Olympic weightlifting is a fantastic workout. Not only does it help you build strength, but some of its lesser-known benefits are that it also improves muscle definition, can help improve muscle mass and is also fantastic for flexibility and range of motion. It really is an all-in-one workout!
We’ve teamed up with Koroush and everyone at the Westway Barbell Fitness Club – based at our Westway Portobello Road Fitness Club centre – to take you through some of the most common Olympic weightlifting techniques and their benefits. We’re also careful to show you how to avoid common mistakes which could lead to you not getting the most out of each exercise or worse, hurting yourself.
Of course, when it comes to Olympic weightlifting, it’s important you go to a coach who can teach you how to perform each technique properly in a hands-on fashion. This is because everyone has different body shapes and biomechanics, so it’s best to find a particular technique that’s unique to you. This can only be taught by a professional coach such as Koroush at Westway Barbell Fitness Club. Otherwise, you may well end up hurting yourself.
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Olympic Weightlifting Techniques
Here, we’ve compiled some of the most common Olympic weightlifting techniques and given you a brief run through of both the correct way to do them and some common mistakes that people make.
Overhead Squat
Our first Olympic weightlifting exercise is the overhead squat. This is ideal for working your legs, your core and your shoulder muscles. For this technique you’ll need a squat rack and a barbell. Begin with the barbell resting across the back of your neck and shoulders and un-rack the bar. You then move your grip further outwards towards the ends of the barbell and drive it upwards, locking the bar over your head. Keeping the bar locked above your head with straight arms, move into the squat position, pushing up through your heels.
Do:
- Engage your core
- Track your knees outwards
- Make sure your shoulders are stable
- Push through your heels
- Keep your shoulder blades back
Don’t:
- Lean forward in the squat position
- Push through your toes
Front Squat
Our second weightlifting technique is the front squat. Like the overhead squat, the front squat requires a barbell and squat rack and with this technique you’ll be working a number of different muscle groups. These include all your leg muscles, your core, your upper shoulders and your upper chest, too. Resting the bar across the top of your chest and holding in place either with a traditional grip or a cross grip, angle your toes out, push your hips back slightly, engage your core and move into the squat position. Once down, drive up again through your heels, keeping your back straight.
Do:
- Engage your core
- Keep your back straight
- Push through your heels
- Keep your back straight
- Breathe with each rep
Don’t:
- Push through your toes
- Have your toes pointing straight ahead
- Lean forward
- Look down
- Relax your glutes at the bottom of each squat
Back Squat
The final of our trio of Olympic weightlifting squat demonstrations is the back squat, which is great for working the back, the shoulder muscles, the core and the legs too. To begin with, it’s very similar to the overhead squat. The bar is resting across our shoulders, our toes are pointed slightly out, hips stuck out slightly and our core engaged. With this one, however, we’re not going to be driving the bar above our head. Instead, we hold the bar across our shoulders and move into the squat position, with your weight going through your heels. It’s also important to breathe with each repetition.
Do
- Keep your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart
- Keep your back straight
- Engage your core
- Push through your heels
- Breathe with each rep
Don’t
- Point your toes straight ahead
- Put your weight through your toes
- Lean forward too far
Deadlift
A very common Olympic weightlifting technique is the deadlift – which is all about posture. This is great for building both strength and range of movement in your back, as well as your hamstrings, glutes and quads. To complete a deadlift, begin with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart, with your knees and toes pointing outwards and the bar just in front of you. Grasp the bar from a squat position and pull it up towards your knees. When it gets to that height, you want to bring it in towards your hips – your centre of mass – and lock your knees, making sure your spine is straight.
Do
- Keep your back flat
- Engage your core
- Engage your scapula muscles
Don’t
- Point your knees and toes straight ahead
- Lean forward
- Push through your toes
The Clean
A further Olympic weightlifting technique is the clean. This is one you may well have seen on the TV when watching the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games at home and we’re going to demonstrate how you do it. At the start position – everyone has their own way of doing this, so it’s important you find a coach who can help you find yours – you pull the bar up towards your waist. This includes a quick explosive movement that involves the hyperextension of some joints, including his shoulders and his toes. From that position, you move into a ‘high pull’ which brings the bar up towards your chest, from where you’ll ‘receive’ the bar and get into a front squat racking position. It’s important to be able to move around the bar, rather than just moving the bar itself.
Do
- Keep your back straight
- Keep your toes pointed slightly outward
- Put your weight through your heels
Don’t
- Point your knees straight ahead
- Disengage your core
Split Jerk
Our sixth Olympic weightlifting technique is the split jerk. For this one, it’s worth keeping the lunge in mind, as it’s a key part of the whole operation. You begin in a front squat position, before moving up onto your toes and pushing the bar up towards your nose. From here, you ‘split’ your legs into the lunge position, punching the bar upwards at the same time. As well as pushing the bar upwards, the key is to get yourself underneath the bar, so as it goes up, you go down into the lunge. You then recover into what looks like an overhead squat position, with the bar above your head and your legs straight.
Do
- Bend your back knee as much as possible
- Divide your weight between your front and back legs evenly
Don’t
- Relax your shoulders
Snatch
Our final Olympic weightlifting technique is the snatch. From the same start position as for the clean, begin with a deadlift. From there, we go to the high pull – as with the clean again – keeping the bar as close as possible to your body and hyperextending your back. To achieve hyperextension of the back, you need to get your glutes and your back muscles to work together. From the high pull, you drop yourself down beneath the bar, locking your elbows and standing up straight.
Do
- Keep your heels on the ground in the starting position
Don’t
- Disengage your scapula when receiving the bar
Building Muscle Mass with Olympic Weightlifting
Although Olympic weightlifting won’t necessarily help bulk you up, there are some techniques and exercises that will help you to gain muscle mass. The first thing to do is to make sure you’re not lifting too much. A great rule of thumb is to aim for around 70% of your bodyweight. This is because choosing a collection of compound exercises (when there is more than one muscle group involved and is engaged) will engage 70% of your muscles, such as all the leg muscles, core muscles and posterior chain of muscle groups (back muscles).
Complex, compound movements are the way to go and we’re beginning with some deadlifts, moving into some powers and some front squats. Doing this method of training allows you to engage up to around 80% of your muscle groups at a time, which can give you fantastic results when it comes to building muscle mass. These are also great because they are fairly simple compound exercises that carry the same bar path, which allows the brain to follow a pattern – making it easily repeatable.