Weightlifting And Its Derivatives For Athletic Performance
What is weightlifting? Weightlifting refers to the sport contested in the Olympic games, consisting of the snatch, and the clean and jerk (not just lifting weights). These lifts can be broken down into smaller lifts or segments which are known as weightlifting derivatives.
Breaking Down Weightlifting Movements
Weightlifting involves two highly technical lifts, and to be able to perform these movements more effectively it is first beneficial to identify the phases of the lifts. In the snatch and the clean, there are 5 phases:
• First pull - from the floor to roughly knee height
• Transition - where the double knee bend occurs between the first and second pulls. Was often labelled the 2nd pull in earlier years. This double knee bend allows use to utilise the hip and knee musculature through their strongest part of their range of motion, as well as elastic energy utilisation.
• Second pull - The phase where we see the rapid triple extension of hips, knees, and ankle
• Catch - After the pull, this phase is dropping under the bar and accepting the weight in the catching position
• Recovery - the standing phase that displays your control of the weight after performing the lift.
Snatch phases:
Clean phases:
The Jerk component of the lifts is not considered as essential for a lot of team sport athletes, and so for the purpose of keeping this blog succinct, I won’t be addressing the jerk here.
Why do we perform weightlifting?
We know that a lot of sports performance is correlated with strength levels, and the ability to express that strength quickly (REF). At the cellular level, the presence of type II or fast twitch muscle fibres plays an important role in being able to do this. Weightlifting has shown significant improvements in this cellular change, and weightlifters by nature have a significantly higher portion of type IIA muscle fibres than those who don’t. Resistance training absolutely helps this too, but performance measures are an area where weightlifting is well supported.
Jumping ability is highly correlated with the snatch and clean and jerk, more so with relative strength than absolute strength which is excellent for those who can’t lift as heavy just because they weigh less. Compared to traditional strength training, weightlifting results in greater countermovement jump height, squat jump height, sprint speed, and change of direction speed. When compared to plyometric training, weightlifting also led to greater jump height improvements. Plyometrics are a great tool, but we first need a basis of strength to utilise them more effectively in our training. Even using weightlifting derivatives like a hang pull can improve sprint and change of direction performance.
After breaking down weightlifting movements, we can see that the second pull is a significant reason why we see performance benefits arise from weightlifting. During the second pull, we have the highest rate of force development (the speed at which you are generating force), and the highest total forces. It is also this position that we see during the isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP), which is considered the most appropriate and accurate measure of maximal lower body strength. The weightlifting forces we see during the second pull are also the reason that we have weightlifting derivatives where we start from just above the knees, to utilise the range of motion where we see the greatest maximal force and RFD.
Weightlifting vs weightlifting derivatives
Yielding strength, or reactive strength requires a rapid production of force while the muscles are lengthening (an eccentric contraction). Yielding strength is a quality that traditional weightlifting has a significant impact on and translates well into performance on the sporting field; think of the ability to be hit with and break through contact for all contact sport athletes. The ‘catch’ phase of weightlifting is a large contributor to the improvements of yielding strength in athletes who perform weightlifting lifts. When it comes to derivatives, there aren’t yet any conclusions from research on whether they can have the same impact on this performance outcome. However weightlifting derivatives still offer performance advantages. A major benefit of weightlifting derivatives is that most of them do not require a ‘catch’ phase of a lift, which is often a difficult component to teach and is where we see anatomical restrictions cause the greatest number of issues (think about contact sport athletes whose shoulders and wrists don’t like to bend too much – especially after operations). This means that without having to catch the weight after the pull, we require less bracing/yielding strength and can often pull more weight. It is important to note that weightlifting derivatives require higher loads to have positive adaptations towards athletic performance. When programmed effectively, weightlifting derivatives show good improvements in 10m, 20m, and 30m sprint performance, 505- agility-test, and jumping performance. Here is a shortened list of weightlifting derivatives:
• Push press, push jerk, snatch balance
• Front squat, overhead squat
• Romanian deadlift (RDL), snatch grip RDL
• Clean grip pull, snatch grip pull, jump shrug
• Power clean from blocks, hang clean
Is it safe?
