Becoming fast

To lift weights well, you need to move both barbells and yourself.. quickly. Which is easier said than done, especially with the science based movement seemingly taking over social media.

Speed, power and velocity are all fancy terms used to make weightlifting sounds more complicated than it actually is.

So let's simplify it again.

Speed, simply put, is how long it took an object to move a certain distance. Whilst velocity is that same speed but in a set direction. It all comes down to how quickly you perform a movement such as the snatch, clean or jerk - whilst power is just the amount of work (or energy) you transfer or convert in that time.

In gym-bro terms. To increase your ‘power’ output, you either need to lift more weight, or move the same amount of weight.. but quicker.

In order to lift weight quickly in Weightlifting you need to;
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1 - decrease the overall distance travelled by the barbell; and 

2 - Move yourself from A to B in the shortest time possible. 
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#1 - relates primarily to the barbell whilst #2 - predominantly relates to how YOU move.

Let’s address these in order of relative ‘ease’ to perfect. 

Decreasing Distance 

Decreasing the distance the barbell has to travel can be achieved in some productive and some rather un-productive ways.

Powerlifters do this all the time. It’s why the Sumo vs Conventional stance deadlift debate is a thing. Sumo stance deadlifts reduce the overall distance the barbell has to travel. And it’s legal in competition.. so if it works for you, why not use it? (A debate for another time). 

Reducing range of motion and bar travel distance in weightlifting is a little more difficult to achieve, but still doable. 

The simple answer is to move your grip (hands) outwards. The wider your grip the closer you are to the barbell and the less distance the bar has to travel upwards until it’s reached ‘lock-out’ above your head. 

But wider isn’t always better. A wider grip can;

• compromise grip strength
• Put excess pressure on the wrists
• Compromise shoulder and elbow mechanics 
• F**k up your bar path (pull mechanics)
  

So maybe don’t do it. Check out our ‘how-to’ lift series for a handy grip width determination guide or see your coach. 

Talking of bar path. This is critical for an efficient and FAST lift. 

The shortest route from floor to overhead is a straight line. In reality, you won’t achieve, nor do you want to achieve a perfectly straight bar path. There will be an element of a ‘curve’ and you want the bar to loop slightly back to land in a secure overhead position.

If your bar path is perfectly straight, you’re likely swinging yourself back and forth - but more on that in a min. 

When it comes to bar path, slow is smooth and smooth is fast. The more jarring, slamming and changes of direction in the bar makes the slower it moves! Each horizontal movement takes energy away from the end goal. Vertical barbell displacement. 

Tennis balls bouncing off the floor have long been used as an analogy for this motion. A shallow and smooth approach angle (towards the floor) results in a shallow rebound angle off the floor. It’s simple physics. You can’t change those. 

A smooth and shallow bar path gradient into the hip will result in the least possible horizontal displacement on the bar after the hip contact. 

Practicing this movement and developing CONSISTENCY in your movement pattern is how you become FAST. 

If the movement is new to you each time, you’ll perform it slowly as you have to concentrate on the new position. Movement familiarity and muscle memory is what makes movements FAST-er over time. 

Athlete side note; when implementing corrective exercises e.g. hang snatch. Use LIGHT-er weights. There’s no shame in it, if you go too heavy too quickly and don’t give yourself time to learn and become comfortable in the new movement. All you’ll achieve is reverting back to the old movement you’re aiming to correct and reinforcing the incorrect movement pattern. 

A smooth and consistent, near vertical albeit slightly ‘hooked’ backwards S-curve bar path achieved (hopefully). We can now start looking at some more difficult aspects of becoming a FAST-er lifter. ‍

How YOU move‍

Disclaimer: Before you kick off saying we don’t know what we’re on about as we haven’t mentioned jumping backwards or forwards in the previous section. Let’s clear this up. 

Jumping backwards or forwards is HORIZONTAL displacement (as discussed previously) and takes away from the VERTICAL motion of the barbell you want to achieve. It’s simply incorrect. Argue with us in the DM’s. We have physics on our side.

