Good Technique Is Not Dependent On The Application
“Yeah, but I’m not trying to be an olympic lifter, I just want to work on explosiveness”
This is one of the things I’ve heard athletes and coaches say when it comes to improving their technique for the olympic lifts, and it’s some of the most horseshit thinking I’ve ever heard.
Good technique is good technique because it is more efficient. Not because we want to be perfectionists with our technique, but because if we optimize for efficiency, we do not need to work as hard to get the most out of the exercise.
The olympic lifts are most effective at eliciting the intended response the more weight you have on the barbell. If you want to work on increasing your power output, you can do that with a 95lbs barbell, but you’ll definitely create more power if you have 315lbs on the barbell. But to get there, you’ll likely need to become more efficient with your technique. This efficiency creates the ability to use more weight, which develops the qualities you are trying to develop.
Thinking that you want to generate more power so you don’t need to worry about technique is about as backward as you can get.
If you want to work on improving your technique, I recommend focusing on these three principles.
Legs drive the bar up, arms move the body down
Prevent the bar from moving forward or backward excessively
The bar should always be accelerating
These are foundational technique principles that are always true regardless of individual differences. Other things like grip width, stance, and when to initiate the second pull all can be different from person to person, but these three are not.
Legs drive the bar up, arms move the body down.
This is an efficiency principle. Your legs are much stronger than your arms, which means elevating the bar, the hardest part of the lift, should be done by the stronger muscle groups. If you were to use your arms to elevate the bar, you would cap at a much lighter weight than if you used your legs.
If you can get adequate leg drive to elevate the bar, then using your arms to move your body down is primarily a way to improve your speed under the bar. It’s not necessary, but again, without it, you will cap out on the maximum weight you could use.
Prevent the bar from moving forward or backward excessively.
This is yet another efficiency principle. Any time the barbell moves away from the center line, the lift becomes less efficient. There will always be a certain amount of movement away from the center line, we are not lifting in a smith machine here, but the more there is, the higher the likelihood you have of failing the lift.
If the bar is pushed away from you by your hips, then you’ll either need to swing the bar back to you or move yourself forward to the bar, both of which require more energy than necessary. The same concept applies if the barbell is pushed away and then loops back around. Even if this does not result in a jump forward or backward, it still requires more energy to stop the bar from moving down as well as backward, as opposed to just stopping it from moving down.
Think of it like holding your groceries in front of you instead of by your sides. One is a lot easier.
The bar should always be accelerating
This is yet another efficiency principle. (catching on yet?) Remember, the whole “an object in motion stays in motion” idea from high school science?
The same thing applies here. The weight is hardest to accelerate when it is at a dead stop. But as it starts to move, it becomes easier to make it move faster. If you have any inefficiencies that cause the barbell to slow down after it breaks off the ground and before it is over your head, then you should try to fix them. The most common cause is starting the lift too quickly. If you start too quickly you are more likely to get pulled out of the strongest possible positions, which leads to slowing down. Start slow, finish fast.
Hopefully, this led to some lightbulb moments in your technique, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll start to focus on efficiency and not just “raw power”. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or ask in my free discord here and you can even drop your video in the #form-checks channel for a form check!
By the way, I’ve got a free beginner weightlifting guide and a 6-week program! If you’re new to the olympic lifts, then check it out here!
And if you’re looking for a weightlifting program designed to help you set PRs, improve your technique, and get strong af, then check out a FREE WEEK TRIAL of my 3 & 5-Day OlyStrong Team at the link below!