Off Season vs Competition Training For Olympic Weightlifting

Off Season training vs Competitive training for any athlete should vary quite a bit. But how do we vary training for a sport that only requires you to perform two specific lifts? Olympic Weightlifters are known for their impeccable amount of skill and this is something we see trained year round. So how does Off Season training look compared to Competitive training? Let's have a look.

Off Season

Off Season training for any sport works on building weaknesses and patterns that we do not have time to dedicate towards when preparing for competition. When considering what Off Season training should look like for Olympic Weightlifting, we need to have a look at the demands an athlete has and what they require proficient work on. Exercises such as lighter intensity conditioning to work on overall work capacity, bodybuilding exercises to improve muscular strength and hypertrophy for smaller muscle groups and even variation movements to help gross motor patterns and aid as a corrective. These minor exercises that would not hold much importance to the bigger lifts should place a bigger emphasis as they are the building blocks to a healthy and structurally balanced body. We are only as strong as our weakest link.

This would also be a good time to work on technical deficits that would have affected our higher specific movement patterns. Exercises such as Snatch from Low Blocks or Deficit Snatches for the Snatch or Push Presses or Deadlifts for the Clean and Jerk are a good example as they a variations that are less specific but have a purpose as a corrective to aid in the main lifts.

Pre-Competitive Training

As we develop the physical qualities from our Off Season training, working on all possible links that we know may hinder us in competition, we then progress into our Competition training. The Competitive training differs significantly as the focus now shifts into us being able to display the best technique and fitness suited for the sport. The sport of Olympic Weightlifting requires us to lift our one rep max on the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk so due to this, our training has to have more dynamic correspondence. 

Training should have a higher emphasis on movements mimicking and complementing the Snatch and Clean and Jerk. Conditioning would take a back space as our work capacity should have been worked on Off Season. Bodybuilding exercises would still be prescribed however there would be a significant decrease in overall volume to reduce fatigue accumulated in order to train the main lifts more often at higher intensities. Competitive variation movements would shift more towards exercise with higher levels of specificity such as Pause Jerks or Jerks with holds in the catch for Clean and Jerks or Pause Snatches for the Snatch. This still allows us to work on our weaknesses but without deviating too far from the main lifts. Our overall training volume would decrease slightly as intensity increases and as we train harder, we accumulate more fatigue. 

Conclusion

Each training cycle should have a purpose and exercise selection should be specific to the individual, time frame and goal. With Off Season training we are afforded more time to work on things we are unable to during Competitive phases. This however shifts over to more specific training closer to competition to allow us to display the best possible lifts for competition. In order for you to know when and where to select exercises, you need to establish what and how you want to perform at competition. 

I hope this article helps illustrate a typical Olympic Weightlifters training schedule. Take note that there are so many different styles of Weightlifting based on country, skill level and coach. The principles still remain the same however there will be a slight deviation from each style to suit their athletes. 

Tune in for next week's news letter!

Coach Matty