The Olympic lifts are not for everyone. I’m sure that sounds funny considering the source—most people who don’t train in our facility assume that all we do is Olympic weightlifting, even with our fitness clients. This is of course is not a logical assumption, but understandable to some degree based on our reputation for being totally awesome.

As it turns out, our fitness clients actually don’t do the Lifts extraordinarily frequently. As much as I’d prefer simply instructing and coaching them over anything else, what’s appropriate and effective for a given set of clients has nothing to do with my personal proclivities (nor those of any other trainer or gym owner). If it did, our fitness classes would consist of us sitting around watching IronMind lifting videos, eating nachos with triple steak, and drinking cold, crisp, refreshing Arnold Palmers. But alas, I and the other trainers have to actually train people according to their goals and abilities.

We have four basic sets of individuals training at Catalyst. The first is our weightlifting team—this is comprised of competitive lifters and a few who are not yet competitive but will be soon whether they know it or not. The next is strength and conditioning clients who are training for particular sports. The third set is our collection of personal training clients, whose goals cover the spectrum of possibilities. And the final is our fitness class folks.

The first group is pretty simple—they snatch and clean & jerk their faces off along with plenty of other heavy related lifts five days a week; they sit around a lot between sets and talk about food and the distastefulness of endurance sports (by endurance, I mean anything beyond a single 10 second effort).

The S & C folks are easy because they have very clear goals and tend to be more naturally athletic and experienced than many other individuals; likewise, personal training clients are extremely easy because everything can be individualized completely, and generally these folks have well-defined goals, and if not, can develop some with the guidance of their trainers.

The final group is the toughest to work with for a number of reasons, such as undefined or disparate goals, a broad range of experience and ability, and inconsistent training schedules. Generally, these individuals are simply interested in “getting fit” and looking better naked. It then becomes my job as the guy who does all the programming here to determine what exactly fitness is and how best to help such a group achieve it.

Many of you reading this are familiar and may even agree with the CrossFit definition of fitness—personally I was a big fan when CrossFit was using Jim Cawley’s 10 traits and aiming for competence and balance among them—strength, power, speed, endurance, stamina, flexibility, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy along with the idea of balancing the capacities of the three metabolic systems—I’m not remarkably excited about the current state of things with regard to definitions and methods.

This is not to say there are not elements of CrossFit that I believe in and implement—there are, and I’m grateful to be familiar with them. However, they are elements from an older and long-forgotten CrossFit, and they comprise only a segment of what we do.

In any case, these individuals perform strength work, conditioning work, dynamic and static mobility and flexibility work, and corrective/preventative work. Their strength work draws from an array of disciplines, but always relies on a foundation of the big basics: barbell squatting, pulling and pressing variations. There are periods in which they will do more obscure strength movements such as unilateral squat variations and the like in order to ensure stability and balance and provide enough variety to prevent boredom and staleness.

Their conditioning work consists of more traditional conditioning modes like running and rowing of various durations and intensities; interval work with various monostructural and mixed-modal efforts; dumbbell, kettlebell, barbell and other implement complexes; circuits with an array of movements and implements; and CrossFit-style mixed-mode circuits (with properly executed, rationally-chosen exercises, to be clear).

Within conditioning workouts, they will often use Olympic lift variants with dumbbells, sandbags or other non-barbell implements. Occasionally they will use a barbell Lift variation such as a power clean within a barbell conditioning complex—but with few reps and in a situation that both demands and allows an actual power clean. And never will they use the full barbell Olympic lifts in a conditioning workout as is seen with some CrossFit workouts.

Attempting to curb my circumlocution, let’s get to the point: The Olympic lifts are not appropriate for everyone at every time. As I already said, I’m of the opinion that they’re essentially never appropriate within a conditioning workout (with the occasional exception of lifts like power cleans at low rep numbers in a controlled and technically sound barbell complex). Additionally, there are individuals for whom the Lifts will simply never be appropriate. My 95 year-old grandmother, for example, has no business snatching and clean & jerking (and no, not even with a PVC pipe—what on earth would that accomplish, exactly?). An extreme example certainly, but the point remains—there are individuals who will seek the guidance of a trainer who do not need the Olympic lifts, and for whom the performance of which is downright silly and dangerous with no arguable benefit. (Yes, the needs of Olympians and grandparents DO differ in kind, not just degree.)