Arguably jumping backwards is less harmful to your lift execution than jumping forwards.. But both are NOT optimal. We’ll cover error corrections for these in a separate article.

If your bar path is ‘correct’. You won’t have the issue of jumping forwards or backwards. There will be exceptions to this rule, but if you’re not placing on international teams already.. you’re probably not within this exempt category. 

Jumping back and forth is unpredictable. Consistency is critical to becoming FAST.

Athlete side note: backwards momentum will either dislocate your shoulders as you wrestle the barbell back to a comfortable overhead position or involve a potentially painful miss behind your head. Especially if you’re wearing incorrect straps for the job. See our guide to straps if you’re in any doubt. 

Forwards momentum is AWEFUL and almost entirely un-correctable once the bar is overhead. Even if you jump forwards to chase the bar. The only muscle group you can use to muscle the barbell backwards to a stable overhead position our your scaps and rotator cuffs. Muscles which maybe lift 5-10kg (during exercises such as the Lu-raise or WYI raises). NOT helpful when you’re trying to snatch anything heavier than the barbell. So don’t do it. ‍

Moving barbells quickly‍

Consistent lifting aside. Becoming fast required you to move from point A to point B in the shortest time possible. 

This involves moving the barbell upwards quickly and moving yourself under the bar just as fast. 

To move a barbell quickly you’ll need to generate a large amount of force in a short span of time. In other words, you need to be powerful. 

This is achieved through;

1 - getting stronger 

2 - practicing movements such as the power clean and power snatch 

3 - performing plyometric exercises to increase your overall ‘fast’ twitch muscle density 

4 - improving your technique and general athletic ability. Think running and jumping. ‍

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1 - Getting stronger ‍

This is simple. Getting stronger in the squat, deadlift and overhead press, being an overall UNIT of a person will make the weights you lift during the snatch and clean and jerk relatively lighter. 

If you have a max deadlift of 240kg, a 150kg clean pull will move quickly. It’s simply second nature at that point. Smarter people than us have developed strength ratios you can use to benchmark your performance.

Whilst technique is king in weightlifting, ultimately it’s a strength sport. Overall strength can and will bail you out of certain technical errors. 

There may (will) come a point in your career where technical drills fall on death ears and correcting errors will both feel like beating a dead horse and become counterproductive as they start to take away from valuable strength and positional strength building time. 

Get strong - in the correct positions - and those positions will be easier to maintain during your lifts.. and hence your technique will magically improve. ‍

2 - ‘Power’ lift variations ‍

These are perfect additions to any weightlifting program. They add practice time to your bank of Snatch and CJ training hours. They force you to move with some deliberate intent and work the ‘power’ section of the force-velocity curve in the most sport-specific way possible. 

If you’re sh*t at powers, do more of them. If you’re already good at them and have beautiful technique.. Consider additional squats and/or movements you’re bad at and keep yourself ticking over on everything else lift related. 

Power + Full Lift combinations are also excellent at helping you meet the bar at its heights point and avoiding it crashing down on you. Crashing is one of those jarring movements we DON’T want as they reduce our overall movement speed. They’re difficult to recover from and in general bruise both the collar bones and the ego. ‍

3 - Plyometrics ‍

No more room in your program for weighted lifts? Plyometrics are the next best (arguably better) option. 

We cover the science in our programming eBook. But the gist of plyometrics is, they train your ‘fast’ twitch muscle fibres (the ones which produce force quickly), reduce the threshold at which the fast twitch fibres are recruited, improve your shock absorption properties and in general train your power production mechanics. 

Plyometrics include your classic exercises such as box jumps and broad jump. But also include things like death drops, side-jumps, sprints, hill-sprints and vertical jumps (not onto a box), medicine ball slams and most throwing movements.

If it involves jumping, throwing or in general producing as much force as practicable possibly quickly. It’s probably a ‘plyometric’ movement and it will benefit your weightlifting. ‍

4 - improving technical and athletic ability ‍

Working plyometric exercises will make you a better athlete, improve coordination and reduce overall injury risk. 

