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The Simplest Olympic Weightlifting Program in the World
I've written down this same program so many times for so many people, I thought it would make sense to put it down here for other people to use. I'm sure things that look a lot like this have been floating around for decades because it makes perfect sense and is remarkably simple. I think I may have stuck it or something very similar in a newsletter at some point in the last couple years as well.
The basic structure is as follows:
Day 1
Snatch
Snatch Pull
Front Squat
Day 2
Jerk
Push Press
Overhead Squat
Day 3
Clean & Jerk
Clean Pull
Back Squat
The snatch, clean and jerk can be the classic lifts as written, or any variation of your choosing based on how you're feeling on a particular day, or based on what you need to address certain technical problems. This includes variations like powers, hangs, complexes, etc.
Snatch and clean pulls can be done as pulls as written, or you can substitute any pulling-related exercise such as halting deadlifts, partial pulls, segment pulls and pull complexes. Again, choose exercises that address your own needs with regard to technique and strength.
The push press on day 2 can be any kind of upper body press exercise that you decide is most effective: push press behind the neck, press, incline bench press, etc. Similarly, the overhead squat on day 2 can be replaced with a snatch balance variation, complex of snatch balance and overhead squat, snatch push press and overhead squat, etc.
Front squats and back squats on days 1 and 3 can be done with whatever sets and reps you choose. As a starting point, I would suggest 3s for the front squat and 5s for the back squat, 3-5 sets for each.
To this you can consider adding a technique exercise at the start of each day related to the classic lift of the day. For example, on day 1 if you have trouble with the turnover of the snatch, you might choose to do a few sets of muscle snatches or tall snatches before doing the snatches. Keep this exercise relatively light and easy.
Start the first week with fairly conservative weights and spend 3-4 weeks building the weights up, decreasing the reps or sets somewhat as you go if necessary. For example, you might do triples in the snatch, clean and jerk on week 1, doubles on week 2 and singles on week 3, increasing the weight by 5-10% each week.
Have fun with it and post any variations you use successfully here.
The basic structure is as follows:
Day 1
Snatch
Snatch Pull
Front Squat
Day 2
Jerk
Push Press
Overhead Squat
Day 3
Clean & Jerk
Clean Pull
Back Squat
The snatch, clean and jerk can be the classic lifts as written, or any variation of your choosing based on how you're feeling on a particular day, or based on what you need to address certain technical problems. This includes variations like powers, hangs, complexes, etc.
Snatch and clean pulls can be done as pulls as written, or you can substitute any pulling-related exercise such as halting deadlifts, partial pulls, segment pulls and pull complexes. Again, choose exercises that address your own needs with regard to technique and strength.
The push press on day 2 can be any kind of upper body press exercise that you decide is most effective: push press behind the neck, press, incline bench press, etc. Similarly, the overhead squat on day 2 can be replaced with a snatch balance variation, complex of snatch balance and overhead squat, snatch push press and overhead squat, etc.
Front squats and back squats on days 1 and 3 can be done with whatever sets and reps you choose. As a starting point, I would suggest 3s for the front squat and 5s for the back squat, 3-5 sets for each.
To this you can consider adding a technique exercise at the start of each day related to the classic lift of the day. For example, on day 1 if you have trouble with the turnover of the snatch, you might choose to do a few sets of muscle snatches or tall snatches before doing the snatches. Keep this exercise relatively light and easy.
Start the first week with fairly conservative weights and spend 3-4 weeks building the weights up, decreasing the reps or sets somewhat as you go if necessary. For example, you might do triples in the snatch, clean and jerk on week 1, doubles on week 2 and singles on week 3, increasing the weight by 5-10% each week.
Have fun with it and post any variations you use successfully here.
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-Chris
This program will fit my needs very well right now. I typically train about 4 days a week, but the next several months are be busier than normal for me. Can't wait to tweak this a little to fit my needs (my jerk is way behind my clean and my pulling is weak). Will try it starting Monday. Thanks Coach.
Thinking of giving your program a try. Would like to do a short WOD after each lifting day. Do you recommend it?
you said "make the third or fourth week a max week."
Do you do a deload week before or after the max week ?