The reasons for this are pretty straightforward. First, the Lifts require a great deal of flexibility that many individuals do not possess, and in many cases, will never possess even with aggressive and consistent work. Without the requisite flexibility, the Lifts are simply not safe with loads that would be effective, like any other activity performed without adequate flexibility. Along these same lines, many clients will have residual limitations from previous injuries that prevent the safe and effective performance of the Lifts.

A reasonable level of strength is also necessary for the Lifts to be useful. Don’t argue with me about how beneficial it is for someone to snatch a length of PVC—it’s not. Unless it’s a temporary stage in a long term learning process that culminates in snatching legitimate weights with sound technique, it’s a waste of time and an indication of confused priorities.

Additionally, the ballistic nature of the Lifts means the joints and supportive structures of the body will experience and need to be able to manage high levels of force. The capability to cope with this kind of stress is not innate, and must be developed over time, like most other physical qualities, which arise as a response to certain stressors. Smart programming introduces these stressors and plans the athlete’s exposure to them in a manner that provides progressive increases in volume and magnitude with ample recovery time.

In short, when a client walks into your gym, you better have a plan to prepare him or her to perform EVERY exercise they’ll be doing safely and effectively, and you better have good reasons for EVERY exercise and workout you expect him or her to do.

Speaking of rationale for exercises and workouts, how many of our fitness clients need the extraordinarily great levels of hip and knee explosiveness that demands the use of complex exercises like the Olympic lifts and advanced plyometrics? I can tell you exactly how many—zero. This doesn’t mean these things are not potentially beneficial for them if implemented properly, but their absence or presence will not be the difference between fit and not fit. This is much different than the situation of certain athletes for whom the absence or presence of properly implemented Olympic lifts can have significant effects on performance and be the difference between winning and losing.

The idea of training every day fitness clients like high-level athletes sounds nice and is exciting for those clients, but the reality is that these people are not high-level athletes, and training people is not a conceptual endeavor—there are very real issues to contend with, and very real possibilities of injury and slowed or absent progress when trying to implement inappropriate programming. High-level athletes have years of frequent, well-planned training under their belts that has prepared them for their present training—for a perfect example of this, consider gymnastics and what the kids at each level do. The idea that you can skip over those years of preparation and casually jump into advanced training is horribly misinformed.

It’s not simply an issue of safety either, but also of effectiveness. A good example is strength work and programming. Few fitness clients will ever reach a level that requires complicated strength programming like would be seen with competitive weightlifters or powerlifters. Non-strength specialists will simply not get close enough to their genetic ceilings to require such degrees of jiggification. The same goes for tricks like accommodating resistance and similar methods—an adult male with a 200# max back squat doesn’t need to be using bands and chains. In fact, not only are inappropriately advanced programming and methods unnecessary, they can be considerably less effective than simpler approaches for such clients.

The previous did NOT say: Make your clients’ training easier. This idea of adequately preparing your clients for future training and using appropriate methods and exercises has nothing to do with the difficulty and demands of their training, or whether or not they’re willing to work hard. While it’s true that some fitness clients don’t want to push themselves as hard as you’d like them to, there are quite a few who are more than willing to put themselves through surprising levels of pain and discomfort for the ostensible end of fitness (the popularity and rapid growth of CrossFit demonstrates this well). In our entire gym, we don’t have a single client who doesn’t put forth sufficient effort.

However, within any group of individuals who are willing and eager to push themselves to such a degree, you will be hard pressed to find those who are also able to display the kind of discipline and foresight to critically evaluate their needs, create a rational plan based on these and their goals, and to commit to the necessary training even when it doesn’t suit their whims at every given moment.

