Contrary to popular belief, Weightlifitng IS a sport, which means it has a season and an offseason. Most people treat it like it can be done year round, but you’ll find burnout and injury without taking periodic breaks from Snatch and Clean & Jerk.

First of all, I believe that most lifters need at minimum two 4-6 week off-seasons per year. The best time to do this is immediately after the two most important competitions of the year. For beginner’s this can be the State Championships and an American Open Series event. For Intermediate lifters, this may be the National Championships and the State Championships, and for advanced lifters, this may be after the National Championships and Pan-American or World Championships. If you do not compete, then it might just be after a 12 week cycle where you have peaked to hit new PR’s in the Snatch and Clean & Jerk.

When approaching off-season training, we need to prioritize training methods that do not get trained in a typical weightlifting program. This will aid the lifter in building a substantial base of strength and endurance that in turn helps the lifter continue to progress in the long term. Remember that the pyramid can only be as tall as the base is wide.

A few ideas for training that would be great for off-season are:

• Cardio

• Odd object carries

• Bodybuilding isolation exercises

• Tempo training for strength

• Jump training

• Sprint training

Each lifter will have different needs when it comes to choosing what to prioritize. Stronger lifters will need to spend time doing more cardio and jump training, whereas weaker lifters will need to prioritize odd object carries, bodybuilding, and tempo training.

Try picking 2-3 things to focus on, and progress them over a 4-6 week period before getting back into weightlifting training.

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