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Polish Olympic Weightlifting Methods and Techniques
Below is a video series that highlights training methods used by Polish Olympic weightlifters from the 1970′s. These videos were recently posted to my Facebook page and are well worth a look.
It is worth noting that I make this suggestion as someone with little interest in competitive weightlifting. I still found the videos both interesting and informative.
To view all ten parts in sequence, please refer to the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=308D0F3E52764BA9
17 Comments so far
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I viewed this one a long time ago, its actually on my fav list on my u-tube account….this stuff is GOLD!
Hi Ross,
Great video. Thanks.
One comment I have: I see these elite athletes doing a lot of slow motion work, not at max intensity work.
One of my workout philosophies is that my workout has to be fast, furious, effective, convenient, practical, and out of my way (I have a life to live, after all). I wonder if time jogging is not wasted effort (these guys seem to do a lot of it); this time, energy and effort that could be better used in their heavy workouts.
Their workouts are intense later on. I wonder if they would not have been more intense had they not worn themselves out too much jogging. BTW: I am a fan/convert of Hill Sprints.
I just re-read your section on running in the UGTWF, the book you wrote prior to Never Gymless.
Comments? Maybe a blog entry about this would be enlightening.
They are weightlifters, right? I haven’t seen one decent weight being lifted through the entire video. Sure, their coach may think he’s right when stating that ‘running is the most important form of exercise for all sports’, but he’s given an elite bunch of genetically superior athletes. Everything will make them good lifters, even lifting light wooden logs.
Not to say that general conditioning isn’t important, even for a highly specific sport such as weightlifting, but spending entire training sessions on running and agility exercises seems like a stretch to me.
I saw a more interesting (at least: I think it is) video on Polisch weightlifting recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsIkD9IvcZc
It was posted on http://www.70sbig.com
Looks awesome…will check later
General Physical Preparedness
youri, this is their GPP work, and later in the day or earlier or maybe both they definitely work with heavy stuff.
Well aren’t the legs pretty much the key power generator in olypmic lifts? I suspect all the running and jumping they do builds lots of explosiveness, coordination and endurance in the legs.
I’m not knowledgeable about competitive weight lifting, but it looks like a well rounded approach (which I assume they were effective with or else why would there be a dubbed video). Most of all it looks FUN, even though it’s probably brutal to a non elite athlete.
Legs were designed for more than olympic weight lifting. Those other activities which although might not have a direct effect on the competition numbers improve blood circulation, coordination and balance, and change the pace for an otherwise highly specialized routine.
There is an entry Ross wrote on juggling to improve performance, what is shown in the above videos is practically the same thing.
http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/juggleyourway.html
Yes, these activities are examples of GPP. Competitive weightlifters regularly train multiple times per day. Poland had considerable success in Olympic style weightlifting in the 1960′s and 1970′s. Gold Medalists such as Zygmunt Smalcerz and Waldemar Baszanowski were incredible lifters. Grzegorz Cziura and Norbert Ozimek are two others that come to mind. Both excellent lifters with success at the highest level.
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Very interesting video. I love training outside, it’s always different experience than training in the gym, one can really feel the breath of nature. (That’s why I’m so glad that spring is already coming to my country so I’ll be able to train in the hills). Thanks for sharing, Ross!
I’m from Poland,this video is very good,40 years ago and still some things have not changed since that time,also Poland is good in powerlifting and strongman:)
p.s.great website Ross,now one of my favorite,thanks!!!!
very movnat ! see, nothing new under the sun!
Thank you a millions!!!!
The early warm ups part of the video is interesting, we tend to forget that simple warm ups are necessary.
I used to make the mistake of skipping warm ups and it almost always led to pain, luckily I still did not suffer any serious injuries.
-Alex Allmert
Thanks for the video bro,
I see that they were incorporating alot of plyometric and balance exercising into a running program besides their of course weight lifting programs. I dont see what some of your other relpies are talking about when they said they didnt think were training intensely bc as being an ex college athlete I Was the first person to train under Ben Tabachnik who headed the Soviet Unions experimental prgram for twenty years and the training is very intense as I went through it personally, keep up the good work…
Bill