For a 4 weeks cycle :
Week 1 and 2 increase weight
Week 3 deload
Week 4 max
or
Week 1 and 2 increase weight
Week 3 max
Week 4 deload
Thanks
Lately I have been alternating between the Crossfit Football workouts and yours. I generally cycle between what seems to be kind of a push/pull regimine. I try to lift on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I noticed John seems to have a push/pull theme going, but he doesn't concentrate much on the O-Lifts. That is where you come in. I integrate your workouts on his "pull" days.
For example:
Mondays - Squats and Presses for the Strength WOD and then I follow his Daily WOD.
Tuesdays - Snatches/Cleans (maybe C&J) based off of your daily workouts and then I integrate a heavy pull like deadlifts at the end. I finish up with either John's Daily WOD or your conditioning workout, whichever sounds better to me.
Wednesday - Rest, but sometimes stretching, foam rolling, or walking
Thursday - Similar to Monday
Friday - Similar to Tuesday
Sometimes I will concentrate strictly on the snatch one day and strictly on the clean another. Other days I do both on both of my "pull" days. I have had some success with this over the past month or so. Does this sound pretty good to you? Is there anything I could better? Differently? Am I trying to do too much? Too little? Or am I way off base? Let me know either way. Thanks for everything.
Tony
You can try either of those and see what works best for you. You can also try adding weight and reducing volume weeks 1-3 and then hitting maxes week 4. When you restart the next 4-week block, you'll be deloading automatically to some degree.
I'll try that and see how it feels
Regards from France
Thanks!
A couple of quick questions; could you swap the days around? I was thinking of putting the back squats at the beginning of the week.
Also, how many sets should be used for the olympic lifts? I imagine somewhere between 5-8 but I've been wrong before!
Thanks
If you were preparing/already serving in an military unit that requires a lot of running/rucking/swimming, would you implement this program to help Maintain/Increase strength? Or do you feel the volume is still to high to accomplish all necessary goals? Assuming one would run intervals twice a week, and swim twice a week then ruck once. Following week would alternate interval running with rucking. so on and so forth...
In a case like that, this may be too much. I would probably lean more toward strength training 2x/wk and paring it down a bit by keeping the elements that address your primary weaknesses and dropping or limiting the ones that just play to your strengths.
Thanks for the quick reply. Would you be abel to expand on how you would construct the schedule, or would it best I ask my specific questions via Email? Thanks!
I would suggest posting on the forum - I'll try to get a response in there among anyone else who has info to offer.
Sounds good, got verified via the forum and posted. Thanks for the help!
I'm an athlete with multiple priorities (rowing on the water, running, bodyweight exercises) and a demanding work/travel schedule. I can only consistently O-lift 1 day a week, some weeks I can do more but I also can go 2-3 weeks with no O-lifting opportunities. I've used this basic framework on a "as possible" basis. Each day I O-lift I do one of the workouts; my next opportunity to lift I do the next workout in the schedule and so on. I've seen good results, and supplement my O-lifting with pistols, body-weight plyo-metrics, and running hills throughout the week to keep a good balance of rest, frequency and volume.
I'm curious to hear if you've designed an O-lifting program for a "casual" O-lifter who spends the majority of his time on sport specific (rowing) and GPP training...?
Thanks,
Tom
Sounds like you're doing the best you can in the circumstances. Honestly I wouldn't write a program for someone like you because, without being able to train consistently, it's impossible to promise success, so I would just steer you exactly in the direction you're already going. When you have to train around a lot of other training with an unreliable schedule, it's usually the best best to just wing it with a casual eye toward making sure you're working on your weakest points as regularly as possible.
Cheers
Jerk will always be split jerk. It will specify power or push jerk if they are called for.
For this program it is up to you to adjust how you want to do the sets and reps. The example in the article is to take triples of each of the olympic lifts in the first week, then add weight for the next week and take doubles, and go for singles at a heavier weight the following week.
Thanks for the response. I really appreciate it. Any guidance on warming up, and/or training sets?
Thanks,
Lee
Take a few lighter sets and work your way up to a working weight. You will have to feel those weights out as you go and make judgement calls on the weights you are using. Another option would be to try the starter program that has some parameters for you to follow: catalystathletics.com/articles/article.php?articleID=131
You can substitute bench press for press. Make sure you keep stretching your shoulders and pecs to maintain good mobility for the snatch and jerk.
I would suggest against 5s in any of the olympic lifts. Otherwise you can feel out progressions that work with this general template.
what would be a good 2 day/week template excluding the snatch? im a waterpolo player and i like olympic lifts for the back/shoulder/leg strength (the 3 key muscle groups for waterpolo) but i dont have right gym to do risky stuff like snatches. Can some1 help me?
