Latest Articles, How-to’s, and Guides on Weightlifting

The common advice given to the beginning lifter with respect to grip width in the clean is that the grip should be “shoulder width.” This generally means a grip that is wide enough to position the inside of the hand just outside the shoulders when the bar is resting on the lifter’s shoulders. Individual grip…

We will begin our analysis of weightlifting technique with an explanation of what the athlete is doing when he or she performs two Olympic lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk (C&J). These are the lifts performed in weightlifting competitions (the winner being the athlete who lifts the most weight in both lifts combined).…

As indicated above, most lifters use the same grip for the clean as for the jerk (i.e., a width between the insides of the hands from 16″ to 26″, with most lifters using a grip in the 17″ to 22″ range). A narrow grip in the jerk places less strain on the muscles of the…

Optimal hand spacing in the snatch is dependent on a number of factors, and, as stated earlier, there are trade-offs in the selection of a grip width. There are often “rules of thumb” given in various weightlifting manuals for selecting the width of the snatch grip. For example, one text suggests that the distance between…

During the fifth and sixth stages of the snatch, the lifter works to gain control over a bar that has effectively been “launched” into the air during the fourth stage of the pull. The faster the lifter’s feet regain contact with the floor and the faster the lifter assumes a position in which he or…

Many sports teachers emphasize the importance of a specific kind of visual focus or attention. Baseball players and golfers are taught to “keep their eyes on the ball.” Skaters, divers and gymnasts are taught to maintain a “focal point.” This means that while spinning or somersaulting, they try to keep their eyes on a fixed…

A third major controversy with respect to technique stems from the tendency of those who analyze and teach it either to oversimplify, or to add artificially to the complexity of, the sport of weightlifting. The oversimplifiers revel in offering some simple fact as justification for a given technique, while appearing to be shocked that no…

A second major controversy with respect to weightlifting involves two groups that I will call the absolutists and the relativists. In their purest version, the absolutists maintain that: 1) there is only one proper technique for lifting weights; and 2) they know what it is. Absolutists are easy to spot at a competition; they are…

Does weightlifting stunt growth and have a high injury rate? Despite decades of evidence to the contrary, these misconceptions remain among the most persistent myths surrounding Olympic weightlifting. Does Olympic Weightlifting Have a High Injury Rate? Long years of experience have proven that weightlifting is far safer than most people believe. There are fewer injuries…

Are Olympic weightlifters the strongest athletes on earth? Many people assume that bodybuilders, football players, wrestlers, and powerlifters possess greater strength, but competitive weightlifting has long made a compelling case for producing some of the strongest and most powerful athletes in sports. Bodybuilders and the Appearance of Strength Accomplished bodybuilders have large, well defined and…