausing at certain point in the pull can also help the lifter feel where the bar should be or feel if they are being pulled out of balance. It can also slow the lift down and let a coach see exactly how a lifter pulls and correct it more easily.

Snatch Pull (with extension)

Simply a pull where the lifter continues the lift by extending after the bar reaches the hips, this allows the pull to more closely mimic the full lift and also lets the lifter use more weight than they can actually fully snatch because they do not need to pull themselves down under it. Can also be used to judge if proper/full extension is actually being used or not.


Snatch Pull (With Extension and Pull Under) (Panda Pulls)

The same as the previous pull, only the lifter begins to pull themselves downwards once they have extended. This again more closely mimics the full Snatch, and also allows the lifter to become more efficient by pulling under sharply and quickly as soon as they have extended, minimising overpulling and bar drop (Pulling the bar higher than is necessary).

Muscle Snatch

From the floor to the hips identical to a Snatch, but after extension the lifter continues to pull the bar upwards with the arms, making no effort to pull themselves under the bar, just pulling the bar up then pushing it to extension. Useful as a warm up and to encourage a close bar path and to push the bar upwards once you are in a position under it so that you lockout elbows correctly. Generally only done with light weights as part of a warm up.

Power/High Snatch

The pull from floor to  hips is identical. The extension is identical, except more force is generated to throw the bar higher into the air, not requiring the lifter to drop down into a deep squat position to get underneath the bar. Good at training a better/stronger extension, speed under the bar and speed of elbow turn-over when receiving the bar. Used by Bulgarians as a way to program 'light' days into a routine without actually making the lifting done require any less effort.

Snatch from the Hang

The bar is pulled to the hips, then lowered to a position above the floor, then pulled again to the hips and the snatch is executed as normal. Can be done from various positions in the pull, the most common being just below the knees or mid-thigh. Done from the mid-thigh (High Hang) encourages a much faster speed under the bar, as you have less momentum to pull the bar high than when pulling from the floor. Also trains strength in the pulling positions as you are essentially doing a pull - reverse pull - snatch.

Snatch from the Blocks

Similar to a Snatch from the Hang in that you start from a position other than the floor, but with blocks you do not have the weight of the bar pulling against you whilst in the lowest position. This allows you to get into very optimal positioning and complete the lift with minimal fatiguing of the legs and back.

Drop Snatch

With the bar sitting on the back of your neck as in a squat, with a snatch grip, you drop under the bar as quickly as you can. This is intended to simply teach speed under the bar and improve speed in locking out the elbows. Ideally you want to be able to do this with as little 'drive' upwards of the bar and as little drop downwards of the bar as possible. Not necessarily the best exercise to improve the snatch, but it has its uses. Quite commonly used with beginners to teach getting under the bar quickly.

Snatch Balance

Very similar to the Drop Snatch, but you usually dip and drive to get the bar travelling upwards, then catch it with elbows locked out, then ride it down into the bottom of the squat position and rise again. As you can guess from the name, it teaches you to balance with a load overhead after catching it sharply.

Clean Assistance

For the most part, clean assistance (of the pulling variety at least) are identical to the Snatch equivalents, just with different hand positions and this, different positions upon the leg.

Clean Pull

Again, the reason for pulling is to train the movement of lifting the bar from the ground to the highest point upon the lifters mid-thigh/hips. Just as with the snatch, different loadings upon the bar are used for different purposes of doing the pulls. Heavy weight to strengthen the pull, medium weight to enforce positions, and lighter weight to learn and warm up with.
Clean Pull (segments)

Exactly as with the snatch pulls, the pull can be broken down into smaller stages to strengthen weaker/mispositioned areas. Traditionally the areas used are floor to below knee, above knee, low thigh, high thigh.

Clean Pull (with extension)

The same as before. The full pull from the floor to the mid-thigh/hips followed by extension of the hips and beginning to move the bar upwards.

Clean High Pull

Not quite as useful as a Snatch High Pull, as the amount of height required to get under a Clean is a lot less than is required for a Snatch. But pulling hard will train your ability to pull yourself under the bar. But again, you may be better off using Panda Pulls for this purpose.

Clean Pull (With Extension and Pull Under) (Panda Pulls)

Generally much more useful than a tradition Clean High Pull as the movement trains the lifter to start pulling under the bar as soon as the bar has reached a sufficient height, which given the weight and the height the bar is already at when it leaves the mid-thigh/hip, it doesn't require a lot more height for you to fit under it... as long as you're fast enough getting there.


Muscle Clean

Very rarely practiced outside of warmups/extremely light weights/getting a weight to the shoulders for shoulder work without caring to Clean. The movement will build strength in your shoulders, arms, upper back but it will have very little carryover to the regular Clean and if done frequently will lead to poor technique used in the normal lift.

