Olympian Effort

If you're are looking to improve their physique, train the whole body in unison, and improve their athleticism and strength. Then read on:

I've always believed that basketball players e.g. NBA players have the greatest vertical leaping ability compared to other athletes. Boy was I wrong.....can you guess which athlete has the greatest vertical leap?

THE OLYMPIC POWERLIFTER

Never would I have envisaged that those bulky 200-300 pound powerlifters could jump higher than basketball players! NBA players on average have a vertical leap of approx. 32 inches, and powerlifters on average have a vertical leap of approx. 36 whopping inches!!!

The reason is that they trained explosively with olympic powerlifting movements e.g. snatch like below:

As depicted above, olympic lifts like the snatch works the body in unison to lift the weight. This would require the recruitment of more muscle fibers, and therefore create more potential for muscle growth. In addition to that, compound exercises like this would burn more calories as you're recruiting more muscles and therefore requiring more energy!

As opposed to conventional weight training methods, Olympic lifting trains the muscles to generate Power. By the law of physics, power is defined with the following equation:

Power = W/t = Work / Time

With that relationship, power increases when more work is performed per unit time, OR if the same amount of work is performed in less time. Therefore, if you can lift more weight in less time, your muscles can generate more power. Thats why Olympic lifts train explosiveness, as you'll be able to generate a lot of force in a short timeframe. This is akin to sprinters who can explode and accelerate instantly, and NBA players e.g. Lebron James whom just explodes 42 inches vertically for the dunk.

In addition to that, Olympic movements train Type II muscle fibers which are fast twitch fibers (shorter contraction time), and only recruited for heavier, and more taxing workouts that require the recruitment of more muscle fibers. And if you recall, Type II muscle fibers have the greatest growth capacity compared to Type I fibers.

To summarize, Olympic lifts would:

• Increase body's ability to generate more power, therefore increasing explosiveness e.g. vertical leaping ability;
• Work the entire body in unison to move the weight, therefore recruiting more muscles and therefore creating more potential for muscle growth and burn more calories;

With that, I believe that any gym-goer should not omit Olympic lifts in their workout regimen, which are incredibly beneficial for improving your body.

Below is the link to bodybuilding.com's exercise database which include steps on performing the snatch:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?Name=Snatch