Explosiveness is one of the most important abilities an athlete can have. Without explosiveness your missing your missing a key ingredient to being successful in your chosen sport. I don’t care what sport you play. Explosiveness can help you in one way or another.
One of the best ways to do this is Olympic weightlifting. Training yourself to move heavy weights very fast will develop the explosiveness you need for speed or jumping. Too many people think that going into the gym and putting pins in a rack or loading up a leg press machine is going to give you what your looking for. It may help you go from slow to faster, but if you want to be one of the fastest or quickest athletes around then you need to mix in Olympic lifts. There is no comparison. PERIOD!
I use Olympic Lifting with Sprints, Agility Drills, Box Jumps, and now the Prowler to help me develop that explosiveness that’s needed to be an athlete.
Here is the program I have been following courtesy of Coach Burgener. I will just cover what I have done since my last update.
Week 1 day 4 THURSDAY:
Front Squat
Back Squat
SATURDAY:
Snatch: Max for the day. 90kg.
Clean & Jerk: Max for the day. 115kg.
Front Squat: Max for the day. 140 kg.
Not bad for being sick and getting appendix taken out.
WEEK 2 Day 1 MONDAY
1. 2 position Snatch: Floor and Mid Thigh- 80kg
2. Snatch Pulls: 2 x 3 reps 90kg
3. Snatch Deadlifts: 2 x 3 reps 100, 110kg
4. Snatch Shrugs: 2 x 5 reps 120, 120kg
5. Snatch Push Press: 5, 4, 3, 3, 3
6. Back and Abs.
TUESDAY
1. Back Squat: Medium Heavy x 3 x 6 sets. I used 140kg for 3 sets and 150kg for 3 sets
2. Front Squat: Medium x 3 x 3 sets. I went with 105 kg.
3. Back and Abs.
WEDNESDAY
1. 2 Position Clean & Jerk. 2 Cleans + Jerk. Floor and Mid Thigh. Went up to 90kg
2. Clean Pulls: 2 x 3 reps with 120 kg.
3. Clean Deadlifts: 2 x 3 reps with 130 kg.
4. Jerk Dips: 3 reps. Worked up to 120 x 3. (Good for staying tight during dip portion of Jerk)
5. Back and Abs: GHD Sit ups and Hip Extensions.
That is basically what I have been doing for my workouts. I add sprints and plyos throughout the week. Mainly on Monday and Thursday. Tomorrow I will do some sled pulls after my Front Squat and Back Squat Workout.
