Programming Alternatives to Olympic Lifts

As a strength and conditioning coach working with athletes, training for power is likely going to be a priority. When we talk about training “power” we are likely talking about training somewhere at or between the speed-strength and strength-speed qualities.

Peak power is a zone found somewhere between these two qualities, that is used to describe exercises that are deemed to deliver peak power output. Peak power can be described as producing the greatest amount of force in the shortest amount of time, a quality that is clearly of great importance to an athlete.

Olympic lifts or olympic lifting derivatives are commonly used to train the above qualities, and for good reason. They are capable of producing velocities much greater than traditional strength training methods. Athletes performing olympic lifts from the “hang position” could expect to produce velocities of >1.8m/s for the hang snatch, and >1.3m/s for the hang clean. The hang position, which means performing the lift from around hip height, often has more carryover to the athlete’s sport than the true Olympic Weightlifting movement. Which brings up another pro of olympic lifting – the positions it demands from the athletes. The hang position, the triple extension position, and the catch position are valuable to athletes of many sports, who will find themselves in these positions on the field or court. As with many facets of strength training, we are simply training and hopefully improving the same movement by adding load.

This is all well and good. But is there a better alternative to olympic lifting? I can think of a few key reasons why we might want to look for an alternative.

Firstly, the skill of Olympic Weightlifting is a sport in itself. It is a highly complex skill that world class athletes dedicate their lives to, just like our athletes have to their respective sports. This for me has been the biggest reason for looking for an alternative to olympic lifting when training for power development, and my experience working with collegiate soccer players serves as a great example of this. Many of our most highly skilled players have very little strength training experience, and very rarely will you come across a top-level soccer player who has good experience in olympic lifting, and this is common across most sports. In a hectic season where we have limited time to really train hard and see physical adaptations in our athletes, we need a time efficient way to see results. Mastering olympic lifting takes years, and it can take weeks or months of teaching until an athlete is performing an olympic lift at the desired velocities under safe and proper technique. Further to this, I have found that many athletes who are introduced to olympic lifting feel overwhelmed and put off by the complexity of the skill. Again, my experience working with soccer players serves as a good example here. At the higher levels of sport, these athletes are interested in strength training as a means to improving at the sport they have dedicated their lives to; they are not interested in learning a new sport!

Other common reasons for finding an alternative to olympic lifting might include seeking a more shoulder or wrist friendly movement. This can be especially true for athletes of overhead sports or athletes who are compromised in these areas.

So, the goal is to chase an adaptation, power development in this case, not expertise at a specific lift (or an entirely new sport). It therefore doesn’t matter so much which methods we use, whether its olympic lifts or something else. By using common alternatives such as loaded jumps, we can achieve those same velocities and positions that are so crucial to power development, as seen in the video below. Loaded jumps are a great alternative for two big reasons… these reasons are the flipside of the two reasons listed above.

Firstly, loaded jumps are often much easier to teach, and often more easily grasped by our athletes. Performing a jump requires less skill practice than performing an olympic lift. We are therefore able to see the results and hopefully the desired adaptation in a much shorter time than we would with olympic lifting. Secondly, jumping is a skill that athletes are already familiar with because it occurs in the sport they play, so it could also be argued that exercises such as this might have more carryover to the sport itself than an olympic lift.

Secondly, variations of loaded jumps can be much friendlier to overhead athletes prone to overuse injuries in the wrist and shoulder. An in season volleyball athlete who plays as an outside hitter, swinging at 20-40 (or more) balls in every game, plus practice, might be better off performing a trap bar jump than a hang snatch or hang clean.

Loaded jumps such as those using the load of a dumbbell, barbell or trap bar are relatively simple to teach and can have huge results. In some cases I have even found loading a jump using just a 10-20lb medicine ball to be hugely impactful in increasing vertical jump height. I believe olympic lifts can still have their place, and I will continue to use them in cases where an athlete has prior experience. As my friend and fellow coach Regan Quaal recently pointed out when we talked about this subject, ultimately the athlete will have more intent performing the lift that they feel most comfortable with and possibly enjoy more.

Ultimately, we must remember that we are training athletes of various sports, not Olympic Weightlifters. Olympic lifting, or other power development derivatives are just the means to do exactly that, develop power.