Introduction
Olympic Weightlifting is often a sport in which athletes compete for your total weight of 2 lifts: the snatch and also the clean & jerk. The training methods found in Weightlifting can also be utilised by Strength & Conditioning coaches as a way of resistance training for the number of other sports. One of the first reasons behind exploiting various resistance training modalities such is for power development. There are lots of variations on the theme of power training. Some training modalities include plyometrics (Wilson, Elliot & Wood 1990), assisted and resisted training (Faccioni 1993a; 1993b) and speed and acceleration drills (Cinkovich 1992). A trendy method employed to increase athletic power is Olympic Weightlifting (ie power cleans, push presses, snatches, jump jerks in addition to their variations) conducted within the exercise (Garhammer, 1993). It is traditionally been described as efficient way of manufacturing general explosive ability (Takano 1992; Stone 1993; Garhammer & Gregor 1992). However, there are many important considerations which require being addressed when implementing Olympic lifting exercises in the Strength & Conditioning program of an athlete, some of these include movement competency, training age, sport and training time with athlete. The goal of this article by Elite Performance Institute (EPI) is to give you a biomechanical and physiological discussion that explains why weightlifting workouts are beneficial to improve athletic performance and exactly how they will be performed in the training curriculum. For more details, check out www.epicertification.com
Power Defined
Power has been defined as the perfect blend of speed and strength to produce movement (Chu 1996). More specifically, power represents the ability of the athlete to produce high degrees of function with confirmed distance. The harder power a player possesses the larger the level of work performed (Wilson 1992). Power is often a blend of strength and speed:
POWER = FORCE (strength) X VELOCITY (speed of movement)
There are lots of physiological and neural adaptations which comprise the force component (Moritani 1992). Physiological adaptations to strength incorporate a boost in muscle tissue through hypertrophy, connective tissue density and bone integrity (Tesch 1992a). Neural adaptations (Schmidtbleicher 1992) that could be produced are: (1) increased recruitment of motor units; (2) increased firing rate of motor neurones; (3) synchronised firing of motor neurones; (4) surge in intra-muscular coordination; and (5) surge in inter-muscular coordination.
Speed of movement consists of a variety of interrelated factors (Ackland & Bloomfield 1995). These are; (1) muscle fibre type; (2) skill; (3) muscle insertion points; (4) lever length; (5) muscular posture; and (6) elastic energy technique series elastic component.
Olympic Weightling exercises facilitate growth and development of the very center (Strength-Speed and Speed-Strength) from the force-velocity (FV) curve (see above). The FV curve acts a road map to Strength & Conditioning Certification with regards to the form of strength developed from each exercise, session or phase of education within the program. Consequently, the Strength & Conditioning coach can effectively plan what type of power to merely develop and which training modality (powerlifting, Olympic liftining, plyometrics, etc) is the most suitable utilised to elicit these adaptations.
Conclusion
Concern still exists regarding the ef?cacy of including Olympic weightlifting exercises within the resistance training programs of athletes in sports aside from weightlifting. These concerns generally fall into 3 broad categories: 1) Perceived time forced to discover the movements due to complexity from the lifts. 2) Too little knowledge of the opportunity bene?ts that could be derived from performing Olympic lifting exercises correctly. 3) Concern in the risk of injury due to doing these weightlifting movements.
It’s evident there are a plethora of biomechanical advantages of doing these lifts with limited disadvantages. The biggest risk has been from the perceived danger of doing these lifts. On such basis as the data presented by Brian Hammill from the British Weightlifting Association (BWLA), it can be stated with con?dence the injury risk can be as low or lower than most sports as long as there exists quali?ed supervision provided by certi?ed Strength and Conditioning coach who had been competent in coaching the weightlifting movements.
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