My Stance on the O-Lifts

This
past weekend, I hit a new PR on hang cleans at 225 (which, for the internet, is
probably not all that impressive).  While
I’ve posted the video, what you can’t see is how after my reps I walked around
an empty gym high fiving walls, fake people, and screaming the lyrics to Luke
Bryan.  True story.

But,
it made me realize that I don’t talk about Olympic lifting on here, even though
I do the lifts very often.  So why do I
stay quiet about it?  Well, for the
majority of adults, Olympic lifting just doesn’t make sense (yup, I’m looking
at you, Crossfit).

Anyway,
I thought it’d be helpful to show the video of my PR from a few days ago, to
showcase what Olympic lifting is all about:

While
posting this video will undoubtedly make me the envy of all Bostonian men, it’s
important to view in order to see all the moving parts in an Olympic lift.  I’ve always thought of these lifts as being similar
to a recipe.  An individual needs to
display a ton of knee stability, hip mobility, t-spine mobility, as well as
shoulder and elbow mobility.  Sadly,
through the aging process and our sedentary culture, not everyone has all the
proper ingredients!

Thinking
about the Olympic lifts as a recipe also makes you realize that while they
might be nice to have, they’re not a necessity in any program.  Would it be nice to have Emeril’s recipe for
gumbo?  Yes.  Could I still make a pretty amazing gumbo by
myself?  Of course I can, and Lindsay, my
girlfriend, can vouch for that.

The
same goes for any exercise.  Never think
of any particular lift as being necessary to your success.  There are hundreds of variations which will
give you the same training effect. Furthermore, with certain people, particular
exercises just do not make any sense. 
Not everyone has to do squat, deadlift, or bench in the traditional
sense.  But am I going to find a way to
get in these lifts in a way that’s safe for them and pain free?  Abso-frikken-lutely.

Olympic
lifts are a great tool in the proper setting, but that’s just what they are – a
tool.  If I have an adult who has a
cranky back, cranky hips, or cranky anything, we are not going to Olympic lift.  In every exercise I pick out for my clients
to perform, there has to be a risk/reward that’s clearly in our favor.  Sad to say, for most people Olympic lifting
is simply not worth it.