Power/High Clean

Just like the Power Snatch, the Power Clean is an exercise to develop greater force output from extension, sending the bar higher than normally required, catching it on the shoulders at above a 90 Degree shin - thigh angle. Maybe not the best way to improve the Clean, but it does allow a bit of rest from Cleaning all the time and saves your legs from doing quite as much work. It actually carries over quite well to the Snatch, because of the height you are required to pull the bar.

Clean from the Hang

Again, exactly like the Snatch variant, the Hang Clean is a Clean performed from a position above ground level. A complex consisting of something such as Pull, Pull, Hang Clean is a very good way to strengthen your lower back and can add considerable mass to a lifter too, if that is your goal.

Clean from the Blocks

Given the difference in height the bar usually travel up the leg in the clean, Block work is often quite easy to perform, especially if done from above the knee. The lifter only needs to actually do about an inch or so of pulling before he or she is extending. As such this is another  good exercise to use for 'rest' periods. The lack of momentum from the floor also increases the need for the lifter to be fast getting under the bar.

Jerk Assistance

In principal the Jerk is quite a simple movement, you just put a bar overhead from your shoulders. So there are a great many exercises that can be used to assist this. But as most people will tell you, there's a bit more to the jerk than just pressing the bar quickly.

Jerk from the Rack/Blocks

The most basic form of Jerk Assistance is likely just to isolate the Jerk and do it out of a rack or from blocks. Blocks are better than racks for this as you do not have to worry about lowering the weight back down to your shoulders between reps, you can simply drop it down onto the Jerk Blocks then re-rack it for the next rep. This allows you to train the jerk without becoming fatigued from the clean.



Press (Btn, Diff Grip)

An old and simple movement, simply pressing the bar from your shoulders to an overhead position. This will not carryover directly to the jerk because the weight you can press will be substantially less than you can Jerk. But, it will build strength and some stability in the upper body muscles used in the actual Jerk. Can also be done with varying grip widths and from behind the neck. (Behind the neck work can be quite hard on rotator cuffs and shoulders if suitable flexibility is not present, especially lowering the weight back down again.)

Push Press (Btn, Diff Grip)

Very similar to the press, except you are now able to use some leg drive to initiate the bars upwards path. The hardest part of a strict Press is just as the bar is leaving your shoulders, as your shoulders muscles are at a severely disadvantaged angle to be moving weight. Utilising leg drive to overcome this section allows you to focus on the other parts of the lift, and use a heavier load now that you are not limited by that weak section. Again, can be done behind the neck and with different grips.

Btn Jerk

A standard Jerk, only performed with the bar starting behind the lifters neck. Allows the bar to travel in a purely vertical path rather than the backwards arc it must take when jerked from in front of the head. Ingrains the position that the bar wants to be in at the end of the jerk.

Power Jerk (Btn)

Power Jerks are jerks performed without splitting the legs forward and backwards. If found to be suitable, they can be performed in place of regular Split Jerks. They can also be used to assist regular Jerks however, as they require a little more upwards pushing than the Split, which allows you to drop lower underneath.

Squat Jerk

The extension of the Power Jerk is the Squat Jerk, which sees the lifter dropping into a full squat position with the bar overhead. Requires tremendous flexibility, speed and shoulder strength. Definitely not something the average lifter should worry about unless they are really having issues with the other types of Jerk. As an assistance exercise to regular jerks, they can teach the lifter to be much faster to drop under the bar, they don't need to be done heavy to achieve this either.

Pause Jerk

A Jerk in which the lifter pauses at the bottom of the dip to reduce the amount of stretch-reflex and muscle elasticity used when driving. This forces the lifter to recruit more pure muscle strength when driving upwards, which will help give a more powerful driving force when performing the full lift.

Jerk Dips

The 'Dip' part of the Dip and Drive in the Jerk. Normally performed with more weight than the lifter can actually Jerk, and generally performed out of a rack or from Jerk Blocks. With sufficient loading this can tremendously strengthen the whole body and help to keep the lifter rigid and strong when performing the jerk with their normal weights. It can also be used simply to find the optimum dipping depth for the lifter and to train a straight up and down movement.

Squat Assistance

Most weightlifters have no real need to assist their Squats or Front Squats, as they themselves are an assistance (albeit a very important one) to the two main lifts. In general the best way to increase your squat is to squat more. There are some helpful exercises however.

Quarter/Half Squat

Whilst generally frowned upon by 'real lifters' Partial Squats do have their place. They allow the lifter to overload the top  half of the squat which does help their squats somewhat, but the more immediate reason is generally increase dip and drive strength in the Jerk. So Partial Squats are not entirely dissimilar to Jerk Dips.

'Bottom Up' Squat

With the bar set on some low blocks or in a power cage at the lowest position of a lifters squat (or whichever position they need to train) the lifter sets up  underneath the bar in the same position they would be in at the bottom of their squat and simply stands up with the bar. Good for increasing strength out of the bottom of the squat and also reducing fatigue from regular squatting, as there is no real negative aspect of the movement (depending on how the bar is lowered again afterwards). A problem though, is that it is quite difficult to set yourself up in the same position that you would actually be in at the bottom of a squat.