Anything is risky if not done properly, but if it is in equipment issue then the risk is out of your control. Being that you are an overhead athlete, learning and practicing the snatch would be a great diagnostic for overhead shoulder function. My suggestion would be to complete Day 2's prescription on Day 1 (keeping front squat in lieu of overhead squat) and keep Day 3 as is. If you have other demands, keep 2 days rest (or other training) in between these olympic/power training days.
Mon. Snatch, snatch pull, front squat
Tue. Clean, clean pull, push press, back squat
Wed. Rest. or active rest?
Thur. Snatch & Clean: power or 3 position, front squat
Fri. Back squat, press/pushpress, deadlift
Thanks
It allows you to strengthen the pull portion of the lift by allowing more weight to be used and you are able to focus on good positions.
Giving such a concentration to technique is also great, my question would be where do I go with this training once I start to plateau...
I would reccomend one of the cycles from the Training Cycles tab next if you begin to stall on this program.
David -
I would recomend 3-5 sets in the 3-5 rep range for the pulls. The article recommends adding weight as you go and decreasing the reps from week to week as the weights go up.
currently I am snatching 60 and snatch pulling 75
clean 77.5 and clean pulling 95
does this sound correct ?
or should i be working higher ?
It depends on how easy or hard those pulls feel. I think those numbers should be okay as long as they aren't too easy, and you are hitting good positions.
I guess I'll have to play around with it and see how it goes, I'm not too sure on my form for the pulls as I'm currently not very experienced with it.
How long would you expect these workouts to take? I'm just beginning weightlifting using the multimedia guide and am trying to figure out a routine I can get done in the time I have before work.
Day 1
Snatch
Snatch Pull
Front Squat
Day 2
Clean & Jerk
Clean Pull
Back Squat
Planks
Day 3
Snatch
Clean & Jerk
Back Squat
Planks
That should be okay and you should be able to add some push/pull accessory work if you feel that is lacking.
Set-rep scheme:
- 1st lifts (snatch, jerk, clean & jerk) : 4 x 3 (week 1), 5 x 2 (week 2), 6 x 1 (week 3), 3 x 3 (deload)
- 2nd lifts (pulls and push press) : 3 x 3
- 3rd lifts (squats) : 4 x 4
This is for the next month in which I will be focusing on simply getting used to the classic lifts and putting more weight on the barbell. After finishing this month-long cycle, I will then focus on the second lifts (i.e. pulls) by including some of the pull cycles from your other programs while keeping the others simple. After that, I will have a month with focused squats. I think I can continue in this manner until my imagination runs out.
Anyhow, I just wanted to say thank you, Greg and Catalyst Athletics, for posting this awesome customizable template and for sharing this wonderful collection of all the other resources at this site. I also wanted to share with those who visit this page some of my ideas of how to use this template.
This is a very minimal program, and 3 days/week is not much. So since we're already doing an overhead squat on the snatch day, why double up and do more when we can overhead squat on a second day and get more frequent exposure? Similar rationale for cleans/FS. Also, because the BS will likely be heavier than the FS, we can combine BS with snatches, which will be less taxing than clean & jerks, to spread the work more evenly across the days. Finally, placing the OHS on a day with no other squatting gives us some squat exposure 3 days instead of 2.
I am Crossfitter who has done one of your 6 week programs. I am currently transitioning back to Crossfit but still realize that I need to work on my Olympic Lifts. In addition to WODs, I want to Olympic lift twice a week but don't really need to squat more. My problem is mostly technique with needs to add assistance exercises for both the Snatch and Cleans. If I want to Olympic lift two days in a row without adding heavy squating (The strength building for me will be part of the training programmed at my box), how should I go about using the model you provided?
Day 1 - snatches and whatever snatch assistance exercises address your needs at the time
Day 2 - cleans and whatever clean assistance exercises address your needs at the time
Thank you for the response and your help. If I wanted to use one of your programs from your book "A Complete Guide for Athletes and Coaches", for example, the Classic Lift Position/Technique Cycle, can I just combine and select the exercises from the program for clean & jerks + Snatches? If yes, how many exercises would you recommend in a given session? I noticed that you program about 3-4 depending on the load.
I'm really a novice lifter and am quite confused about programming for my specific needs and problems.
Those programs are ready to be followed - you don't have to do anything other than what's written there.
