The Best Beginner Olympic Weightlifting Program
Olympic Weightlifting can seem like a mystery to a beginner, but it’s actually not as complicated as you might think.
The key to learning the olympic lifts is following a simple progression that allows you to break the movements down into smaller, easier to understand phases, and then progressing over time to perform the lifts from the floor.
If you’re a beginner and you’re ready to learn the Snatch, Clean, and Jerk, then check out my free Weightlifting101: Beginner Guide + 6-Week Program. It applies everything I cover in this article and teaches you exactly what you need to know to start your weightlifting journey on the right foot!
What Is Olympic Weightlifting?
Olympic Weightlifting is a sport and training method that focuses on two main movements, the Snatch, and the Clean and Jerk.
In the Snatch, you’ll lift the barbell from the ground to overhead in one fluid movement, often catching in the bottom of an overhead squat, which requires tremendous speed, mobility, and stability. This lift is often very challenging for beginners, but with practice your technique can become very efficient.
Click here to watch one of the best snatches in American history
In the Clean and Jerk, you’ll lift the barbell from the ground to your shoulders (Clean), and then from the shoulders to overhead (Jerk). The clean is often caught in the bottom of a front squat which requires not only a high level of technique but also power, mobility, and strength. There are several styles of jerk, but the most commonly used, and best for beginners in my opinion, is the Split Jerk, in which the bar is launched overhead before you drop underneath it into a lunge position to catch the bar before standing with the bar overhead.
Click here to watch one of the best clean and jerks of all time
Primary Goal: Learn How To Lift
The primary goal of a beginner in the olympic lifts isn’t to lift the most weight possible. It isn’t even to build muscle or strength, though both can help.
The primary goal is to master your technique.
Before you should attempt to lift heavy weights, you need to understand how your technique allows you to do so, and you need to be able to perform the lifts with some level of consistency from rep to rep. All too often people want to push the weights before they have earned it. And while you might find that you can lift heavier weights without good technique in the moment, you will run into a brick wall that can only be surpassed by using more efficient technique.
To master your technique, you’ll need to practice the lifts in smaller, easier to digest phases, following a logical progression. This progression should allow you to perform increasingly more complex progressions of the snatch and clean and jerk, with more weight as your technique improves and your strength increases.
Secondary Goal: Gain Strength
As a beginner olympic lifter, your secondary goal should be to build strength.
For the olympic lifts this means the Snatch Pull, Overhead Squat, and Back Squat for the Snatch and the Clean Pull and Front Squat for the Clean. As a beginner, it helps to have an excess of strength in these two exercises, as this will make it easier to improve quickly in the snatch and clean and jerk, as well as make it easier to recover from your training as you practice the olympic lifts.
Many of the best lifters have an extensive background in strength training or experience with these lifts, so when they decide to focus on the olympic lifts, the only factor they need to focus on is technique. And when their technique is applied to their excess strength, they can make progress VERY fast.
Does this mean you should only focus on the strength lifts? No!
Don’t forget to keep the main thing the main thing. It will take years to develop strength for the olympic lifts, but only weeks or months to develop consistent technique, so focus on the technique first while steadily gaining strength and you’ll get there in no time!
Beginner Olympic Weightlifting Training Split
Now that we know our two focuses, how should you apply this to a week of training?
I’ve found that four days a week works best for beginners, however feel free to adjust it as needed, or add other days of training to work on things like conditioning, mobility, or hypertrophy training.
This four day split allows us to focus on each lift twice a week. On Day 1 and Day 3 you’ll focus on the snatch, clean, and pulling strength. On Day 2 and Day 4 you’ll focus on jerks and squatting strength.
Here’s how this will look across a week of training.
Day 1: Snatch, Clean, and Snatch Pulls
You’ll start the day off with an empty barbell snatch warm up focused on practicing the overhead squat before moving into 3-5 sets of 2-3 reps of a snatch progression like the Hip Snatch. Remember, the goal is not to lift the most weight possible here, it’s to practice your technique.
After the Snatches, the next lift will be practicing the same progression for the clean for 3-5 sets of 2-3 reps. The workout will finish with a progression for the snatch pull to practice your technique when pulling from the floor. An example from week one of my beginner program is the Triple Pause Snatch Pull, which you’ll do for 5 sets of 2 reps.
Day 2: Clean & Jerk and Front Squats
Day two will start off with a split jerk warm up focused on drilling your dip and split position before moving into a simple split jerk progression like the double pause split jerk for 3 to 5 sets of 2-3 reps.
Following the Clean and Jerk progression you’ll then move into the front squat portion of the workout using a simple 5 sets of 5 method. While this day has less exercises overall, it is still a hard workout, especially if you are lifting heavy enough on the 5x5 squats, so avoid the temptation of doing extra work here.
Day 3: Snatch, Clean, and Clean Pulls
Day three is an almost mirror image copy of day one, however you can use the opportunity to go a little heavier than you did on day one, even if only for one set.
While we’re not focused on adding weight to the olympic lifts, it is still important to try to lift heavier weights as long as your technique is still good. And if it breaks down a little bit, it’s not the end of the world, plus you’ll know what you need to focus on next week!
