EP52, Olympic Lifts Made Simple, Part 1

Olympic lifts have a reputation problem. People see snatches and clean and jerks at the CrossFit Games or the Olympics and assume it's a different sport entirely, something reserved for elite athletes. Matt is here to change that.

This is Part 1 of a four-week series on Olympic lifting. Today's episode is the high-level entry point: what the lifts actually are, why they're some of the best general fitness tools that exist, and why every member walking into Juggernaut has a path into them, no matter their age, mobility, or experience level.

If you've ever scaled out of an Olympic lift on the whiteboard, swapped a clean for barbell curls, or thought "that's not for me," this one is for you.

Questions this episode answers:

• What are the Olympic lifts?
• What's the difference between a snatch and a clean and jerk?
• Why do CrossFit gyms program Olympic lifts?
• Are Olympic lifts safe for older adults or beginners?
• What's the difference between a power snatch and a full snatch?
• Why do Olympic lifts feel harder than heavier strength lifts?
• Can I do Olympic lifts if I have shoulder issues?
• What's a hang power version of a lift?
• Why is an empty barbell snatch harder than a heavy back squat?
• How do Olympic lifts help with everyday life and aging?

In this episode, we dig into:

• The Two Lifts, Demystified: What a snatch is, what a clean and jerk is, and why every variation on the whiteboard is built off these two foundations.
• Why Olympic Lifts, Not Just Strength Lifts: Strength is force. Power is force times speed. Why power is the thing that goes first as you age, not strength, and why these lifts are the best tool to keep it.
• Real World Carryover: Catching yourself on the ice. Playing with your grandkids on the floor. Hiking the Whites with springy legs instead of trashed ones. The Olympic lifts train all of it.
• The Scaling Path Most People Don't Know Exists: Dumbbell hang power snatches, medicine ball cleans onto a box, the hang variations. Every member has a way in. The question isn't if, it's which version.
• Why the Lifts That Humble You Are the Ones That Change You: Why an empty barbell can feel harder than a max-effort squat, and why that's exactly the stimulus your body needs after the easy gains are gone.

Unstoppable Challenge: The next time you see an Olympic lift on the whiteboard, don't scale it out automatically. Ask your coach what version is right for you today. You don't have to go heavy. You just have to start. That's the whole game. 1% better every day.

Up next: New episodes drop every Tuesday. Part 2 of the series goes into the pull, the part most people get wrong.

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Transcript

Matt 0:00

Let's go. Welcome to Unstoppable by Design, where we talk all things fitness, mindset, and what it truly means to be unstoppable inside and outside the gym. I'm Matt Terry, and today we're kicking off something I've been wanting to do for a bit: a four-week

Welcome And Series Kickoff

Matt 0:16

series all month long on Olympic lifts. If you've ever watched somebody snatch or clean a barbell and thought, that's not for me, or that looks like a way to get hurt, or maybe one day this whole month is for you. We're going to break these lifts down a little bit pieces by pieces, and we're going to start right at the beginning. So here's why I wanted to do this. Olympic lifts have a reputation problem, really. People see them, you know, in the CrossFit Games or at the Olympics and they're on TV and they see the weights, they see the speed, and assume it's a different sport entirely, something for elite athletes only. But here's the truth Olympic lifts are some of the best teaching tools in all fitness, period. They build power, they build coordination, they teach your body how to express force fast. And when you scale them properly, they belong in the program of just about every person walking into our gym. So this month, we're gonna demystify them. Today's gonna be very high level, you know what they are, why we teach them, why they belong in your training. Then we dig into some polls and catch and how to actually get good at them. So, all right, let's talk about Olympic weightlifting. It's primarily made up of two lifts, all right? That's it. Just two of them. There's a ton of different variations to them and a lot of different components, but the first one is the snatch. So the bar goes from the floor to an overhead position in one fluid motion. All

