These days, you’re showing your age when you talk about the exploits of Bo Jackson. For those of you who don’t remember (in other words, those of you who weren’t around in the eighties), Bo Jackson was an athletic phenomenon of galactic proportions. As an All-Star major league baseball player with the Kansas City Royals, Bo was a fearsome hitter who could smash home runs into the opposite hemisphere. As an NFL running back with the Los Angeles Raiders, Bo was a wrecking machine who could simultaneously score touchdowns and humiliate linebackers like Brian Bosworth by running over them like they were Girl Scouts. Bo was a professional two-sport athlete, and it didn’t take long for the Nike corporation to build a marketing campaign around him.

Bo became a poster child for the idea of "cross training." I put that term in quotation marks because, back in the eighties, it was a revolutionary concept. Being able to use a variety of sports training methods to become a strong overall athlete was the theory behind cross training. Nike made commercials that showed Bo Jackson playing football, baseball, basketball, running, lifting weights, etc. All of this, of course, was a business strategy for Nike to sell their hot line of Cross Training shoes. But it didn’t take long for the fitness industry to buy into the concept of cross training and now, twenty years later, the practice of using multiple training disciplines to build well-rounded athleticism is one of the fundamental principles of the workout world.

Knowing this, it quickly becomes clear that there has to be some common sense used in the planning of cross training. This is especially important if the athlete in question is focusing some, most, or all of their efforts on Olympic weightlifting. Organizations such as Catalyst Athletics have chosen to use the Olympic lifts as part of the foundation of their training approach because most athletes and trainers with brains in their heads have figured out that the Olympic lifts are incredibly effective tools for developing overall strength and athleticism. However, many coaches and lifters have posed a common question over the years, "What are some non-Olympic lifting exercises that can help develop the Olympic lifts?" Are there other training activities aside from the snatch and clean and jerk that can contribute to the athlete’s improvement? And, conversely, are there any exercises that could act as setbacks to the Olympic lifts, damaging the athlete’s progress in the snatch or clean and jerk?

We can end the suspense by stating a few basic truths from the stone commandment tablets of weightlifting scripture. First, your training should be completely focused on the Olympic lifts if you want to be a good Olympic weightlifter. If being an Olympic lifter is not your primary focus, then branching out and exploring new training styles should be the fundamental guide for your regimen. Second, there are non-Olympic exercises that can provide some benefit to the weightlifter and, likewise, there are non-Olympic exercises that can harm the weightlifter’s progress. What we will do in this article is take a close look at five popular training activities and how each one of them can have a positive or negative effect on the training of a weightlifter. This information should be equally useful for serious Olympic weightlifting coaches and also for general strength training athletes who use the Olympic lifts in their workouts.

1) Running

Let’s just get the biggest one out of the way first. Running is one of the most popular forms of exercise in the world. The health benefits of running are well documented and they don’t need to be covered here. There are also potential injuries, such as stress fractures and plantar fascitis, that can occur from running. Over the years, I have heard the question thrown out on many occasions. "Should running be a part of an Olympic lifter’s training?"

The first thing I want to say about this is that I’ve been an Olympic lifter for over twenty years and it has been my good fortune to train with some of the best weightlifters in the world. I have never seen a high-quality Olympic lifter who used running as any significant part of their training. I once trained with a national champion who decided to drop to a lower weight class, and he incorporated some running workouts into his training week to lose bodyweight. I have also seen a few elite lifters who have spent very brief periods running short sprints or hill workouts in an effort to build explosiveness. But none of these athletes used running for very long and most of them confined it to very short sprint work. Running will provide some extra pounding on the joints of the lower body, it will often reduce the athlete’s bodyweight, and it will sap away at least a small portion of the athlete’s energy supply. All of these risk factors can be easily justified if the athlete is a basic cross trainer, but they are difficult to justify if the athlete is training for the highest possible results in weightlifting competition. When I was doing the best lifting of my career, I did absolutely no running whatsoever. However, I will also say that if I was not a competitive weightlifter, I would definitely include it as part of my training.

