Mike Asks: I have been doing Oly lifting for a wile and recently started to work out at a boxing gym. Here is my question does Oly lifting have a place in a boxers training program? If so how much training (duration) and how often? I think it would be a perfect addition but I would really like your opinion as I am probably biased. Your site, workouts and posted videos are great; your book the complete guide to Olympic lifts is the best! Thanks for all the information you make available for this sport.

Greg Says: In my opinion, some form of the Olympic lifts will benefit any ground-based athlete, particularly ones whose sports involve any kind of leg and hip based power—boxing definitely fits the bill.

The first consideration is that boxing is an extremely skill-intensive sport and much of a boxer’s training time must be dedicated to skill work and sparring. Conditioning would be the next most important element, so that’s another huge chunk of the available training time and recovery ability. Strength and power work has considerably less space to occupy after these two things, but it can be done.

The nature of boxing doesn’t require huge levels of strength, although certainly strength is important. More important is speed and power. With this in mind, a boxer in my opinion would be best served by doing most if not all Olympic lifts as power variants and with weights in the 70-80% range. This will allow the best explosiveness training, and also dig less into the athlete’s recovery capacity than heavier lifting will. I would primarily use 2-3 reps/set, although as training changed approaching a fight, I would reduce the volume without increasing the weight much if at all.

I would say that most boxers would be doing strength/power work maybe 2 days/week. Depending on what else is being done, an Olympic lift could be worked into both days. In such a case, I would probably do one pulling-based lift and one pushing-based lift, e.g. on the first day do power cleans and the second day do push jerks.

Hand and wrist health is of paramount importance to boxers, so it’s critical to use the lifts safely in this regard.

Andrew Asks: Greg, thanks so much for all of the hard work you, Robb and the rest of the team put into the paleo podcast. I've listened to every episode, and have learned a ton about nutrition and training. Please know that dividends are paying off for your hard work - I've ordered your book and DVD, and added a performance menu subscription to my Christmas list.

Quick question, how can I address softness in my rear leg glute in the split jerk position? My understanding from watching an earlier MWOD episode is that my glute should not be soft here. I think this may be a weak posterior chain issue, although you've suggested on the podcast that this is a common misdiagnosis. Any help you can offer would be much appreciated.

Please keep up the great work. Many thanks.

Greg Says: My question would be, how are you determining that it’s soft while in the split position? Regardless, if the glute isn’t activated, you’re not able to stabilize the lumbar spine against hyperextension as well, which can be a problem both with regard to split jerk performance and safety.

I would suggest a fairly simple approach. First, add glute activation exercises at the beginning of your workouts. If you can’t do them initially, work gradually toward single-leg glute bridges with a hold at the top for 2-3 seconds. This will best simulate the rear-leg position in the split. You can also add addition split strength work and make activating the rear glute a focus. Exercises for this would include things like split squats, weighted lunge variations, and lunges only to default split depth (loaded more heavily than full-depth lunges).

Something else to consider is that you may be in an improper split position with too much weight on the front foot. If you’re not properly loading the rear foot, the glute may not be activating because it has no need to.

Alex Asks: Started train in oly lifts about 5 months ago, can't fully activate my leg drive, hips shoot up and pull instead of drive, having trouble moving up my pr wt. Coaches seem frustrated with me. I love oly lifting but feel ignored in training. Really don't want to quit, but... Can u help! Thanks.

Greg Says: No matter how well you understand how to do something correctly, there will be limits to what you can do physically. This is a perfect example. You know you want to break the bar and lift with an upright posture, but you’re not strong enough in that posture to make it happen past a certain weight threshold. The only way to solve the problem is to strengthen the posture you want to use. This can be best done with snatch and clean deadlift variations, but you should also be forcing the correct posture with every single pulling rep you do and making sure that the overwhelming majority of your pull and classic lift volume is being done properly. If that means not going as heavy as often, that’s a necessary step to correct this.

With regard to strength work, halting deadlifts or segment deadlifts are a good choice. In your case, I would put a pause in at least 2 places—an inch off the floor and at the knee. This will allow you to feel the proper movement well and to check yourself at each point to make sure you are in fact in the correct position. Make the lift slow and controlled and hold the pause positions for 2-3 seconds.

When you do pulls or the classic lifts, control the break from the floor and keep it smooth and fairly slow until you correct the problem. Rushing the break from the floor will nearly always cause the hips to rise too much too soon, even if you’re strong enough to lift with the proper posture.