Lead Photo Credit: Ali Gregersen of CrossFit Junction. Photo: Paul Schlafly IV
I've said it before and I'll say it again: You won't end up looking like Klokov by training the Olympic lifts.
This doesn't mean Olympic lifts can't develop your physique. It's possible to train like a weightlifter and still improve your look.
Olympic lift variations and their assistance exercises can be very effective in building the traps, legs, glutes, upper and lower back, and shoulders.
But to be able to build muscle mass while training like a weightlifter you need to know why elite weightlifting training isn't effective at stimulating overall muscle growth.
Once you know this, you can modify your training to reach your goals.
Out of the modern day lifters, the Asian athletes – from China and North Korea mostly – have the most muscular bodies. We're speaking in terms of body composition and having a lean and muscular look.
Out of all the elite weightlifters, they're the ones using the most assistance exercises: lots of pulls, rows, chin-ups, dips, handstand push-ups, lateral raises, triceps extensions, and even barbell curls.
It's not unusual for them to do 30-45 minutes of bodybuilding work at the end of their lifting session.
Lifters from Russia and Poland also tend to have plenty of muscle and they use a lot of assistance exercises too, mostly various pulls and presses.
They don't have the same type of development as the Asians (less arms and pectoral development) but still look more muscular than the lifters using a program relying only of the competition lifts and squats.
These two groups of lifters also tend to do more volume of work with a lower average weight.
Weightlifters from the '60s, '70s, and '80s were more muscular than today's lifters. They had more arm, shoulder, and upper back development. On average they were also leaner.
David Rigert, Anatoly Pisarenko, Pavel Pervushin, Lee James, Phil Gripaldi, Bill Starr, Yuri Vardanyan, and Sultan Rakhmanov, to name a few, had physiques that most of us would be very happy to have.
Here's why:
Prior to 1972, a third lift was contested in weightlifting competitions: the clean & press. The press was more of a slow-speed strength movement and involved the upper body a lot.
The press actually had a huge place in the training of weightlifters from the '60s and early '70s. Lifters used a lot of assistance work like the bench press, incline press, and push press to strengthen that lift.
David Rigert bench pressed 460 pounds, military pressed 375 pounds, and push pressed 480 pounds. This explains the bigger shoulders, triceps, and pecs.
Even though the press was removed from competition after 1972, it took some time for coaches and athletes to change the training approach. So lifters from the '70s and early '80s trained in the press era and had time to develop their upper bodies.
Technique wasn't as efficient in those times either. On average, lifters pulled the bar higher in the clean and snatch and "pushed" the bar higher in jerks.
Today's lifter has a more efficient technique. They get under the bar faster, which means less emphasis is placed on pulling high.
When you pull the bar higher, you focus a lot more on the strength of the upper back, traps and even arms, as opposed to only maximizing leg and lower back strength.
This partly explains the thicker traps and upper back of lifters from the '60 through '80s.
Another major factor contributing to the thicker traps, upper back, and arms was bumper plates – the lack thereof.
Bumper plates, which can be dropped without damaging the barbell and platform, were introduced in the late '60s. Prior to that, lifters trained on iron plates.
The competition rules stated that the lifter had to lower the barbell down to the platform after a lift and in training. They didn't drop the barbell (unless it was a missed lift) because it would damage the bar.
The lowering portion of the Olympic lifts placed a tremendous eccentric load on the shoulders (when lowering a jerk or snatch down from overhead) and on the traps and arms (when lowering down to the thighs and floor).
This increase in eccentric loading relative to today's lifting practices no doubt contributed to building more muscle mass.
Finally, old-school lifters used higher rep ranges in training. The norm was closer to 3 reps per set on the competition lifts and 5 reps on the strength building movements.
Today it's 1-2 and 2-3 reps. Not surprisingly, this longer time under load created more physiological adaptations.
It's also worth mentioning that in the US it was typical for Olympic lifters to do bodybuilding work either off-season or between competitions. Tommy Kono, John Grimek, and Steve Stanko were international lifters who also won bodybuilding titles.
Who this is for: Those who enjoy training the Olympic lifts and want to make them the cornerstone of their routine. They like the feeling of explosion and feeling athletic, but they also want gains.
Who this is not for: Those interested in competing at a high level in Olympic lifting. Those people would be well served to train in a way that's more in line with modern-day weightlifting programming.
Your first choice should be movements that will have a positive impact on your Olympic lifts: pulls (hang, floor, blocks), deadlifts with your clean and/or snatch form, military presses, push presses, deficit deadlifts, power shrugs, and barbell rows for example.
A typical session for me will include:
Good assistance exercises include:
Do sets of 3 for the Olympic lift variations and 4-6 reps for the assistance movements.
These force you to lower the weight back to the starting position after a completed lift and add a bit of eccentric loading. Lowering a snatch/clean or absorbing the bar on the way down on high pulls from the hang can build traps fast.
Doing 6 x 3 for the Olympic lift variations and 4-5 x 4-6 on the assistance exercises. Accumulate quality volume focusing on technical precision and speed.
Think military press, back/front squats, and good mornings. This will add the eccentric component that's lacking from training on the competitive lifts and their variations.
Dips will hit the triceps and chest nicely while maintaining proper range of motion at the shoulder joint. Pull-ups will improve back, arm, and grip strength. For these "bodybuilding" exercises do 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps.
Just make sure that it's trained at the end of the session and no longer than 15 minutes.
Making these adjustments will allow you to build plenty of muscle while working on your Olympic lifts. They'll help you get leaner.
Explosive work has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity more than other forms of training. And the more sensitive you are to insulin, the easier it is to get lean.
Yes, focus on increasing the load, but not at the expense of form, speed, and volume.
If you ever decide to test yourself, you'll need only 1-2 weeks of training on sets of 1-2 reps with reduced assistance work to peak your strength and get used to the feeling of maximal weights.
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