4 Skills You Need to Master Before Learning Olympic Weightlifting

The accessibility of Olympic weightlifting has surged in recent years, partly due to the increased awareness of Crossfit and strength and conditioning. In addition, the increased popularity of strength training and resistance training in general has contributed to the appeal of learning Olympic weightlifting.

Side view of me at the bottom of a front squat. The barbell is resting on my shoulders, and my elbows are lifted to keep the weight still.

The Olympic lifts (the Snatch, and the Clean and Jerk) are difficult exercises that take years to conquer. These lifts require you to hoist a barbell as high as possible, and then pull yourself under the bar as quickly as possible. Learning the Olympic lifts will challenge your skill, mobility, speed, and strength.

Due to the scope of this challenge, the rewards are huge. You’ll gain strength, explosive power, confidence, and mobility. The Olympic lifts are often used to help develop athleticism in athletes, and they can also be great for teaching gym skills to children.

Skills you need for Learning Olympic Weightlifting

While most people gravitate towards learning the Snatch and Clean and Jerk after some other form of resistance training, you can start your fitness journey with the Olympic lifts if you want. Whether you’re a gym beginner or a seasoned lifter, here are 4 skills you need to master before you begin your Olympic lifting journey.

Don’t be put off if you don’t have these skills yet! You can always start with Olympic weightlifting derivatives while you work on these skills (check back for more information on those soon).

Should I Start Learning Olympic Weightlifting?

The Olympic lifts are fantastic exercises that require a large investment of time and energy to master. They have numerous benefits from anything from sports performance to bone density. Trying to master these lifts can also help turn your gym habit into a lifetime hobby! These lifts will teach you to be explosive and produce force at deep ranges of motion.

A top-down view of an Olympic barbell, with a hand gripping the bar

Despite this, they’re not a great fit for everyone. The skill and mobility components do make them a little less accessible, and you can often get great training rewards in a short time with other training methods. It often comes down to how quickly you need to see results, what you’re juggling outside the gym, and how much time you want to spend in the gym. You can find a deeper discussion here.

That being said, following this checklist could help you decide if you’re ready for Olympic weightlifting.

1. Front Rack/Front Squat Ability

One of the first abilities that could limit your Olympic weightlifting journey is your ability to hold the bar in a front rack/front squat position. If you can’t do this, you’ll struggle with the Clean and Jerk, as well as some of the power variations (power cleans, power jerks). This obstructs you from a wide range of Olympic lifting movements.

The front squat is affected by all the usual squat criteria such as hip mobility and ankle mobility. In addition, the front squat also challenges wrist, shoulder, and upper back mobility. Beyond that, there is also a skill component to making the bar rest on the shoulders in the manner displayed above. Some people struggle with this even without mobility issues.

An image of me in a small gym, holding a barbell across my shoulders. My fingertips are under the bar with my elbows lifted in a typical Olympic front rack position.

If you struggle with wrist pain on front squats, check out this video. For a more comprehensive breakdown of front squat preparation, check this article.

2. Overhead Mobility

The Jerk and the Snatch both require you to lift and hold heavy weights overhead. Your aim is to throw the weight as high as possible and then drop into a low position, catching the bar over your head. In other words, these are not fun exercises to do if your overhead mobility is lacking.

A picture of me in a blue tshirt lifting a barbell above my head. The barbell has red plates on.

A lack of overhead mobility can make it difficult to hold weights overhead, and can force you into compensatory positions to try and lift the weight. This can put you off-balance and stop you from completing the lift.

Here are some of the exercises I use to work on overhead mobility with clients who are struggling with this.

Wall Reaches and Wall Angels

These are great for testing and training overhead mobility. They make for great warmup exercises.

Weighted Pullovers

These are a great loaded option to stimulate more change to the struggling area.

3. Hinging Skills

If you’re interested in learning the Olympic lifts, it’s pretty essential that you learn how to hinge. Hinging is a hip-dominant movement that is a huge component of the Snatch and Clean. Like the other entries on this list, it’s also just an important movement pattern to be able to execute properly.

Romanian Deadlifts

The Romanian or Stiff Legged Deadlift are two of the best examples of hinging in the gym.

Depending on your levers and Olympic lifting style, your lifts might rely quite heavily on the hinge position. In some cases, you may not depend on the hinge quite as much. Either way, it’s important movement to practice. Work on building familiarity, strength, and mobility in the hinge before you start learning Olympic weightlifting!

4. Explosive Effort with Resistance

When we start learning how to lift weights, we tend to perform exercises in a very slow, controlled manner. This is absolutely fine and sensible, but Olympic weightlifting requires a more dynamic approach. This can be quite a jarring shift if you start Olympic weightlifting as a gym novice.

Learning to lift with explosive intent requires you to feel comfortable with loaded movement. It requires you to contract and relax muscles with great timing. Most people can learn this skill whilst learning the Olympic lifts, however you can fast-track this process with other exercises in the gym.

Kettlebell Training

Kettlebell exercises help with explosive hip extension.

Barbell Jumps

Barbell jumps force you to produce force quickly and land with weight on top of you.

Note: these exercises are not proxies for Olympic weightlifting and do not teach the same movement. Instead, they build the “soft skills” that help you understand the intent behind explosive resistance training.

Conclusion

All the skills I’ve mentioned here can be taught during an Olympic lifting class or session. However, you can use the exercises I’ve shared to lay the groundwork before you start. Learning the Olympic lifts can be intense enough as it is, so if you can remove some of these obstacles in advance you’ll have an advantage over other novice lifters.

Want to get started with Olympic weightlifting, or do some supplementary work to improve your lifts? Get in touch below!