The sport of weightlifting has been around for over 100 years and as the years go on athletes are getting stronger and stronger!

Since the introduction of CrossFit there has been a huge increase of interest in the sport due to the high demand required for being strong and moving weight for high repetitions.

With CrossFit growing at a rapid pace as a sport we are seeing more and more coaches out their teaching these movements, but do they actually know how to help someone get the best results with their lifts or are they just teaching them because it’s their job??

Over the years of being a competitive weightlifter and a coach myself, I try and take every opportunity to learn from someone else.  No one knows everything but everyone knows something and that something could help you as either a coach or an athlete.

I recently went on one of Adventurefit Travel trips to watch the Crossfit Games and see the big Apple and one of my favourite things that Bill includes on his trips is the opportunity to train and learn from an experienced weightlifting athlete or coach. For this trip, we originally had Russian Weightlifter Apti Aukhadov who is the silver medalist from the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 85kg category but due to a few issues he was unable to make it to the States, but Bill made a plan and he organized for us to go to Mikes Gym and be taught by Mike Burgener (Coach B) himself.  Coach B is a senior weightlifting coach for the United States and the head of CrossFit weightlifting.

Like I said. Take the opportunities that are given to you and take onboard new ideas that are going to make you a better athlete or coach. Which is exactly what I did when learning from Coach B.

 The 3 key points to being a good weightlifter.

“MOBILITY – SPEED – STRENGTH”

These were the 3 simple words that stood out to me while being coached by Coach B.

1. MOBILITY – Being flexible is one thing, but are you mobile?? Are you able to move into positions and perform movement patterns with no restrictions through your range of motion? Weightlifting puts your body in some crazy positions, which is what makes the sport so amazing! If you have any mobility weaknesses then they will be exposed once the loads start getting heavier. “Ankles, knees, hips, thoracic, shoulders and wrists “, they all matter so you need to take care of your body!

2. SPEED – So you have become mobile but the next question is…how is your speed? Can you move around that bar fast enough to make the movement efficient? What you need to remember is that the barbell is an object and it will only move when you move it! Keeping the bar close and going up in a straight line is what’s going make your lifts more efficient. You are a lot faster than the bar. You control the bar, the bar doesn’t control you.

“You control the bar, the bar doesn’t control you!”

3. STRENGTH – The one thing that every weightlifter and Crossfitter wants from the beginning is to be strong. Yes strength is important because it creates a great foundation to actually moving weight, but if you are not mobile or fast, it makes weightlifting that much harder. The world of strength and conditioning is evolving as the years go on and people are getting stronger and stronger with so many new methods and approaches to getting strong. There are a countless number of styles and strength cycles all over the world and they all work but it comes down to how consistent are you with your training and which strength cycle works best for you?

Lastly just to touch on technique…

No one has perfect technique nor is there perfect technique that can be taught. Yes, there is a guide and a way of performing the snatch and clean&jerk but each individual athlete moves differently. With regards to coaching that athlete, it will all come down to how well the coach can work with how he/she moves to make them perform to the best of their ability.

The sport of weightlifting and Crossfit is forever growing and there will always be room for improvement!!

Shane Zunckel

About the author.

Shane is a Level 2 CrossFit Coach at CrossFit Moorabbin and CrossFit Victoria.

He is passionate about all things Olympic Lifting and regularly competes in Olympic lifting and CrossFit competitions.