For Your Consideration: Plyometric Olympic Lifts
Improving lifting speed with a unique weightlifting method
by Charles Poliquin
One of the interesting aspects of the sport of weightlifting is that there are many methods that have produced champions. You have the extreme of the Bulgarians, who pretty much just do the two lifts and squats; the Russians and Chinese, who do a wider variety of exercises that often include pulls and even bodybuilding exercises. The best approach may lie somewhere in between.
The Bulgarian model takes the concept of specificity to the extreme, and there are many casualties along the way, with their lifters often having relatively short careers. But it was this extreme specificity that allowed Bulgaria, a small country with minimal resources, to compete toe-to-toe with the Big Red Machine for over two decades.
My mentor in weightlifting is Pierre Roy, one of the most accomplished weightlifting coaches in the history of Canada. Pierre takes advantage of a wide variety of exercises, including eccentric exercises and special exercises for the hamstrings and lower back. This approach has enabled his athletes not only to excel in international competitions, including an Olympic silver medalist, but also to enjoy relatively long and healthy careers.
The problem, especially at higher levels, is that assistance exercises can have negative effects on the classical lifts: the snatch and the clean and jerk. Russian weightlifting coaches have studied this subject extensively, and you can find the results of these studies in articles and textbooks that have been translated by Bud Charniga, himself an elite weightlifter. In the case of pulls, one of the issues is that using weights that approach the maximum results in the snatch and clean create movement patterns that are different from those that occur during the lifts, particularly in regard to the phase of the lift where the knees shift under the bars as the barbell moves past the knees. As such, if weightlifting coaches are going to use pulls in training his or her athlete, it’s a smart idea for them to study Charniga’s translations for specific weight percentages to use during various types of pulls.
As for power cleans and power snatches, they contain a high level of specificity, but some athletes have found that the catch position can be stressful on the knees. They can also cause the athlete to use the arms improperly by contracting them in such a manner as to lift the barbell instead of pulling their body under the bar – the error often described as “pulling too long” on the barbell. The solution is to simply perform these two exercises in a limited manner, and to avoid them in the few weeks before a competition.
Plyometrics are also often avoided by lifters because they can be hard on the knees, and there is also debate about how this type of training can transfer to the lifts. The first problem may be solved by using an intelligent approach to program design, especially when working with athletes who possess a large amount of muscle mass. The second problem may be solved by applying a plyometric training method to the classical lifts. Let me explain.
The Plyometric Solution
The Russians did much of the original research on the subject of plyometrics, and in fact Russian sport scientist Yuri Verkhoshansky is considered the founder of modern-day plyometrics. Verkhoshshansky contended that a true plyometric activity is one that involves a “mechanical shock stimulation” that through various neuromechanical responses enables the muscles to produce as much muscle tension as rapidly as possible. Stepping off a box, let’s say 12 inches high, with the leg muscles relaxed, and then jumping as quickly as possible after landing is an example of a classical plyometric activity. The quad muscles are rapidly stretched upon landing and then powerfully contracted during the jump, and mechanical shock is provided by the floor.
One variation of Olympic lifting exercises that a colleague introduced to me involves developing a mechanical shock while performing the lifts. He has been doing it since the late ’70s; he came up with it on his own, but believes that most likely some lifter, somewhere, had done it before him. Also, as I will explain, the technique can also be used for the lifts themselves, for power versions of the lifts, and for pulls.
Essentially, what you do with this exercise variation is to start the movement from a fully standing position, and then create a mechanical shock by lowering the barbell to below the knees and then rapidly reversing direction. By switching direction (rather than starting at a dead stop), you get a reflex response and can use the stored energy from the eccentric movement. The result is that, according to plyometric theory, you should be able move faster than you normally would, creating an over-speed effect.
Want to see this exercise in action? If you go to the link below, you’ll see Russian strongman and super heavyweight weightlifter Mikhail Koklyaev performing this method with the snatch, going all the way down to a full squat position after the pull. The weight on the barbell is 200 kilos (440 pounds).
Koklyaev’s best official snatch is 210 kilos, so from a specificity standpoint incorporating this exercise into his training has not had an adverse affect on his technique.
Although shifting the knees forward during the pull may be considered a plyometric movement (as the quadriceps are shortened, stretched, and then shortened again), no such activity occurs at the start of the lifts. Because the barbell rests on the floor at the start of the snatch and clean, you have to begin these lifts from a dead stop and overcome inertia. As Isaac Newton said, a body (in this case the barbell) at rest tends to stay at rest. This process takes time and effort, and affects the overall speed of the lift. An analogy could be sprinting. Usain Bolt runs 9.58 in the 100 meters. The world record in the 4 x 100 is 37.10 seconds by the Jamaicans, which is faster than 4 x 9.58 (38.32) because three of the athletes (despite not being able to match Bolt’s 100-meter best) don’t have to overcome inertia by starting from the blocks.
With this type of exercise, you should lower the barbell below the knees – do not start from the hang position in which the knees are slightly bent. The problem with lifting from the hang is that often the athlete tends to use their lower back excessively, creating bad movement patterns and reducing the transference to the classical lifts. Also, because the quads are almost completely shortened in the hang position, they do not contribute much to the movement.
Let’s use the power clean to show how to perform this training method. Start by deadlifting the bar to a full upright position. Now lower the bar to just below the knee, and then immediately reverse direction and do a power clean. From here you lower the bar to mid-thigh to stop the weight, then lower it again below the knee and do another rep – as you fatigue (or when using especially heavy weights), you will find that you can compensate by increasing the distance you lower the bar. By switching direction (rather than starting at a dead stop), you get a reflex response and can use the stored energy from the eccentric movement. The result is that you move faster than you normally would, creating an overspeed effect.
What you find when you perform this exercise is that you are able to go faster on each rep, especially when you perform it with pulls. This may be due to a disinhibition of the Golgi tendon reflex or simply due to a learning curve. Whatever the physical cause, the result is that you are pulling the barbell in the same manner as you would in the classical lifts at a very high rate of speed. As General George S. Patton would say, in the sport of weightlifting “you can never be too fast!”
Because the range of motion is shorter than with the full lifts, you can perform more repetitions with these exercises than with conventional versions of this exercise. With pulls, for example, a lifter with sound technique can easily perform 10 reps in under 10 seconds. This means that the method can fit into accumulation phases as well as intensification phases of training, whereas high-intensity classical lifts should generally be restricted to intensification phases.
As one of the primary goals of this exercise is to develop speed, one way to incorporate it into your training is to use it as a warm-up. Let’s say your workout calls for the performance of heavy power cleans. You might start with 3-4 sets of plyometric power cleans, and then switch to the conventional method of performing the power clean.
Another great advantage about this exercise is that from a muscular standpoint, it is less stressful on the lower back than pulling from the floor. As such, it can be performed after squats and when a lifter’s lower back is tired.
It may always be a matter of debate as to what country has the best weightlifting program, but doing plyometric Olympic lifts may be an effective training method that will fit into any system. Give it a try.
Resources
http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/454/For_Your_Consideration_Plyometric_Olympic_Lifts.aspx