2) Tire Flipping

This one has gained tremendous popularity over the last ten years. When I was in high school, the only place you saw massive diesel truck tires being flipped was on the practice fields of football teams. Then, people started watching the World’s Strongest Man contests on ESPN and they couldn’t believe how cool it was to see some rhinoceros named Gunther blasting these massive tires up and down a runway. Nowadays, soccer moms have them in their back yards next to the trampoline so they can get a good workout before their next pedicure/botox appointment. The majority of fitness trainers in the industry like to use tire flipping with their clients. The strength-building benefits can, in theory, provide assistance to competitive weightlifters. Tire flipping is an excellent activity for building grip strength. The forearms and hands will usually be screaming after a dozen flips with a challenging tire. The core strengthening involved in tires is considerable as well, and core strengthening is a universal positive for any weightlifter, athlete, or human being who wants to live well. If there is any negative for Olympic lifters, it would basically be the same one we discussed in running. Tire flipping, at least as it’s done by most trainers, involves some endurance. Endurance equals sweating and breathing hard, which equals burning calories, which equals loss of bodyweight. Loss of bodyweight is almost always a detriment for a competitive Olympic weightlifter.

3) Strongman activity

Along the same lines with tire flipping, strongman training has grown in popularity over the last twenty years mainly because of ESPN’s coverage of the WSM. These days, whenever I tell civilians that I’m an Olympic weightlifter, one of the first things that usually comes out of their mouths is, "Do you do that strongman stuff like the guys on ESPN?" Because of the rise in popularity, some of the events from strongman have caught on with the general strength training crowd. Several barbell supply companies now sell the large metal cylinders that are used to practice the log lift. Stone loading is gradually starting to catch on, although this one is difficult because of how rare the equipment is. But these two examples are good ones to take a look at. How would stone loading and log lifting have a positive or negative effect on the Olympic lifts?

Positively, it is clear that these two events, along with many of the other strongman events, teach the athlete to use the body in a technical way, much the same as the snatch or clean and jerk. Stone loading involves taking a heavy object from the floor using the back, legs, shoulders, hips, etc. Sound familiar? The log lift is actually somewhat modeled after the clean and jerk. When athletes perform these strength feats, they are learning the concept of coordinating each body part together into one fluid movement. There is some carryover to the Olympic lifts here because of the obvious basic similarity in ideas. In other words, you learn stone loading technique just like you learn snatch technique. This is a positive carryover, in addition to the fact that strongman events like the ones mentioned here are guaranteed to develop greater back and grip strength.

If there is a negative to using the strongman events in combination with the Olympic lifts, it would simply be that the strongman events are incredibly demanding in their physicality. If an athlete heads to the gym to do a heavy snatch workout twenty four hours after a hard session of stone loading, the fatigue in the muscles of the back would be considerable. For that matter, most of the strongman events would need to be worked into an Olympic lifter’s training regimen very carefully because of the extra soreness that would follow. When an athlete is pushing the limits of their capability in the Olympic lifts, the body has to be primed and ready in order to be successful. If you’ve ever gone to the gym with back muscles that feel like you gave Jabba the Hut a piggyback ride and then tried to hit some heavy snatches, you understand what I mean.

4) Martial Arts Training

Here we have an interesting analysis because martial arts training is the only activity mentioned so far that has a direct combative element to it. In running, tire flipping, or strongman activity, there is always some predictability. You basically know exactly what the ground, the tire, or the stones are going to do at all times (unless you’re jogging in a mine field). But in martial arts training, when an athlete is sparring or grappling with another athlete, there is a certain degree of uncertainty. The athlete you are grappling with might decide to roll you over and put you in a guillotine choke hold, an ankle lock, or dozens of other possible positions. All of these positions have the potential to hurt you.

Now that mixed martial arts (UFC) has become one of the most popular sports on the planet, the client demand for training is on the rise. If an athlete wants to train the Olympic lifts seriously but also wants to incorporate some kind of martial arts training into their program, there can be both positives and negatives. I personally think one of the biggest benefits to martial arts training is the mental toughness and fearlessness that develops in the athlete’s mind. I was a wrestler in high school, and I still think of my wrestling practices as some of the most physically demanding experiences of my life. To borrow a phrase from wrestling legend Dan Gable, everything else seems easy after you’ve been a wrestler. Also, martial arts training teaches an athlete not to shy away from anything. Having to step onto a mat with another human being and literally fight to keep from being defeated is a powerful source of energy. The athlete simply stops being scared of anything, and the connection to the Olympic lifts is huge in this department because a certain degree of fearlessness is required to be a good weightlifter.

