How to Get as Mobile as a Weightlifter
The sport of weightlifting requires speed, strength, coordination, and mobility, as well as skill. Anyone can pick something off the floor, but picking something heavy up and lifting it above the head is much more difficult (for the purpose of this article, I define ‘heavy’ as heavier than your body weight). Even the strongest individual can only lift the weight a finite distance, so in order to succeed, you have to get under the bar. And quickly.
This is the essence of weightlifting and distinguishes it from the other ‘strength’ sports such as powerlifting and strongman. Getting under the bar requires mobility: ankles, hips, shoulders, and thoracic spine especially. In this article, I shall outline some ways to get more mobile for weightlifting and how to structure your training accordingly.
What is weightlifting?
Weightlifting consists of two lifts, each of which requires the lifter to pick up a barbell from the floor and get it above their head:
· The snatch: a single movement that requires skill and bravery.
· The clean and jerk: two movements, the clean get the bar onto your shoulders, and the jerk gets the bar above your head. Because it is done in two parts, more weight is lifted than in the snatch.
Here is an introduction to the sport with some of our club lifters:
Common areas of stiffness
Most beginners who come to our club suffer from the everyday stiffness caused by a sedentary lifestyle or of a bodybuilding type program: the bench press is never done by weightlifters because of its lack of transfer to overhead lifting and the tight shoulders it causes. The internal rotation of shoulders caused by bench presses or by sitting at a desk or driving is the opposite of what is required in the snatch.
Shoulder and thoracic spine mobility: Rather than working the shoulder in isolation, we prefer to fix one or two hands in position and then move the body around it. This video shows a bridge with one hand fixed, starting from the squat and then a rotation.
By moving around a fixed position, the shoulder has to brace and bear weight at different angles and planes. This is difficult to achieve with ‘static’ stretching.
T-Spine mobility: The thoracic spine is that which attaches to your rib cage: it becomes very tight when hunched over desks. If the T-spine is stiff, the shoulders are forced to do more of the extension when lifting a barbell above your head. This hanging sequence again works on the ‘fixed’ position premise, this variation is done with both hands fixed above the head, and the body has to do different movements underneath it.
Ankle mobility: the best way to get better at squatting is to do more squatting! But rather than trying to repeat the same action, we try to vary what we do. In this sequence, we add a lot of variety from the bottom position. You can see in the video that some of the children are very good, and others struggle. This is common in those who are undergoing growth spurts. By working in this low position, the children are also getting stronger. This is ideal preparation before attempting to load them with external weight.
Incorporating mobility into the warm-up
We use big movements in the warm-up that encourage the lifters to get into full ranges before they pick up the barbell. Doing big movements requires all the major muscle groups to work together, and this helps increase body temperature.
Once the lifters are competent and mobile enough, it is down to me to find different variations to keep their minds and bodies stimulated.
An example is this hip mobility drill using hurdles:
Stepping over the hurdle requires a full extension of the legs, and squatting under the hurdle requires full flexion of the knees, hips, and ankles: just like the lifts.
Once you have developed basic mobility, you can invent your own methods of developing mobility, like one of our lifters has here:
The most important principle we have when developing weightlifters is that they have to earn the right to lift more weight. If their technique is sound and they are mobile and strong enough, then they can increase the weights. Accidents happen if you focus on just the external load and not on how the lifter moves.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
MOST POPULAR
How to Get as Mobile as a Weightlifter
The sport of weightlifting requires speed, strength, coordination, and mobility, as well as skill. Anyone can pick something off the floor, but picking something heavy up and lifting it above the head is much more difficult (for the purpose of this article, I define ‘heavy’ as heavier than your body weight). Even the strongest individual can only lift the weight a finite distance, so in order to succeed, you have to get under the bar. And quickly.
This is the essence of weightlifting and distinguishes it from the other ‘strength’ sports such as powerlifting and strongman. Getting under the bar requires mobility: ankles, hips, shoulders, and thoracic spine especially. In this article, I shall outline some ways to get more mobile for weightlifting and how to structure your training accordingly.
What is weightlifting?
Weightlifting consists of two lifts, each of which requires the lifter to pick up a barbell from the floor and get it above their head:
· The snatch: a single movement that requires skill and bravery.
· The clean and jerk: two movements, the clean get the bar onto your shoulders, and the jerk gets the bar above your head. Because it is done in two parts, more weight is lifted than in the snatch.
Here is an introduction to the sport with some of our club lifters:
Common areas of stiffness
Most beginners who come to our club suffer from the everyday stiffness caused by a sedentary lifestyle or of a bodybuilding type program: the bench press is never done by weightlifters because of its lack of transfer to overhead lifting and the tight shoulders it causes. The internal rotation of shoulders caused by bench presses or by sitting at a desk or driving is the opposite of what is required in the snatch.
Shoulder and thoracic spine mobility: Rather than working the shoulder in isolation, we prefer to fix one or two hands in position and then move the body around it. This video shows a bridge with one hand fixed, starting from the squat and then a rotation.
By moving around a fixed position, the shoulder has to brace and bear weight at different angles and planes. This is difficult to achieve with ‘static’ stretching.
T-Spine mobility: The thoracic spine is that which attaches to your rib cage: it becomes very tight when hunched over desks. If the T-spine is stiff, the shoulders are forced to do more of the extension when lifting a barbell above your head. This hanging sequence again works on the ‘fixed’ position premise, this variation is done with both hands fixed above the head, and the body has to do different movements underneath it.
Ankle mobility: the best way to get better at squatting is to do more squatting! But rather than trying to repeat the same action, we try to vary what we do. In this sequence, we add a lot of variety from the bottom position. You can see in the video that some of the children are very good, and others struggle. This is common in those who are undergoing growth spurts. By working in this low position, the children are also getting stronger. This is ideal preparation before attempting to load them with external weight.
Incorporating mobility into the warm-up
We use big movements in the warm-up that encourage the lifters to get into full ranges before they pick up the barbell. Doing big movements requires all the major muscle groups to work together, and this helps increase body temperature.
Once the lifters are competent and mobile enough, it is down to me to find different variations to keep their minds and bodies stimulated.
An example is this hip mobility drill using hurdles:
Stepping over the hurdle requires a full extension of the legs, and squatting under the hurdle requires full flexion of the knees, hips, and ankles: just like the lifts.
Once you have developed basic mobility, you can invent your own methods of developing mobility, like one of our lifters has here:
The most important principle we have when developing weightlifters is that they have to earn the right to lift more weight. If their technique is sound and they are mobile and strong enough, then they can increase the weights. Accidents happen if you focus on just the external load and not on how the lifter moves.