Warm up for Olympic Weightlifting
Olympic Weightlifting is an intense sport. If you want to achieve better results in your weightlifting work outs, you need to make sure you warm up properly! In this guide, we discuss how to warm up for Olympic weightlifting.
While your warm up will likely evolve as you become more adept at Olympic weightlifting, this article will provide a good guide as you get started in the sport and begin to develop your lifting competency. Warming up properly can help you prevent injuries, improve your form and prepare your mind and body for your workouts.
General Warm Up
The first part of any Olympic weightlifting warm up includes the general warm up. During this phase, you aim to raise your body temperature and get some blood flow to all your muscles and joints.
Try three to five minutes of cycling, jogging, skipping rope or brisk walking to start warming up and prepare for the more specific phases of your workout.
Specific Warm up
After raising your core body temperature and getting blood flow to muscles and joints, your next order of business is to start preparing your body for the specific demands of your workout. For example, if you plan to snatch, you want to do some mobility work on your hips, knees, ankles and shoulders before gradually warming up the movement. If you plan to work on the clean and jerk, you should warm up your legs to catch a heavy clean and your shoulders to explosively propel a loaded bar overhead. Build up to your workout with drills and exercises that gradually progress in difficulty and specificity.
Snatch Warm up
The barbell snatch requires you to warm up your shoulders and back to support a weighted bar overhead. This exercise also requires you to warm up your hips, knees and ankles to get into a deep squat. Finally, you need to be ready to move explosively to get under the bar quickly. This warm up helps you get ready to snatch.
- 5 Floor Angels with Plates
- 5 Banded Squats
- 3 Snatch Pull with Bar
- 3 Power Snatch with Bar
- 3 Overhead Squat with Bar
- 3 Snatch Balance with Bar
- 3 Full Snatch with Bar
- 1 Snatch at 50 % 1RM
- 1 Snatch at 70 % 1 RM
Clean and Jerk Warm up
To get ready to clean and jerk, you need to be ready to catch a heavy clean in a deep squat position. You also need to support a heavy bar overhead. This means you need to warm up your shoulders, legs, and glutes as well as the specific movements involved in the clean and jerk. Here is a sample warm up routine to do just that.
- 5 Floor Angels with Plates
- 5 Goblet Squats
- 3 Clean Pull with Bar
- 3 Full Clean with Bar
- 3 Front Squats
- 3 Overhead Press
- 3 Power Jerk
- 3 Split Jerk
- 1 Clean and Jerk at 50 % 1 RM
- 1 Clean and Jerk at 70 % 1 RM
Strength Warm up
Maybe today you are working on your squats, deadlifts or presses and other assistance work rather than the Olympic weightlifting movements themselves. That’s ok, as working on your strength will ultimately make you a better weightlifter.
Here is a simple warm up for squats or pulls. This warm up will warm up your trunk, arms and legs to do heavy strength work.
- 5 Leg Swings Right and Left
- 5 Bird Dog Left/Right
- 5 Bodyweight Squat
- 5 Goblet Squat
- 5 Barbell Squat/Deadlift with Empty Bar
- 5 Squat/Deadlift at 50 %
- 3 Squat/Deadlift at 60-75 %
- 1 Squat/Deadlift at 75-85 %
Final Thoughts
Warming up properly is imperative for Olympic weightlifting. Getting your body prepared to work out can help you improve your strength, technique, speed and help prevent many injuries.
How do you warm up for Olympic weightlifting? Let me know in the comment section below.
