Alternative Assistance Exercises for Olympic Weightlifting

 Part One

In this article I want to discuss alternative exercises for Olympic weightlifting. We all know the exercises that our coaches hammer into us and these are what I like to call the ‘main stream’ exercises like the power clean, front squat and high pull etc etc But like in any sport quite a few imbalances throughout the body are developed due to the constant use or over use of the main stream exercises for and in that particular sport.

So what are the imbalances? I think the imbalances lie in the ‘entire posterior chain’ & ‘hip flexors’ of the lifter and It makes sense to me that if these imbalances are addressed by or for the lifter then this will allow the lifter to have a better posture and better posture will I think allow for better pulling position in the first pull of both the lifts,(clean & jerk and snatch) and therefore allow for a smoother pull throughout the entire lift. What I mean by this is if you start right then you got a better chance of finishing right.

The first exercise that every athelete should do is the Cable Pullthrough. This movement really hits the lower back muscles and they offer a training stimulus that overloads the posterior chain with only a fraction of the loading forces on the spine. This movement should be considered as a universal movement and should be used by any athelete. This movement is a staple of many 900lb squatters in powerlifting circles but it offers great value to the olympic lifter because it helps to teach the athelete to learn to dissociate their hips from the lumber spine. As David Tate, (2012) reported to of said is that ‘the pull through is one of the best movements to use to bring up the glutes, hips and hamstrings. These muscles of the posterior chain are the most important when it comes to squatting and deadlifting. Its important to remember in order to ensure a smooth carryover to Snatch & the Clean & Jerk the athlete should use the foot stance for those lifts and I would recommend the foot stance while the athlete is in the bottom position this is because the posterior chain is under considerable strain and its at this point of both the movements that strength is needed. I feel it is a good idea to use 3-4sets of 15 reps range.

The next exercise is the Rear Dumbbell Flye. This movement helps to ‘strengthen and thicken’, Alway (2002) the posterior deltoid, (rear delt). You see the deltoid is desgined to rotate the arm in a circluar fashion and the pectorial muscle, (chest) and latismiss dorsi (lats) help to move the arm forwards and backwards. However the deltoid is a ‘poor mechanical lever’. Alway (2002) and this can give rise to the protetial for injury. Also the if the athelete has weak rear delts then their shoulders will be pulled forward by the stonger chest muscle. If you look closely at a boxer, they have weak rear delts due to the stance they adopt for fighting, ie. Shoulder rolled  and hunched forward. This position for the boxer and most critically for the olympic weightliftier poor upper back posture. Yes the bar in the front rack position is caught easier but the first pull can be compremised due to the thr rounding of the upper back. So by strngthing the rear delts with rear dumbbell flyes the athelete can miminise the risk of injury to the upper back, improve posture by the shoulders been pulled back and thus allowing for a straighter spine, which in turn allows for the correct merchanical set up for the first pull and stabalitly of the shoulder girdle when the weight is over head.as compared to muscles that have only one function, but the

The following three excrsies are for the trapezius and this muscle is very strong but is very eaisly hurt when used too expolsively and the olympic weightlifter needs to shrug expolisvely & sometimes violentely. So these movements will help to develop the strength & muscle of trapeziuism. These moevements are the Kelso Bench shrug, Rear Shrug and Hise Shrug.

The Kelso shrug  with dumbbells helps to strengthen the lower (& middle) portion of the trapeziusm. This part is often neglceted by lifters and it can lead to the upper back starting to round as the load on the bar becomes heavier. Once the upper back starts to round then the lifters form breaks down. Even thou the lifter can pull the load and compelte the lift its quite noticable that the lift was harder just below the knees, around mid-shin level because the upper back starts to buckle and thus changing the posture to a mechincacial disadvantage.  Try to image the lower trapeziusm as the middle portion of a spring standing up. Once the spring begins to bend at the middle the upper spring will collapse and then the lower portion of the spring will collapse too. I would sugguest 3 sets of 15 reps with a moderatley heavy weight.

The Rear Shrug was a favoruite of 8 time Olympia winner Lee Haney and for good reason. This shrug can really pack on the meat and strength of the trapeziuism. However there is something that I have observed while using rear shrugs instead of front shrugs and that is rear shrugs help to pull the shoulders back and by doing this they help to improve the posture. Another advantge is that rear shrug develop the grip as it is harder to hold a bar behind you. Also as wightlifters we shrug to the front quite a lot and I think this creates an imbalance in the shoulder girdle and upper back muscularity. Rear shurgs build the middle portion of the trapeziuism and also hit the upper portion at the same time, while in my experince the front shrug only works the upper trapeziuism area. Use rear shrugs to help strengthen & balance out the trapeziuism so I would like to surggest a set & rep scheme of 3 sets of 10-12 reps with a heavy weight.

Now to Hise Shrus. These were devepoled by Joseph Curtis Hise an old timer strongman who used this method of shrugs to bulk up his upper body with great mass and strength. This movement is preformed by placing a barbell on your shoulders like you are about to squat but you take a deep breath and shrug your shoulders up. You will only get around a 1 inch or 2 inch upward shrug movement but this method will build a huge amount of lung power & trapeziuism power. The other advantge to the lifter is that they will also find that holding the bar in the receive postion (of the snatch epesically) feels more soild thus building the confiendce to handle more weight overhead. The Hise shrug can be worked for 3 sets of 20-30 reps for muscle gain or 3 sets of 3-7 reps for strength and power.