olympic lifting : what effects does it have on body aesthetics??

[Santa_Claus]

Hi , I joined a olympic lifting club and I have a few questions regarding the way my body will look after I take up olympic lifting and leave bodybuilding.

Here are a few of my concerns.

Question #1

Will doing olympic style training make me lose most of the hypertrophy I've gained from bodybuilding exercises? If that is the case, is it wise to add a few isolation exercises for my body image?

Question #2

Should I keep doing the powerlifting lifts or will squats and deads wreck the explosiveness and acceleration of the muscles I gain from olympic style weight lifting

Question #3

Do the olympic lifts work the chest or should I just keep doing benchpresses?


Thanks alot

 

[Madcow2]

You should really ask your coach these questions. I don't know a single OL that doesn't squat - so right there, you are putting the cart before the horse. Find out how he thinks you should train first. If you are in the US there is a fairly stringent coaching certification process. Granted, everybody prefers different methods or variations on something but you'll find they are uniformly knowledgable and in all honesty you are going to get better information from them than a BBing forum. Plus, it's not like you are the first BBer type concerned with how they look. You'll find many coaches will work exercises in for fun and balance. It's really only the most advanced lifters who are using purely competition lifts and squats this is true even in Bulgaria which is famous for this style of training.

Anyway, you are going to be pulling all the time so the deadlift is largely redundant. Outside of SHW, most lifters are constantly fighting to keep their weight down so I wouldn't worry too much about hypertrophy.

Have fun, don't worry and enjoy yourself. You most likely won't suddenly turn ugly but there's a good chance you'll be stronger, bigger, faster, more explosive, and learn a few things.

 

[Santa_Claus]

You should really ask your coach these questions. I don't know a single OL that doesn't squat - so right there, you are putting the cart before the horse. Find out how he thinks you should train first. If you are in the US there is a fairly stringent coaching certification process. Granted, everybody prefers different methods or variations on something but you'll find they are uniformly knowledgable and in all honesty you are going to get better information from them than a BBing forum. Plus, it's not like you are the first BBer type concerned with how they look. You'll find many coaches will work exercises in for fun and balance. It's really only the most advanced lifters who are using purely competition lifts and squats this is true even in Bulgaria which is famous for this style of training.

Anyway, you are going to be pulling all the time so the deadlift is largely redundant. Outside of SHW, most lifters are constantly fighting to keep their weight down so I wouldn't worry too much about hypertrophy.

Have fun, don't worry and enjoy yourself. You most likely won't suddenly turn ugly but there's a good chance you'll be stronger, bigger, faster, more explosive, and learn a few things.

Thanks, great advice!

I can't wait to start

 

[coolcolj]

you'll get huge thighs, traps, upper back and spinal ererctors

olylifter do sometimes bench to keep things balanced in the "off season" , but it tends to tighten the shoulders up for the snatch

your arms might shrink, big arms actually make the olys harder

but it depends on the person, some people seem to get big all over in a denser sort of way

 

[Santa_Claus]

you'll get huge thighs, traps, upper back and spinal ererctors

olylifter do sometimes bench to keep things balanced in the "off season" , but it tends to tighten the shoulders up for the snatch

your arms might shrink, big arms actually make the olys harder

but it depends on the person, some people seem to get big all over in a denser sort of way

Do you know if height is a big disavantage for the olympic weights? Im tall with pretty long arms.

(ex: Long arms suck for benching but they are great for deadlifting. )

thanks

 

[Madcow2]

Long arms can help in the snatch. How tall is tall? Even at SHW it's rare to see anyone over 6'1". That said, do you plan to be the best in the world, compete locally or maybe in your region/state, or are you satisfied with just having fun and challenging yourself at local meets? I would worry less and just have fun. I've seen some really good tall lifters and some really bad short ones.

 

[Santa_Claus]

Long arms can help in the snatch. How tall is tall? Even at SHW it's rare to see anyone over 6'1". That said, do you plan to be the best in the world, compete locally or maybe in your region/state, or are you satisfied with just having fun and challenging yourself at local meets? I would worry less and just have fun. I've seen some really good tall lifters and some really bad short ones.

6'3"

I don't want to be a world champion, but, despite my height, I'd still like to make progress and get somewhere.

btw ( Leonid Zhabotinsky did it at 6'5"(super heavyweight class).

http://tomgorman.moonfruit.com/zhabo (damn that guy looks huge)

Main goals are...

#1 (explosiveness,speed and usable strength)
#2 (Health,looking good and staying in shape)
#3 (Fun and being surrounded by motivated and like minded lifters)

 

[Extra_Strong]

6'3"

I don't want to be a world champion, but, despite my height, I'd still like to make progress and get somewhere.

btw ( Leonid Zhabotinsky did it at 6'5"(super heavyweight class).

http://tomgorman.moonfruit.com/zhabo (damn that guy looks huge)

Main goals are...

#1 (explosiveness,speed and usable strength)
#2 (Health,looking good and staying in shape)
#3 (Fun and being surrounded by motivated and like minded lifters)

sweet good like... that is a strong fucker.

 

[Madcow2]

Okay, there are a few exceptions over the years but it is very rare. You can still get very good at the lifts and lift repectable weight.

I wouldn't really look at the top and compare yourself. This is a very hard sport and the best athletes at the world level have generally been selected early and provided top coaching from the moment they first showed apptitude very early on. It's hard for US people to relate because weightlifting here is almost dead but these guys are professional athletes and fully funded and paid for. Someone quoted a statistic once that the USSR had 1000 times as many coaches as we had lifters or some such staggering number. Rediculous. This is a big sport and major national pride in other countries. So, it's kind of like me asking you to throw around the football and you wondering if you can take Peyton Manning's spot in a few years. There's a lot of fun and even some glory in just throwing it around and possibly competing at the high school or even college levels.

As to your goals, you'll get them all. No one who really likes lifting doesn't like the clean and snatch. It's a pure moment and a good one is almost as good as anything in sport.

My biggest advice would be to not worry about it and get out there and have fun. Personally, I'm excited for you. I wish I had more time to devote to lifting right now. Maybe I will soon though.

 

[Santa_Claus]

Okay, there are a few exceptions over the years but it is very rare. You can still get very good at the lifts and lift repectable weight.

I wouldn't really look at the top and compare yourself. This is a very hard sport and the best athletes at the world level have generally been selected early and provided top coaching from the moment they first showed apptitude very early on. It's hard for US people to relate because weightlifting here is almost dead but these guys are professional athletes and fully funded and paid for. Someone quoted a statistic once that the USSR had 1000 times as many coaches as we had lifters or some such staggering number. Rediculous. This is a big sport and major national pride in other countries. So, it's kind of like me asking you to throw around the football and you wondering if you can take Peyton Manning's spot in a few years. There's a lot of fun and even some glory in just throwing it around and possibly competing at the high school or even college levels.

As to your goals, you'll get them all. No one who really likes lifting doesn't like the clean and snatch. It's a pure moment and a good one is almost as good as anything in sport.

My biggest advice would be to not worry about it and get out there and have fun. Personally, I'm excited for you. I wish I had more time to devote to lifting right now. Maybe I will soon though.

Is it a good idea to add the olympic lifts to a powerlifting routine? I want to become as strong as possible but I'd like the speed and power I can get from the oly lifts.

Are the two compatible?