Tip Are You Ready to Olympic Lift Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip Are You Ready to Olympic Lift The O-lifts are getting more popular but some folks are jumping into them too fast Here' s how to know if you' re ready by Christian Thibaudeau February 6, 2018August 18, 2019 Tags Tips, Training, Weightlifting I'm a former Olympic weightlifter. Did it full time for six years. The simpler variations have many benefits for athletic performance. Regardless, they're some of the most misused lifts around. I see a lot of coaches, who often have no formal experience with Olympic lifting themselves, throw these into a client's program blindly, as if they're just another lift. They aren't. Even the simpler variations are high-skill moves. They require a higher level of coordination than your regular barbell lifts and they're also dependent on acceleration and timing. If you don't have the coordination, timing, and capacity to explode you won't be able to use enough weight to create a training effect, and you might risk injuries. Three Prerequisites for Learning the Olympic lifts Be able to do a perfect hip hinge under load, bringing the bar down to at least below the knees with perfect form. If you can't do that with your 0.7 x bodyweight (women) and 1 x bodyweight (men) for at least 5 reps, you have no business even thinking about learning the Olympic lifts. Be able to do a technically perfect front squat. Use a clean grip with the elbow held high (and ideally a full grip, not a finger tip one), chest up, straight back, and full range of motion. Under load of course. Be somewhat efficient at jumping. Height isn't the most important thing here, but what I'm looking at is "jumping strategy." Does the body stay in a biomechanically correct position during the various phases of jumping? Do you need to squat down low to jump or do you take a short dip, which is better for Olympic lifting than a long, slow dip? How is the transition from the dip down to the jump up? Slow, fast, or violent? If you have a slow transition you're not ready to learn the Olympic lifts. How can you be explosive with a barbell if you can't be explosive with only your bodyweight? If you can't do these three actions with a high level of efficiency, you shouldn't do the Olympic lifts yet. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Strong and Healthy Shoulders If you want to correct a few muscle imbalances you may have created before you knew better, or if you want to fortify the integrity of your shoulder joints and maybe even improve your posture, then this might be just the article you need. Training John Paul Catanzaro February 23 Diet & Fat Loss Injuries Nutrition and Recovery Rest, ice, and Celebrex aren't the ways to treat strains, tendonitis, or fractures. John Berardi and Ryan Andrews tell you how to win the war against injuries using items from your pantry and fridge. It Hurts Fix It, Training John Berardi, PhD & Ryan Andrews September 18 Workouts Complete Guide to Big Biceps & Triceps If this smart, brutal plan doesn't help you build your biceps and triceps, nothing will. Do it, then go buy some new T-shirts. Arms, Bodybuilding, Training Paul Carter January 26 Training Tip Total Arm Training Nail your biceps with a mechanical drop set, then hit triceps the same way, then do forearms for a complete arm-building session. Arms, Tips, Training Dean Graddon September 11