I recently got into Olympic lifting and I'm doing this program.I'm having some problems with the snatch. I'm finding the third pull of the snatch very difficult. When I make contact with the bar, the bar tends to fly out in front of me in an arch rather than straight up. I only recently noticed this after I filmed myself doing hang snatches. I went back to hang power snatches thinking that might remedy the problem. Any advice?
Thanks.
Even if you hit the bar with your hips, you can control it with your arms. You have to actively be pushing the bar back toward your body as you extend, and you need to keep doing that in the third pull, pulling your elbows high and to the sides to pull under with the bar as close to you as possible. Tall snatches, dip snatches and muscle snatches will help.
Yes, that's great, but the whole point of this program is that it's for people with limited time to train. 3 days/week is not ideal - I'd rather have 5-6, and even double days on 3 of those. In that case, you can get a lot more frequent exposure to the competition lifts. In the case of limited time, you have to make compromises. Look at the other programs on the site or in my book if you want more frequency.
Thanks
Depends on where you finished the previous cycle. I would basically back track to the second to last week and use approximately those weights for week one of the subsequent cycle - set it up so you'll beat your best on week 2 or 3 the second time around.
What rep ranges do you recommend for accessory exercises like hamstring curls?
Thanks in advance!
Your site is a fantastic resource, i am learning loads. Quick question, in terms of working out sets and reps to use with this program i was going to use Prilepins table of loading. When applying that should i treat Snatch pulls as a seperate exercise or additional sets of the Snatch? Also should a similar approch be taken with regard to the clean pulls and the full clean and jerk?
Thanks
Dan
Greg Everett
Thanks!
Steve Pan
Steve Pan
Love this work out and have been following your page for a while. I like the simplistic but not easy scheduling and wonder if you could expand this work out to 4 days a week M-T-TR-Fr and what would that look like.
Thanks
First off, thank you so much for all of the content on this site. It's wonderful, as is your book.
I'm new to Oly training, and I'm using this program as my template because it's the maximum number of days per week I can be certain I'll get to train. Every so often I get an extra day (Saturday) to throw in some accessory work, but Monday-Wednesday-Friday is how I roll.
Based upon various life events, I've done this as a 4-week cycle, utilizing a 70%/80%/90%/PR week scheme for triples/doubles/singles respectively. Those have gone really well, but obviously I get smaller jumps in maxes because of the shorter time frame.
I've also done a 6-week cycle utilizing a 70/75/80/85/90/PR scheme, again for triples under 80%, doubles under 90% and singles at/over 90%.
With all that being said, I feel like 85% week is always a struggle in terms of technique, mainly for a few snatches here and there (usually 1 outright miss of the total reps, with a few nice saves thrown in) and rack jerks (never any misses, but a few where it feels like the D&D is a little forward, usually because it felt slow or not as powerful).
This is all a long way of asking at what percentages, in general, do you stop prescribing doubles and instead do singles (and also, if you're willing, when would you switch from triples to doubles)?
Thanks again for everything.
NS
Greg Everett
Matt
Alyssa Sulay
Thanks again for the really useful workout!
Greg Everett
how long it should last the daily weightlifting training routine ?
Thanks Greg you're awesome
Thanks for this template. I'm confused a to how sets and reps for the accessories should be performed. Should I also decrease the volume and increase the weights for the front/back squats and clean/snatch pulls for the second, third, and fourth weeks? (assuming that my main goal for adding these exercises in the program is to build strength) Or should one of the variables (weights or volume) remain constant and the other one adjusted?
Greg Everett
and it has helped me out loads. I am hoping to contribute & aid different users like its
aided me. Great job.
Maglia Juve 2017
Greg Everett
You gave details about the sets and reps for squats, but I have a doubt regarding a master 50+yo volume for the classic lifts.
I want to stay the volume fixed: 15 reps for snatch/day #1 snatch and 10 reps for jerk/CJ on days #2 and #3. Depending on the intensity, I pretend to autoregulate the sets and reps, but allways finishing a 10/15 scheme.
My question is: what is the magic number to beging counting my 10/15 reps? 50%? 65%?
Alyssa Sulay
I wonder if it’s a good idea to add complex of
Snatch balance + OHS after the BS on day 3 to get more work on my overhead stability or perhaps replace the BS and try to push the weights more on the complex?
Alyssa Sulay
Alyssa Sulay