Pause Squats

A similar purpose to the Bottom Up squat, Pause Squats train the lifters ability to come up again out of the bottom of a squat. By pausing, they reduce or remove the muscle elasticity present when quickly contracting and expanding a muscle, forcing the body to use only strength to get up with no ability to bounce their way up. They do not need to be done with a lot of weight, as the difficulty of rising after a long pause is quite extreme even with lighter than normal loads.

Good Mornings

Whilst not technically a Squat assistance, they do serve their purpose. Some people have a tendency to tip forwards at the hips/lower back when rising from a squat. Good Mornings help to strengthen the hip area, reducing the chance of the lower back being a weak point.

Abdominal Work

Just as Squats require a strong lower back, they also require a strong core and abdominal region to prevent the torso from buckling forwards under a load. Squats themselves work well at strengthening this area (especially Front Squats) but direct Ab Work such as weighted Sit Ups, Planks, Hanging Leg Raises etc. will also strengthen this area.


Prehab

Posted by Pas

This is basically injury prevention stuff. So the focus is on strengthening the things which tend to get injured, ie the muscles and connective tissue which take a lot of stress in weightlifting.

Some don't do this at all; it's not entirely necessary. Others just dedicate a time after their workout to do whatever they want, with no program for it as such. Or you can program it, or just program parts to work on each day. It's mostly up to personal preference; it doesn't matter a huge amount.

I like to think of it in terms of joints.
The wrist bone connects to the elbow bone.
The elbow bone connects to the shoulder bone.
The shoulder bone connects to the back bone (which branches off to the abs bone).
The back bone connects to the hip bone.
The hip bone connects to the knee bone.
The knee bone connects to the ankle bone.
And that's about it.

So we want to protect these joints/areas of our body from injury. Generally more muscle and stronger connective tissue reduces the chance of injury.

So on a joint by joint basis, what are some examples of what you could be doing?

Wrists: Wrist extensions and curls. Possibly grip work.

Elbow: Extensions and curls.

Shoulder: Bit more complicated. 3 parts of the deltoid, presses tend to neglect the lateral and posterior, which are important for shoulder health (you also have the traps which help to stabilise the joint). Lateral raises (done full ROM as seen in pic can also work traps well) and DB rows (done as in pic above also work traps well) or face pulls can address these. Then you have the rotator cuff stuff too.

Back: I'm thinking of upper back here, you want to get that strong as it's used a huge amount in weightlifting, it'll help you keep it tight when pulling/catching stuff. Rows and Pullups are good for this.

Abs: Well, core. Lower back is addressed in hips. Here you want to work your front and side core bits, so things like leg raises and side bends.

Hip: Posterior chain stuff (as WL is hugely anterior chain dominant you'll want to do some stuff to prevent your posterior chain getting too behind), stuff like RDLs and reverse hypers are good for this.
Knee: This is already worked to hell with squats, but you could do some unilateral work too if you want (try and minimise imbalances, can be a good idea to do this on other prehab stuff too), such as Bulgarian split squats or lunges.
Ankle: This never really gets injured, don't need to worry about it.

So as an example of using this to make a sort of prehab program (to be done at the end of a workout):

Wrists: ext./curl
Elbows: ext./curl
Shoulder: lateral raise/RC work
Back: DB rows/Pullups
Abs: Leg raises/Side bends
Hip: RDL/Reverse hypers
Knee: not that necessary

I haven't included presses here as often they're included in a general program. You could put them in as shoulder/elbow stuff though if you wanted to I guess.

Shoulders have most attention as they're generally most likely to get injured, then back/abs/hip as these are the larger groups more generally useful to weightlifting, and finally wrists/elbows.

So something like:

Hips / shoulders, Back / shoulders, Core / Elbows or wrists, repeat
So over 6 days you could get:
Reverse hypers / Lateral raises
Pullups / RC work
Leg raises / Elbow stuff
RDL / Lateral raises
DB rows / RC work
Side bends / Wrist stuff

All of this should be quite light and done for fairly high repetitions (~10 or more) after the work which matters (classic lifts and their assistance). You don't want to work too hard on this stuff else it will interfere with your training; you're also working small muscles which could lead to an injury if you go too heavy.
EDIT
My current prehab stuff is quite simple
Back/Shoulders/Pull
Abs/Triceps/Pull/Press
Back/Shoulders/Press
Abs/Triceps/Pull
Back/Shoulders/Pull/Press
Abs/Triceps/Press
Basically I alternate abs/triceps and back/shoulders, and press 4d/w and upper body pull 4d/w (after my main work; classic lifts and squats)

I'll pick which specific movement to do mostly off what I feel like doing that day, for back I  do general whole posterior chain stuff.

Then I throw in some biceps and wrist stuff 1d/w.

None of this is done massively heavy. Just heavy enough for it to have some effect.