Individualized Program
Because Olympic style weightlifting is very technical, starting in the sport or adding these lifts to your training can seem daunting. Individualized programming for learning or improving in weightlifting can be crucial because your skill and strength in lifts like back squats, deadlifts and overhead presses can make your starting points different from another person that has only trained with machines and dumbbells before.
By filling out the registration form, you are sharing enough information to know what level of training you have done before and what limitations you may or may not have before throwing your own bodyweight over head. For instance, if you just did hang cleans in high school then you likely will need some work pulling weight from the floor and still transition through the power position well.
The program
The program will be shared with you via google sheets upon completing your registration form and then purchasing the program. You should start by filling out your known PR’s (personal records) on the first page so they will autopopulate throughout the program. Next you should look through the first week or so of workouts and plan what days you will do those workouts and what equipment / space you will have for those workouts.
Beginners
The most difficult part of starting weightlifting is typically achieving mobility and stability in the prerequisite positions like the catch of a snatch or clean. These factors will likely make your catch the limiting factor in your weightlifting performance. It is not uncommon for a power snatch or power clean to be higher than your full snatch or clean. For this reason, filling out the PR sheet may not be possible starting out or necessary. To build competency in weightlifting it is important to practice the snatch and clean and jerk many times per week, therefore lifting relatively heavy may not allow you to lift each time per week. In my opinion, it can be better for beginner weightlifters to focus less on weight for the first few weeks or even months, but instead on being able to complete the many variations of the snatch and clean and jerk you will have in your program and understand how it carries over to the snatch and clean and jerk.
Back squats, front squats, and deadlifts may be some of the lifts that beginners are more comfortable with either because of simplicity or expereince doing them, therefor this will be the more strenuous part of training in the first weeks and months. For a beginner, these lifts will be programmed with more traditional volume and intensity to build muscle and strength. It is encouraged to find or input PR’s in these sections if nothing else. When you get to a field of unpopulated numbers (because of an absence of a PR) then you should complete that set with weights that don’t cause failure for more than 2-3 sets but are still challenging.
Intermediates -to- Elite
For more experienced weightlifters, the PR list may be an exciting time to reminisce of the most recent PR’s but also a point of planning for what lifts / variations need improvement. If not already mentioned in the registration form, noticing a lacking variation is a great opportunity to add this to the notes section of the PR page for me to see and potentially reemphisize the goals of the training block.