Snatch Versus Clean And Jerk

Matt 1:45

right, you're gonna catch in a locked-out arms above your head while you're sitting in a squat. It's by far the prettiest, the fastest, and probably the most technical lift in all of strength sport, in my opinion. Uh, and our second part is the clean and jerk. Clean and jerk's made up of two different parts itself. There's the clean where you pull the barbell from the floor to your shoulders, and you're, you know, you're catching the bar in the front squat, you stand up with it, and then the jerk. It takes it from your shoulders to overhead. Most people split jerk, but there's a push jerk as well. And it's where, or I should say the split jerk is with a little lunge under the bar. And that's it. Those are the two main lifts with Olympic weightlifting or the two, the two lifts. Every snatch ever performed and every clean and jerk ever performed has the same components. The difference between a world record and somebody learning today is just how clean each piece is and how much weight is on the bar. Now, there's a couple variations like I mentioned before. You know, there's like power snatches or power cleans, there's hang versions of each, there's dumbbell snatches and single arm versions, all kinds of stuff that you'll see on our whiteboards at the gym. And those are all built off of two foundational lifts, the ones we mentioned. So when you understand the snatch and the clean and jerk at their roots, every variation makes a little bit more sense. So let's talk about why they're different. So why these lifts and not other lifts, I should say. Here's the thing, nobody tells you. No other movement on planet Earth trains speed under load the way that these do. A back squat trains strength,

Why Olympic Lifts Build Power

Matt 3:23

a deadlift trains strength, but they're slow. Even when you try to move them fast, they're still slow compared to what we're talking about. The Olympic lifts force you to be powerful. Power is strength multiplied by speed. And in life, in sport and getting older without falling apart, power is the thing that goes first, not strength. That's why we teach them. We're not training you to compete. We're training your nervous system to fire fast, to recruit muscles in the right order at the right time, to produce force quickly and absorb it quickly. That carries over to literally everything else. So, what does that actually look like in your life? Well, it's catching yourself when you slip on the ice and not going down. That's Olympic lift skill, it's fast forced production. It's catching your weight in a low position. It's playing with your kids or your grandkids and being able to get up and

Real Life Carryover And Aging Better

Matt 4:15

down off the floor a hundred times without thinking about it. That's mobility plus power. It's hiking the whites in the fall, and your legs feel springy on a on a descent instead of trashed. That's because you've trained your body to absorb force, which is half of what catching a snatch is. The Olympic lifts are not just for the platform. They're some of the best general human movement training that exists. Power, body awareness, mobility, coordination, all in one or two movements, and that's the deal. Now you can already hear it. Some people might be listening, being like, Matt, I'm 52 years old and I have a bad shoulder. I'm not snatching anything. Okay, that's fair. But here's the move. We don't have to do the full lift. We can scale every Olympic lift to meet you exactly where you are. If you got bad

How We Scale For Any Body

Matt 5:02

shoulders or you got mobility issues in the overhead, cool. Let's do dumbbell hang power snatches. It's the same movement pattern, it's way easier to learn and it's way more forgiving on the joints. If you're brand new to the gym, we start in the hang power versions. So the bar starts at your hip, not from the floor. We catch in a quarter squat, not even a deep squat. We're gonna learn the explosive part of that movement before we learn the catch. If you're an older lifter who just wants to feel strong, we've got medicine ball cleans onto a box. It's the same pattern. It's no barbell, no risk. Every member at Juggernaut has a path into these lifts. The question is not should I do them? The question is what version is right for me today. That's conversation with your coach, and that's why we're here. One last thing I want to mention before we wrap up. If you've been training a while or you keep skipping the Olympic lift days, or you keep scaling out to barbell curls, when you see a clean on the board, here's what I want you to hear. So these the lifts that humble you are the ones that change you always.

The Lifts That Humble You

Matt 6:05

There's a reason an empty barbell snatch feels harder than a heavy back squat. That's because your body is being asked to do something new, something coordinated, something fast. That's exactly the input your body needs to keep adapting after the easy gains are gone. You don't have to be good at them today. You just have to be willing to look bad at them for a few weeks while you learn. That's the whole game. Alright, so this week's unstoppable challenge. The next time you see an Olympic lift on the whiteboard, don't scale it out automatically. Ask your coach what version is right for you today. Maybe it's the faux lift, maybe it's the hang power version, maybe it's a

Unstoppable Challenge And Raffle Reminder

Matt 6:45

dumbbell version, whatever it is, you don't have to go heavy. You just have to start and that's the whole thing. 1% better every day. So quick reminder before we go our June 6th raffle drawing is just a couple days away now. Uh support the show for as little as $3 a month, and you're entered to win. A seat in the Ultimate Bootcamp Challenge, $199 value. The drawing happens on this Saturday. And if you've been on the fence, now's the time. New episodes land every Tuesday, and next week we're going into the polls, the part most people get wrong. And until next time, be well, be unstoppable.