Absolutely, and much safer than you might think. Weightlifting has approximately 0.0017 injuries per 100 hours of participation, compared to 0.8 in Rugby, and 0.14 in Soccer. This means an injury roughly once every 58,000 hours of weightlifting, or once every 50+ years if a team of 20 players weightlift for a total of one hour per week. Among these injuries, the most common injury sites are the lower back, knee and shoulder (60% combined), and the most common injury types are strains, tendinitis, and sprains (81.9% combined). The most common reason people get injured during this kind of training might surprise you, but it is simply the lack of supervision and teaching from a suitably qualified coach. In most cases, these injuries happen without supervision, and without being taught by a professional. As with almost every sporting task or work we complete, being trained properly is essential to the execution of a skill – so don’t neglect seeking some professional help!
Is the juice worth the squeeze?
A common viewpoint is that teaching weightlifting takes longer than what the performance gains are worth, and that we can just use loaded jumps to try and replace weightlifting. As we’ve discussed in this blog, these jumps are just a loaded triple extension pattern that are otherwise known as a weightlifting derivative which have been around the weightlifting scene for decades! They have performance benefits but are not as well researched as full weightlifting movements. Another common consideration is for athletes who may not have the range required for performing the full version of these lifts. This is where weightlifting derivatives also enter the programming considerations. And for athletes starting from scratch in weightlifting, we can incorporate weightlifting derivative progressions as a learning tool and a performance enhancing tool. With a systematic progression, we can break down the two major lifts and utilise weightlifting derivatives which are easy to teach, provide performance benefits, make the two major lifts easier to perform down the track, or provide alternatives which accept a smaller range of motion for those with injuries or physiques/sporting demands which make weightlifting difficult to achieve.
Where to start?
Teaching weightlifting can be complex and requires a well-trained technical eye to be able to maximise efficiency and speed of learning for the athlete. There’s good reasons why it is an Olympic sport with specialist coaches and has athletes who dedicate their entire existence towards two singular tasks – a clean and jerk, and the snatch. It would be a disservice to try and pretend a few words here could teach people how to complete these lifts without any further coaching, and I strongly recommend seeking coaching from a suitably qualified coach if you are eager to learn how to implement weightlifting into your life. But for those starting from scratch, or coaches who are interested in a method of programming the lifts, I will provide a simplified and shortened teaching progression for a power clean below. You will see the progression of derivatives which work the catch and recovery, 2nd pull, transition, 1st pull, finishing with the full movement:
Front squat – catch + recovery
Clean grip shrug (mid-thigh) – 2nd pull
Power clean (mid-thigh) – 2nd pull
Clean grip RDL (+/- shrug) - transition
Power clean (below knee) - transition
Clean grip pull (from floor to knee) – 1st pull
Power clean (from floor) – transition to full movement
Power clean + front squat – transition to full movement
Clean – full movement
Sometimes just dedicating time to learning the skill will work due to the brain’s ability to rapidly improve our efficiency at completing a movement – these are known as neural changes rather than actual strength changes. Literature has shown that even 20-30 minutes of power clean training twice per week for 4 weeks can improve jump performance, vertical power, and improved lifting performance. This was after a total of 4 hours of time in just 4 weeks. Worth it!
Conclusion
Weightlifting is a safe activity that can induce performance enhancing adaptations in athletes, more so than traditional strength training or plyometric training alone. Weightlifting doesn’t have to be complicated to implement, with the use of weightlifting derivatives or well implemented teaching progressions available to assist the use of weightlifting. Seeking out a qualified coach is worthwhile to reduce the risk of injuries and maximise the potential benefits of weightlifting and its derivatives.
References
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