The Best 4 Day Olympic Weightlifting Program
Olympic Weightlifting programs can seem like a mystery, especially as a beginner.
Some lifters say you should train seven days a week, no days off David Goggins style. Those same people are also 19 and have nothing else to do with their time but train. And in most cases, less is more.
In this article I break down the exact 4-day weightlifting split that I recommend to lifters to improve your technique, get strong, and set PR’s!
P.S. If you want to follow my exact program, check out my OlyStrong Program! It’s four days a week with an optional 5th day for extra technique work, which you can try for free, here.
Choosing The Best Exercises
When narrowing down the amount of days you train, you’ll have to make the decision on what exercises to cut and what exercises to keep.
When it comes to exercise selection, we want to choose the exercises that have the biggest bang for your buck. This means that they have a high likelihood of improving your snatch and clean and jerk by either improving your technique, increasing your strength, or increasing the amount of work you can do.
Here are the 10 most important exercises to choose from:
Snatch
Clean
Jerk
Back Squat
Front Squat
Overhead Squat
Push Press
Strict Press
Snatch Pull
Clean Pull
Some of these exercises could be done multiple times per week, where others may only need to be done once a week. Any exercise besides these may be beneficial, but it is highly unlikely to be more beneficial than the ones listed above. Let’s go over how to organize these into a 4-day training split.
The 4-Day Olympic Weightlifting Split
After years of testing out various training splits and programs, I have found that the best 4-day split has two olympic lifting focused days and two strength focused days.
One of the olympic lifting days uses lighter weights and higher reps, and the other uses heavier weights and less reps. Along with this, one day will always remain focused on traditional olympic lifts, while the other may use complexes or variations depending on your needs.
Both of the strength days have similar volume (sets and reps), but one day is inherently heavier while the other is lighter due to the exercise selection. We’ll also include some light olympic lifting technique work as part of a warm up for each of the strength days. I call these Skills & Strength Days, which you can read more about in this article.
It’s important to note that for the olympic lifting focused days, there will still be some strength work, and vide versa. Along with this, every workout will include a full body accessory circuit designed to isolate and build muscle at the end of the workout. For more info on accessories and their place in your program, check out my free Accessories101 Guide!
Day 1: High Volume Olympic Lifts
For day one, we’re going to have our highest volume and lightest day of olympic lifts.
Every weightlifting program needs to have a decent amount of volume work, with both moderately challenging snatches and clean and jerks, using a high amount of reps to practice the technique that you want to make more consistent.
There are many ways to incorporate volume work into your program, but my favorite way is to use On-The-Minute Training which is an effective tool for improving technique, conditioning, and consistency in your olympic lifts. I usually rotate between one of the three progressions in my On-The Minute Secrets Guide, which you can find here!
You can also perform more traditional sets of two to three reps for three to six sets in the 60-80% range like we are currently doing in the OlyStrong Team Program!
Now it’s not just olympic lifts for this day, we’ll also include one strength exercise, the clean pull after the olympic lifts for the day. For clean pulls, I usually recommend 3-5 sets of 2-5 reps in the 85-115% range. For more info on clean pulls, their variations, and their programming, check out this article here!
Day 2: Skills and Strength
For day two, we’ll have our heaviest strength workout of the week.
If you want to snatch 200lbs, you need to squat it first, no matter how good your technique is. That’s why we focus almost half of our training on getting stronger. It helps you continue to make progress long term, and having an excess of strength never hurts your olympic lifts.
For this workout, I recommend focusing on the Back Squat and Push Press as the two primary strength exercises, usually following the 12-Week Progression in my squat program. However, before the strength work, we can sneak some extra practice for the olympic lifts in by using a light drill or variation as a warm up. I’ve even used the Overhead Squat as a way to get extra confidence with heavy weights overhead while it doubles as a warm up for the back squats that follow!
One more tip for this day is to prioritize your weaknesses. If you have a fantastic squat, but terrible overhead strength, then consider swapping the order of exercises to focus on the push press at the beginning of the workout instead of the end. This helps make sure that you have enough energy for the things you need to work on most, instead of working on your weaknesses when you’re tired.
Day 3: Heavy Olympic Lifts
Day three is our heaviest day of olympic lifts.
We’ll often work up to a heavy top set of 1-3 reps for the snatch, clean and jerk, or another variation or complex depending on the phase of training.
I love using a heavy triple or double for more experienced lifters as a way to go heavy but challenge your ability to maintain your technique, but for newer lifters, I have found it really useful to go heavy on technique complexes, which you can read more about here.
An example may be to go heavy on the Hip Snatch + Snatch complex, as a way to practice lifting heavy while also reinforcing vertical leg drive and speed under the bar.
Following the heavy olympic lifts, we’ll finish the session with snatch pulls, following the exact same rep scheme as the clean pulls from earlier in the week. Usually aiming for 3-5 sets of 2-5 reps between 85-115% of your 1RM Snatch.
Day 4: Skills and Strength
Day four is our second skills and strength day of the week, and it’s also the lightest.
We’ll focus on two main strength lifts, the front squat and strict press. For the front squat, we’ll almost always follow the same 12-week progression that we used for the back squat on day two. The strict press will often follow this same rep scheme, however lately I’ve found the strict press responds better to higher volume rather than heavy weight, so feel free to experiment yourself.
Before the strength work, we’ll warm up with a light drill for either the clean or the jerk. This works well as the transition to the strength exercises is usually very smooth. Some examples may be a tall clean or tempo clean as a clean drill, or the tall jerk or pause jerk as jerk drills. Each of these can be performed with fairly light weight while still getting something out of it. For these drills, stick with 3-5 sets of 2-5 reps with light to moderate weight so you aren’t too fatigued before your heavy strength work.
Same with day two, but you can get more out of this by prioritizing your weaknesses. If you have a weak upper body ad a strong lower body, then order your exercises to focus on pressing first when you are least fatigued so you can push them as hard as possible. Then, finish the session with your strengths which you may not need as much energy for.
Sample Week Of Training
Now that you understand the split, let’s go over what a week of training might look like for a 4-Day Olympic Weightlifting Split, but if you want to try this out yourself, then click here for a free week trial of the OlyStrong team program!
Day 1:
Snatch Warm Up
Snatch: 15 Minute EMOM at 70% of your 1RM
Clean and Jerk: 15 Min EMOM @70% of your 1RM
Snatch Pull: 3x5@80% of your 1RM Snatch
Day 2:
Overhead Squat: Build to a heavy triple
Pause Back Squat: 1x5@65%, 4x5@55%
Push Press: 1x5@65%, 4x5@55%
Day 3:
Snatch Warm Up
Snatch: Build to a heavy triple
Clean and Jerk: Build to a heavy 1 Clean + 3 Jerks
Clean Pull: 3x5@80% of your 1RM Clean
Day 4:
Tall Clean: 3x5 building in weight each set
Pause Front Squat: 1x5@65%, 4x5@55%
Strict Press: 5x 6-10 reps with moderate weight
Hopefully you’ve found this helpful! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or hop in my free discord and let me know in the #wl-advice channel!
By the way, I’ve got a free beginner weightlifting program! If you’re brand new to the snatch, clean, or jerk, then click here to download your free program today!
If you like this training split, then check out my 5-Day OlyStrong Team Program! We follow this exact split with an optional additional day, so you have the ability to ease into the training program with four days, and then you can add an extra day in if you feel like you need it! Click the link below to grab a free week trial today!