As a aspiring Olympic lifter and college strength & conditioning coach, I was disappointed when my athletes couldn’t execute barbell Cleans.
Most of them had restricted shoulders, tight lats, and sore wrists from too much benching and not enough recovery work.
(This was back in the mid-to-late 90s when restoration work was practically unheard of .)
So, barbell Cleans became barbell High Pulls.
Or dumbbell Cleans.
Plus, doing more repetitions - anything more than 5 - with the Olympic lifts practically guarantees your technique goes down the toilet .
And that’s a great set up for an injury.
And no one wants one of those.
Especially not an athlete aiming to compete .
I remember seeing the “Kettle-Stack” advertised in the back of a Muscle & Fiction - uh, Fitness - left on my desk.
I made a mental note to investigate further.
When I transitioned from College Strength Coach to Personal Training Business Owner, I encountered the same issue:
Teaching the Olympic lifts (O-lifts, as some call them), was a “juice that wasn’t worth the squeeze.”
Too technical and clients had to suspend their disbelief .
So, back to the dumbbell versions of the O-lifts.
Then, I saw the Dragon Door ad for kettlebells in 2001.
I bought my first set in January 2002 and started using them with my clients around that time.
We all enjoyed them for their intense, quick impact .
More repetitions of the Olympic lifts did miracles for people’s physiques.
They got leaner, faster.
They got stronger, more flexible , and better conditioned.
Plus, they were hard , so they were mentally engaging.
In fact, I still train one of my clients from 2001 today.
Now she’s in her 50s, the 16kg is a toy , and the 24kg routinely goes over her head.
Back in the early 2010s, I wrote a lot about Olympic lifters' physiques primarily coming from Snatches, Cleans, Overhead work, Squats, and Pulls.
Sure, it’s true that the Chinese - some of the most muscular lifters in the world - do some bodybuilding.
Usually ( based on some expert opinions), it’s in the form of around six sets of ten reps AFTER all their key lifts for a session have been completed.
“See, Geoff! They didn’t get all that muscle from ‘just ’ the O-lifts!”
No, they didn’t.
But they did get most of it - and from Olympic lifting assistance exercises.
“Oh yeah, how can you be so sure?”
Because that’s how I got much if not most of mine:
Squats, Deadlifts (a form of a “Pull”), Presses, Bench, Rows, Cleans, and Power Shrugs up until age 22.
Then, I cut down to 200lbs from 252lbs, and still kept the Squats ( with more depth - and significantly more )...
Pulls (LOTS of them! )...
And Overhead work.
Nothing develops your upper back faster than Snatch Grip High Pulls from above the knee!
And high frequency Squats?
Complete muscle development!
Not just the legs!
Which is how I got back up to 230lbs in my late 20s.
So, if your goal is to revolutionize the way you look, feel, and perform, you can’t go wrong by using the “Hybrid” versions of the Olympic lifts found in the kettlebell exercises.
Especially the double kettlebell exercises, which, I’ve found over the last 20+ years, is where much of the true transformations lay.
Exercises like:
Double Clean
Double Press
Double Push Press
Double Jerk
Double Front Squat
Double Clean + Press
Double Clean + Push Press
Double Clean + Jerk
Double High Pull
Double Snatch
They’re just so taxing on the body.
Your body literally cannot resist changing when you perform these exercises regularly.
Start with a limited amount.
Learn the techniques.
Build your muscle endurance first. Then your size.
And in most cases, Double your stamina and even fat loss will “just happen.”
You practically work all the muscles in your body at once.
(You haven’t “lived” until you experience the pump you get the next day after higher rep / high volume Double Cleans or Double Snatches.)
Plus, using the double kettlebell lifts is time-efficient .
You can accomplish A LOT of work in just a short session - if you know how to organize your training correctly.