Are Olympic Lifts Safe?

Today at the gym I saw a guy doing some olympic lifts with awful form, which gave me the idea to answer the question “Are olympic lifts safe?” that some beginners may ask.

For those that don’t know what Olympic Lifts are, Wikipedia has defined Olympic Weightlifting as: an athletic discipline in the modern Olympic programme in which participants attempt a maximum-weight single lift of a barbell loaded with weight plates.

Olympic lifts can include the snatch, clean and jerk, clean and press, etc. Although it is a sport, olympic lifts are often used by athletes in order to train for explosiveness and functional strength.

Olympic Lifts are safe if you know how to do them properly. Unfortunately many athletes who incorporate olympic lifts into their workout programs don’t have the techniques down properly, making them vulnerable to injury.

I do highly recommend incorporating some olympic lifts into your training program if you are an elite athlete (although it isn’t 100% necessary), but I would also highly recommend you hire some type of professional to help you learn how to perform them properly.

OK on to today’s post…

Monday Leg Workout

First a recap of my last two days as I didn’t get around to making any posts here. Sunday I took the day off to relax and watch football. I had a healthy breakfast and then a few somewhat healthy cheat meals. I had leftover healthy homemade burgers from Saturday and then made a chicken pizza for dinner. Monday I got back to eating clean, which included a nice dinner (pork chops, grilled peppers, and a salad). I also hit the gym for the first workout of the week with a chest and arms day.

Today was a lower body and core day, which included trap bar deadlifts, stiff leg deadlifts, some dynamic stretching, leg extensions (first time I’ve done these in a while), hamstring curls, calf raises, leg raises, ball rollouts (core). The workout wasn’t too exhausting, as I wanted to save some legs for hockey tonight which is always a good workout.

Ahead I’ve got three straight days of my “10 Set” program that I’ve talked about in past posts. Tomorrow is 10 set day for Back Shoulders, Thursday is Chest/Arms, and then Friday will be Legs/Core.

The healthy eating will continue through the week, and I’ve really started to notice some fat loss when looking in the mirror. A few more weeks of this really clean, low carb/high protein diet should have me really leaned out.

Is there anything you’d like me to write about (workout related) this week here at the blog? Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions or questions. Have a good week!