Lifting is simple: It’s you against the barbell. Muscle vs gravity. A complex and nuanced understanding of the subtleties of Olympic lifting technique vs the fact that the bar is really effing heavy.
The finer points of the Olympic lifts take a lifetime to master, but in broad terms, this man-vs-metal fight is best won by keeping things simple. Here’s a three-step process that I use to make sure that I’m giving myself the best odds of winning the fight every time I approach the bar:
1. Envision success
Take a moment before your lift to picture it in your mind. Picture yourself setting up for the lift, going through the entire motion, and finishing it. What does it look like? What does it feel like? How long does it take? Visualization helps prepare the mental pathways that you’ll use during the lift, and also helps you identify your problem areas. If you can’t visualize what position your legs will be in to start the lift, then you should probably walk away from the bar and ask a coach to help you figure that out before you attempt it!
2. Breathe in, get tight
Your body is a big, squishy skin-bag, filled with muscles and various liquids, and given a shape by your skeleton. It’s not particularly well-suited to effortlessly absorbing the force of moving heavy objects around. The least structurally sound part of this system is your belly, which has a thin column of vertebrae up the back, and squishy muscle and organs all the way around. In order to give this flexible structure some rigidity and structural support, you’ll need to take in a big breath of air, and then squeeze the muscles of your torso against this air bubble to create pressure inside your abdomen that will support you during your lift. This technique is called the Valsalva maneuver, and has been used by weightlifters and powerlifters for years.
3. Commit
Once you start moving the bar, it’s too late to re-evaluate. Before you begin, you have to have the mental commitment to seeing the lift through. It might be scary. You may not be sure if you’ll be able to do it or not. But if you want to get that PR, or even just get comfortable with tough lifts, you need to decide beforehand that you’re going to give it everything you’ve got, no matter what.
It will take you months and years of effort to develop a high level of skill in the Olympic lifts. But if you approach every lift by visualizing it, getting tight, and giving it all you’ve got, you’ll have greater success and learn more quickly.