The only change to this day however is that you will switch out the snatch pulls for clean pulls, a heavier exercise compared to the snatch pull, but you will follow the same progression as you did on day one. So if you did Triple Pause Snatch Pull, you’ll do Triple Pause Clean Pulls today for the same amount of sets and reps.
Day 4: Clean & Jerk and Back Squats
Day four is an almost exact mirror image of day two, however instead of front squats, you’ll swap out for back squats.
Just like yesterday, you’ll have the chance to go a little bit heavier on the clean and jerks, even if only for one set as long as your technique is looking good.
Just like day two was a shorter workout, so is day four, however the squats will likely make you sore, so avoid adding anything extra on this day.
Sample Week
Here’s the first week of training from my free Weightlifting101: Beginner Guide + 6-Week Program, which you can download here!
Monday
Snatch Warm Up
5-10 reps of each; Back Squat, Snatch Press, Overhead Squat
Hip Snatch
5 sets of 3 reps with an empty barbell or light weight, working on vertical leg drive and catching in a squat.
Clean Warm Up
5-10 reps of each; Front Squat, Upright Row, Clean Turnover
Hip Clean
5 sets of 3 reps with an empty barbell or light weight, working on vertical leg drive and catching in a squat.
Triple Pause Snatch Pull
5 sets of 2 reps with a slightly heavy weight, pausing 1” off the ground, 1” above the knee, and in the hip position before extending up.
Tuesday
Clean & Jerk Warm Up
5-10 reps of each; Front Squat, Overhead Press, Clean Turnover, Pause Push Press, Split Footwork
Hip Clean + Double Pause Jerk
5 sets of 1 Hip Clean followed by 3 Double Pause Jerks with an empty barbell or very light weight, working on vertical dip and drive, and perfect split positions.
Front Squat
5 sets of 5 reps with weight heavier than your clean and jerks, but still manageable and not too difficult.
Thursday
Snatch Warm Up
5-10 reps of each; Back Squat, Snatch Press, Overhead Squat
Hip Snatch
5 sets of 3 reps with an empty barbell or light weight, working on vertical leg drive and catching in a squat. Feel free to go slightly heavier than Monday for 1-2 sets, as long as technique is good.
Clean Warm Up
5-10 reps of each; Front Squat, Upright Row, Clean Turnover
Hip Clean
5 sets of 3 reps with an empty barbell or light weight, working on vertical leg drive and catching in a squat. Feel free to go slightly heavier than Monday for 1-2 sets, as long as technique is good.
Triple Pause Clean Pull
5 sets of 2 reps with a slightly heavy weight, pausing 1” off the ground, 1” above the knee, and in the hip position before extending up.
Friday
Clean & Jerk Warm Up
5-10 reps of each; Front Squat, Overhead Press, Clean Turnover, Pause Push Press, Split Footwork.
Hip Clean + Double Pause Jerk
5 sets of 1 Hip Clean followed by 3 Double Pause Jerks with an empty barbell or very light weight, working on vertical dip and drive, and perfect split positions. Feel free to go slightly heavier than Tuesday for 1-2 sets, as long as technique is good.
Back Squat
5 sets of 5 reps with weight heavier than your front squats on Tuesday, but still manageable and not too difficult.
Six Week Progression
In Weightlifting101, you’ll follow a six week progression for the olympic lifts that allows you to start with the basics and progress to performing the full snatch and clean and jerk with efficient technique.
Most snatch and clean progressions follow something called a “Top Down” approach, in which you learn the lifts from the hip, then from the hang, and finally from the floor.
Our progressions start the same way, with learning the snatch and clean from the hip or “power position“ first, but in week two we begin learning the lifts from the floor, making use of multiple pauses at key positions that you’ll need to perfect. In week four, we’ll remove the pauses but work on your technique with a slow pull before finally adding some speed to the lift on the last week.
In the Jerk, many progressions will have you start with a push press, then a push jerk, then a split jerk. We do it completely differently. On week one you’ll start with the split jerk, with LOTS of practice pausing in the dip and split position, both of which are key positions in the jerk. We’ll stick with this variation of the jerk for four weeks before progressing up to a tempo jerk, slowing things down a bit to make sure you still have good technique despite the removal of the pauses. The progression will finally add some speed in the final week as this is the last ingredient for a quality lift.
For the full beginner snatch progression, check out this article.
For the full beginner clean progression, read this article.
For the full split jerk progression, read this article.
Hopefully this helped! If you’d like to see the exact 6-week progression and program, then check out my free Weightlifting101: Beginner Guide + 6-Week Program here! It’s got tutorials, demo videos, detailed explanations, and a full 6-week program to teach you everything you need to know!
And if you want to get started but don’t have access to a coach, then you can join my free discord group where you can post your videos for a form check, ask questions from certified coaches, and get early access to events, apparel, and more!
P.S. Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel! I post videos every week teaching technique, answering questions and reviewing lifts! Check out the video below to see how I use the beginner snatch progression to teach a complete beginner in under an hour!