As a competitive Olympic lifter and college strength & conditioning coach, I was disappointed when my athletes couldn’t perform barbell Cleans.
Most of them had restricted shoulders, knotted lats, and cramped wrists from too much benching and not enough rehab work.
(This was back in the 1990s era when recovery work was practically unknown .)
So, barbell Cleans became barbell High Pulls.
Or dumbbell Cleans.
Plus, doing higher reps - anything more than 5 - with the Olympic lifts practically guarantees your technique goes down the toilet .
And that’s a ideal set up for an injury.
And no one wants one of those.
Especially not an athlete training to prepare for competition .
I remember seeing the “Kettle-Stack” advertised in the back of a Muscle & Fiction - uh, Fitness - left on my desk.
I made a reminder to investigate further.
When I transitioned from University Strength Coach to Personal Training Business Owner, I faced 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 loved them for their powerful, efficient workouts.
Higher rep versions of the Olympic lifts did wonders for people’s physiques.
They got leaner, faster.
They got stronger, more flexible , and better conditioned.
Plus, they were tough , 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 here is a warm-up, 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 10 reps AFTER all their primary lifts for a session have been completed.
“See, Geoff! They didn’t get all that muscle from ‘ merely’ the O-lifts!”
No, they didn’t.
But they did get most of it - primarily through Olympic lifting assistance exercises.
“Oh yeah, how can you be so sure?”
Because that’s how I built 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 slimmed down to 200lbs from 252lbs, and still kept the Squats ( going deeper this time - and significantly more )...
Pulls ( plenty of them!)...
And Overhead work.
Nothing grows your upper back faster than Snatch Grip High Pulls from above the knee!
And high frequency Squats?
Full body growth!
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” forms 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 progress 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 Snatches
They’re just so intense on the body.
Your body literally cannot resist changing when you practice these exercises routinely .
Start with a handful .
Learn the techniques.
Build your muscle endurance first. Then your mass .
And in most cases, 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 muscle ache you get the next day after high repetition / higher volume Double Cleans or Double Snatches.)
Plus, using the double kettlebell lifts is time-efficient .
You can accomplish A LOT of work in just twenty minutes - if you know how to plan your training correctly.