Jumping and sprinting movements transfer directly across to the “power” positions of the snatch and the clean. If you don’t believe us; record yourself performing a standing vertical jump and a snatch from the side. Compare these side by side and judge for yourself. 

The bottom line is power transfer to the floor. 

To shift big weights quickly, you need a strong foundation of strength and stability in the core and lower limbs, specifically the feet and ankle joints. Being a better overall ‘athlete’ will improve these characteristics and take your training to new heights. 

Early exposure to sports in childhood is critical to development of these characteristics. As an adult, there’s a lot of catching up to do.

If your feet roll inwards, knees collapse and you look like a sh*tting dog during your lifts. The amount of power you can produce in individual muscles is irrelevant. Think of it as a 800Bhp sports car on £40 Chinese death slider tyres. 

The power may be there, but you can’t transfer none of it to the road. You go nowhere if you’re lucky, or crash into a ditch if you’re not. 

As a lifter, it’s much of the same. If you can’t transfer the power to the platform and into the bar, it won’t matter how strong you are. 

Effective programming and periodisation by your coach will incorporate the development of these general athletic characteristics. Collectively lumped under the “GPP” (“General Physical Preparation”) period. You’ll likely spend most of your training year in this phase. Especially as an adult with some catching up to do. 

If you’re confused how to develop these characteristics or simply CBA to make changes to your carefully thought out program you found online or asked ChatGPT to write. Don’t overcomplicate things. 

Go to the local park. Do some 40 yard sprints. Hop, skip and jump your way across the local football pitch and expose yourself to some sports other than Weightlifting every now and then (low risk ones preferably, maybe cycling to the gym?)

If you’ve zero time to mess around with training outside of the gym. Circuit training! 5-10 min or maybe the occasional CrossFit class. 

Finish off your session with some bodybuilding movements, plyometrics, sled pushes, tyre flips, sled drags. Anything ‘fun’ which involves you standing on two feet and testing your balance will probably fall under the realm of ‘athletic’ development. 

As a seasoned lifter, it might help you hate training a little less also 👍🏻‍

Finally - Mobility‍

We saved the worst for last, as nobody wants to hear this (yet again). But mobility. 

Mobility, as opposed to flexibility, is the ability to move through a desired range of motion with control. You unfortunately need good mobility to sit into a comfortable and strong overhead squat. 

Comfortable is the key word there. If you’re not comfortable in a position, your body wont’t be in any rush to get into it quickly, especially when under load. That’s a one way ticket to snap city. I’ve been there and wouldn’t recommend an extended stay. 

Practicing the front squat, squat and overhead squat at every opportunity will improve your mobility and make it easier for you to move into that position at speed. It’s simply one less thing to think about when training. So don’t neglect mobility, it will make you a faster lifter. ‍

The system as a whole ‍

The final piece of the puzzle is putting it all together. 

• You have good, consistent and efficient technique and a textbook bar path.
• You’re an athlete with good movement mechanics and efficient power transfer to the barbell. 
• Your programming and sporting background has prepared you for this sport (with a little help from genetics and heaps of type 2 muscle fibres). 
• You can sit in an overhead squat for days and have no trouble getting into the positions required by weightlifting. 
  

So what now? How can we make you even faster?‍

The turnover ‍

The final and often overlooked aspect of lifting is the turnover and movement into the bottom position. Being comfortable in the bottom position is one thing, getting there with some intent is another. 

Use the barbell to your advantage! (Granted this technique works best when lifting above bodyweight)... But.. PULL. Pull yourself downwards against the barbell.

Bar moves up.. you move down. Pulling against the bar helps squeeze every last ounce of elevation out of your pull and gives you something to pull against to beat gravity and get beneath the bar FAST. 

The pull doesn’t finish once the bar leaves the hip. If you close your eyes and pray the bar lands where you want it to.. you’re missing out on valuable Kg’s. 

Move consistently, quickly and with intent. 

Need more help? Drop me a line at filip@stashweightlfiting.com or a DM on our instagram page!

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