Introduction
Olympic Weightlifting is really a sport in which athletes compete for the total weight of two lifts: the snatch along with the clean & jerk. The courses methods utilized in Weightlifting will also be utilised by Strength & Conditioning coaches as a method of resistance training to get a great deal of other sports. Most significant factors behind exploiting various resistance training modalities such is for power development. There are lots of variations on the theme of power training. Some training modalities include plyometrics (Wilson, Elliot & Wood 1990), assisted and resisted training (Faccioni 1993a; 1993b) and speed and acceleration drills (Cinkovich 1992). A well known method accustomed to increase athletic power is Olympic Weightlifting (ie power cleans, push presses, snatches, jump jerks and their variations) conducted within the training (Garhammer, 1993). It has traditionally been seen as an effective way of producing general explosive ability (Takano 1992; Stone 1993; Garhammer & Gregor 1992). However, there are additional important considerations that demand to become addressed when implementing Olympic lifting exercises to the Strength & Conditioning program of an athlete, a few of these include movement competency, training age, sport and training time with athlete. The goal of this informative article by Elite Performance Institute (EPI) is usually to give a biomechanical and physiological discussion as to why weightlifting workouts are helpful to improve athletic performance and how they should be performed within a exercise program. For more details, please visit www.epicertification.com
Power Defined
Power has been defined as the best mix of speed and strength to generate movement (Chu 1996). Specifically, power represents ale the athlete to generate high degrees of process confirmed distance. Greater power a player possesses the greater the amount of work performed (Wilson 1992). Power is really a mix of strength and speed:
POWER = FORCE (strength) X VELOCITY (speed to move)
There are lots of physiological and neural adaptations which comprise the strength component (Moritani 1992). Physiological adaptations to strength incorporate a boost in muscle tissue through hypertrophy, ligament density and bone integrity (Tesch 1992a). Neural adaptations (Schmidtbleicher 1992) that may be produced are: (1) increased recruitment of motor units; (2) increased firing rate of motor neurones; (3) synchronised firing of motor neurones; (4) rise in intra-muscular coordination; and (5) rise in inter-muscular coordination.
Speed to move comprises many different interrelated factors (Ackland & Bloomfield 1995). They’re; (1) muscle fibre type; (2) skill; (3) muscle insertion points; (4) lever length; (5) muscular posture; and (6) elastic energy use of the series elastic component.
Olympic Weightling exercises facilitate development of the very center (Strength-Speed and Speed-Strength) from the force-velocity (FV) curve (see above). The FV curve acts a guide to Strength & Conditioning Courses with regards to the sort of strength developed from each exercise, session or phase of education within the program. Therefore, the Strength & Conditioning coach can effectively plan which power they would like to develop and which training modality (powerlifting, Olympic liftining, plyometrics, etc) is the most suitable utilised to elicit these adaptations.
Conclusion
Concern still exists regarding the ef?cacy of including Olympic weightlifting exercises within the resistance training programs of athletes in sports other than weightlifting. These concerns generally get into 3 broad categories: 1) Perceived time necessary to educate yourself on the movements due to the complexity from the lifts. 2) Deficiencies in comprehension of the possibility bene?ts that may be based on performing Olympic lifting exercises correctly. 3) Concern in the possibility of injury due to practicing these weightlifting movements.
It is evident there is a great number of biomechanical advantages of practicing these lifts with limited disadvantages. The biggest risk has been from the perceived danger of practicing these lifts. On the basis of the research presented by Brian Hammill from the British Weightlifting Association (BWLA), it could be stated with con?dence how the risk of injury is as low or lower than most sports providing there exists quali?ed supervision provided by certi?ed Strength and Conditioning coach who have been trained in coaching the weightlifting movements.
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