Typically the kind of work that needs to be done for the sake of preparation for things like the Olympic lifts and other more advanced training is simply not that fun. No one really enjoys things like glute activation exercises or goofy rotator cuff work with infant-size dumbbells. Those with adult ADD may grow bored with their current pool of exercises and want to play with everything under the sun for no other reason than variety. I’m not impressed by the individual who is willing to exercise to the point of vomiting or a loss of bladder control—this is not that unusual. What I’m impressed by is the individual who shows up every day at the gym, does what is necessary, doesn’t complain, doesn’t look for recognition, does what’s necessary outside of the gym to support their training and goals, and continues this process consistently for years.

The idea of smart, appropriate progression is not limited to any particular set of people or training method; it applies to all training, and to all learning, for that matter. We can apply the same principles to weightlifting, strength & conditioning for high school athletes, CrossFit, Pilates, and just about anything else.

This is where the discipline becomes critical—there are times in which what you need to do is not what you want to do. This of course is not to say that you shouldn’t be doing what you want—that’s exactly what you should be doing. But if what you want is something that requires work, there will be requisite steps along the way that aren’t wholly enjoyable.

So what does all this tangential bluster mean with respect to the premise of the article? It means:

1. Your fitness clients don’t necessarily need to be doing the Olympic lifts.
2. If your fitness clients will be doing the lifts, you need to prepare them for it.
3. If your clients are going to be doing the lifts, make sure they’re really doing the lifts rather than just humping a barbell like a three-toed sloth on Ritalin.
4. As a corollary to Number 3, doing the lifts means actually using enough weight to produce some kind of improvement in athleticism.

So let’s tackle these points with some semblance of order and organization (to mix it up a bit). But let’s do it backwards.

Four: This doesn’t mean max weights. In fact, if you’re looking to work speed and power, max weights are not appropriate. You’ll see the best results in the 70-80% of max range. Take the time to teach your clients proper lift execution and provide them adequate time and exposure to develop technical proficiency before introducing significant weight increases. As I’ve said about a million times, keep a long term perspective and accept the fact that proficiency is worth the time and energy investment.

Three: This is essentially the same as Four without the first two sentences. Find ways to teach your clients how to lift properly, and continue demanding excellence. You can read this article, this one, and this one for help in this area. And you can check out this book.

Two: Make sure you take a rational approach to progress. Can your clients squat, deadlift and press with consistently excellent technique and decent loads? If not, why on earth are you teaching them to snatch and clean & jerk? Do your clients have significant flexibility limitations that prevent them from achieving sound positions and performing the correct movements? If so, they’re not ready to snatch and clean & jerk—help them get ready.

One: Determine appropriate exercises based on who your clients are and what they need, not what you feel like doing yourself. Do you want Joe and Jane Fitness to be strong, agile, mobile and explosive? Of course. Will they ever be any of those things to the same degree as a lifetime high-level athlete? Of course not. Do they need to train the exact same way as those advanced athletes, and should they? Of course not. Should they be allowed and encouraged to do things like the Olympic lifts if that’s what they’re interested in doing? Of course! But it’s your responsibility as a trainer to help them prepare for it.

So with regard to Number One, what do we do to work on explosiveness when we’ve decided that the classic barbell Olympic lifts are not appropriate? First, we do all the typical barbell squatting, pulling and pressing variants to continue developing a foundation of strength. Second, we have myriad (yes, it’s myriad, not a myriad of) options for explosive movements that neither require the technicality of the Lifts nor the potential for injury with improper execution. Any movement that involves driving against the ground and/or extending the hip aggressively fits into this classification. This includes the dumbbell Oly lift variations (preferably power), kettlebell swings (if done correctly), box jumps (that’s box jumps, not ankle hops with foot lifts), squat jumps, broad jumps, jumps from the power position with dumbbells or the like, and quite a few other options if you’re creative.

What if your clients want to learn the Lifts for the sake of learning the Lifts, rather than because they think or have been told they need to in order to be “fit”? Then by all means, teach them and encourage them. But again, do it properly—with respect for long term progress, technical proficiency and adequate physical preparation.

Take the time to evaluate the circumstances and your clientele and make sure you know exactly why you’re doing what you’re doing. They’re paying you good money to help them achieve THEIR goals, whether or not they align with your own, to ensure their training is effective, and to keep them safe and healthy.