Are there any negatives to incorporating martial arts training into a weightlifting regimen? The one that comes to mind quickly is injury. I have personally trained with two good weightlifters who had their elbow lockout permanently damaged through grappling. Their opponents used arm bar submission holds on them and cranked too hard, and some long-term joint damage was the result. Their ability to lock out their snatches and jerks was never the same afterwards. Obviously, this type of injury isn’t going to happen to everyone who trains in the martial arts, but you get the idea. It’s hard to have a good clean and jerk workout the day after somebody kicks you in the face and breaks your nose.

5) Bodybuilding

I know, I know... but just wait a minute. Most of the die-hard weightlifters I’ve met in my life exhibit a type of cringing nausea reaction when you say the word "bodybuilding" to them. Their faces usually look like they just smelled cat urine. But let’s not throw the baby out with the banana peels. Can we at least admit that there are some good things about bodybuilding? First of all, absolutely everybody on this planet thinks it’s cool to have great looking pecs, calves, and biceps. Second, bodybuilders have a lot of good things to teach us about how to develop a sound training diet. Third, bodybuilders spend their days constantly thinking about barbells. How bad can they be? But the important question here is, "If an athlete wants to incorporate Olympic weightlifting into bodybuilding training, will there be any benefits or hazards?"

Benefits: There will be some strength gains. Even if an athlete performs bodybuilding-style movements and uses high repetitions, the training will develop strength. Make no mistake about it, there are some very strong bodybuilders out there. Granted, most of them are taking enough drugs to blast the next space shuttle into orbit. But even the bodybuilders who train naturally are able to pack on some solid muscle and move some respectable iron.

Hazards: Bodybuilding training generally focuses on slow, controlled movements. Weightlifting depends on fast, controlled movements. Bodybuilding exercises are designed to isolate certain body parts and train them one at a time. Weightlifting requires the athlete to use all body parts together at the same time. No offense meant to our spandex speedo brothers and sisters, but bodybuilding doesn’t require a high degree of athleticism (agility, coordination, balance, explosiveness, etc.). Weightlifting is completely dependent on athleticism. Bodybuilding’s ultimate goal is physical appearance. Physical appearance has nothing to do with weightlifting success. The main idea here is that these two styles of training are diametrically opposed. There just isn’t much carryover between them.

In an alternate universe...

All of these training activities, along with several others, are major points of interest for athletic enthusiasts. When an athlete has trained in one specific way for a long period of time, boredom can start to set in. Even if the athlete loves what they do, the occasional itch to do something new will pop up. For example, I’ve been an Olympic weightlifter for most of my life and I love it more than anything in the world. However, I also have the personality type to look at other athletic skills and say, "Hey, it would be cool to do that!" A few years ago, I started competing in the Scottish Highland Games and I’ve had a blast doing it. Being a weightlifter has given me a good strength base for throwing and the contests themselves are a total hoot. However, training for the games is demanding and it involves a lot of wear and tear on the body. I’ve had to seriously curtail my enthusiasm for throwing because the physical exertion of it takes a toll on my training as a weightlifter.

I used that example to illustrate the point that any activity you do is going to affect all the other ones. Running is going to have an impact on your lifting. Lifting is going to have an impact on your running. Etcetera, etcetera... If you make the decision to combine multiple training disciplines, there has to be a sensible plan involved. Unfortunately, that plan will probably require a lot of trial and error to master. You might not find out just how much stone loading is too much until you strain one of your rhomboids. You might be having a ball doing bodybuilding bicep workouts until you start to notice that you’re having trouble locking out your jerks over your head. Every athlete has limits and the human body can only withstand a certain amount of labor. Just ask Bo Jackson, whose brilliant career was eventually ended by injury. He went from being a two-sport superstar to being a retired two-sport superstar with plenty of time to go fishing. Trying to fish with multiple poles at once is a tricky business. You’d better know what you’re going to do if each pole hooks a fish at the same moment.

International Olympic Committee founder Pierre de Coubertin once said, "All sports for all people." But I have it on good authority that he was a lousy snatcher. Choose wisely, mon amis.