Training hard… Chasing big numbers but no matter how hard you try it seems like everyone else is constantly getting there quicker.
When it comes to the olympic lifts you need to be smart about how you program if you want to make fast progress…
Most people often make one of two mistakes:
- They focus on all strength and they have terrible technique
- They put all their time into technique and forget that you have to be strong to lift big weights
I’ve been part of both groups… I’ve had times when the lifts looked smooth and nice but I just wasn’t strong enough to put more weight on the bar. Then I’ve had times when I was easily strong enough but I didn’t bother about getting the technical aspects of the lifts down so I kept on battling the same problems over and over again.
So how do you know which one you should be focusing on?
A good rule of thumb is it’s the one you don’t want to do…
But to be a little more accurate the best way to go about it is to analyse the ratios of your olympic lifts to your strength lifts, in particular the front squat and back squat.
You can even go a little more in depth and find exactly where you are lacking strength or which part of the movement breaks down your technique but for today we will stick to the basics.
What Weightlifting Percentages Should We Look At?
When comparing your olympic lifts to your max back squat, an efficient clean and jerk can come close to 75% of your max squat so a 200kg back squat has the potential to transfer to a 150kg clean. An efficient snatch can be around 66% of the max back squat so again with the 200kg back squat example, an efficient transfer of strength into the snatch would be around 132kg.
What To Do If Your Lifts Are Lower?
The next one to look to is comparing the front squat percentages. A good clean can be up to 90% of the front squat. A good snatch should be around 73% of best front squat. If your lifts line up for your front squat and not your back squat then you probably need to work specifically on front squatting and place less emphasis on the back squat.
If your lifts still don’t reach those percentages then you need to get back to drilling technique over and over until those numbers start to match up a little closer. You are already strong enough!
What If I’m Already Good With Technique?
Here comes the fun part… Get strong!
I wasn’t even particularly great on the technical side of things, stopped weightlifting for over 6 months… Came back stronger from focusing on other things and added 11kg to my total in 3 weeks. I’m sure there’s more in the tank to get from more practice but you get the idea.
To lift heavy weights you gotta be damn strong first!
Where To Next?
If you want to get dig right into percentages and ratios for weightlifting then there’s no better to look into than Sean Waxman’s lift calculator to help you out.
But most people can simply get away with just quickly checking over these main points and getting back into the gym practicing or squatting there way to get strong.
If you realised you need to get stronger… then check out our FREE 8 Week strength program MELP available on the Newstrength Online Gymbag.