Olympic Lifts?

[ThePurplePride]

I finally have access to my school's gym (my coach finally grew a brain and decided "Hey! Maybe I should open the weight room for once like every other school!") so I'm thinking about doing a 5x5 program, 3 day split, with olympic lifts incorporated. The other two days I have wrestling and conditioning pratice at another school (my coach has yet to figure out we should start preseason pratice).

Now that my school's gym is open, no more caveman workouts.. I want to start hitting the weights. The school has no kettlebells and I'm out of money as it is (all the offseason tournaments as well as the rest of my money going into preseason tournaments).

My question is, would incorporating Olympic lifts be good or not? I've heard some members say that it's not neccassary, others said that it was great. I'm clueless. I've googled, and again, mixed results.

If it is good, can someone please give me a example template of a routine I can incorporate?

Thanks in advance!

[gjfovf]

Olympic lifts are tremendous. Clean and jerks are a great exercise to develop explosive power. 2-4-6-8 protocol is one I use. The weight remains the same, the reps increase with limited rest and multiple sets. I have had great results using it.

[JensenS]

I'll go ahead and throw out another vote in support of Olympic lifts. The explosiveness that you need for them transfers very well over to wrestling.

I would very strongly advise finding someone who knows what they're doing and having them help you out a little bit, because these are lifts where technique is very important.

[FloggingSully]

My question is, would incorporating Olympic lifts be good or not?

That depends on whether or not you have someone qualified to teach you how to do them.

[shead]

Buy or download the book "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe. It explains the technique for most of the lifts and has a great routine.

[ThePurplePride]

Thanks for the responce guys.

gjfovj, what weight do you use for the 2-4-6-8?

And yes, I do have someone that knows their stuff when it comes to olympic lifts, I was just wondering if it was good for wrestling and how I should go about it if it were so, since the fitness advisor isn't a wrestler and I want something that will help me in wrestling specifically.

[gjfovf]

I use double 24 kg kettlebells. That would be roughly 55lb for dumbbells since you don't have access to bells.

[razegfx]

id like to posit that unless your form is injury-attracting or you plan on being a competitive weightlifter, form isn't a primary concern. there is a safe way to do the clean and jerk, and there is also a way to do it to so that you can pack on maximum poundage. most people that power clean recreationally or merely as a means to an end (being to be more powerful/explosive in general, not just in a specific lift) wont have form resembling an olympian's. form for the clean, for them most part is gained instinctively after thousands and thousands of repetitions. the fact that your form isnt ideal at first, shouldn't necessarily discourage your use of them or discourage you from throwing weight on the bar.

TLDR: clean and jerks/power cleans are great, throw them into your 5x5, perhaps as a replacement for deads or rows. might be a good idea to drop the volume to 5x3 and/or put them in front of the squats, too.