The desire to lose weight lingers in the minds of many people, especially for those who have been struggling with a lot of body fat for a long time. With Olympic weightlifting gaining popularity with every passing day, the million-dollar question: is Olympic weightlifting enough to lose weight? The answer is that Olympic weightlifting is enough for you to lose weight. If you want to lose weight, you must put in the effort. Those who have tried to lose excess body fat will tell you that it’s not a joke or a walk in the park.
It requires a massive amount of commitment for you to lose weight to your desired level. Without putting in the required amount of effort and commitment, your desire to reduce a significant amount of your body weight will be a far-fetched one. The effectiveness of Olympic weightlifting in losing weight is sure.
That is why most gyms use Olympic lifts for their metabolically demanding routine. You will need a lot of energy to do Olympic weightlifting, thus making it possible for you to lose weight. Essentially, what Olympic lifts do is that they increase energy expenditure and build dense muscles.
With the many setbacks associated with a lot of weight in one’s body, it’s greatly essential for one to do weight loss exercises to maintain a healthy body. The good news is that there are different types of workouts that people are doing today to reduce the amount of fat in their bodies. Olympic weightlifting is, certainly, one of the paths that people with excessive body weight are considering taking to improve the quality of their lives.
Virtually all workouts and programs recommended for losing weight have particular practices and guidelines that one should follow to realize quality results. In the same way, Olympic weightlifting requires one to develop an in-depth understanding of its dynamics to be effective.
It’s important to reiterate that Olympic weightlifting is enough to lose weight. Whether you are considering beginning the workout or you have been doing it for a while now, but you don’t seem to see results, it’s prudent for you to comprehend the fundamentals and dynamics involved in Olympic weightlifting for you to fully benefit from it.
Without the information you need for your weight loss program, you will continue to struggle with excess body fat for a long time. The good news is that you will have all the essential information you need regarding Olympic weightlifting and losing weight.
What is Olympic Weightlifting?
Fundamentally, Olympic weightlifting has two types of lifts, namely: the snatch and the clean and the jerk. It’s worth noting that this type of weightlifting is overhead in nature and involves a full-body workout. You are required to lift the weight above your head from the floor at a higher speed compared to other types of weightlifting. For you to do a snatch, your feet should be hip-width apart in a squat position.
You then have to lift your weight up to your chest. Once the weight is on your chest, you need to move your shoulders and pull your body under the bar. This should position you into a full squat. Make sure that the bar goes over your head, and you straighten up. When doing the snatch, the exercise is done in one motion.
Unlike in the snatch where-by, one movement is involved, the clean and the jerk involves two movements. You start by bending and lifting the bar with a shoulder-width grip. Let your hips drop into a squat position. Your back and straight arms should be flat for you to do the clean and the jerk in the right way.
Lift the weight to your shoulders, take a pause, and then push the bar above your head while straightening your arms. The element that differentiates Olympic weightlifting from other weightlifting workouts is that it’s all about speed. While the movement in Olympic weightlifting is faster, powerlifting is slower particularly as the weight continues to increase.
Why You Should Consider Olympic Weightlifting for Weight Loss
A lot of bodyweight than normal is truly a nightmare for many people. Apart from the health risks associated with being overweight, people generally like having a normal weight. A normal weight allows you to do more and become so much compared to having too much weight on your body.
In other words, too much fat in your body is limiting. The good news is that having too much weight on your body shouldn’t be a death sentence. There are steps you can take to reduce the excess weight on your body. Olympic weightlifting is an option you can consider.
What comes into the minds of many people when they think of reducing weight is taking too much time on the cardio machine. While this might be an option for you when you want to lose weight, it’s certainly not the most effective, especially if you want to lose belly fat.
One of the reasons why you should consider Olympic weightlifting for your weight loss program is that it increases your muscle mass significantly. As your muscle mass increases, you will be boosting your metabolic function, thus creating an effective avenue for you to burn more calories. A study published by PLoS ONE in 2018 indicates that a body with a high muscle mass translates to a higher metabolic rate and, as a result, the burning of more calories.
Another factor that should motivate you to consider Olympic weightlifting for your weight loss program is because lifting weights has proved to be a feasible option for reducing excess body fat. Willis et al (2012) indicate that the more you do weightlifting, the more you are burning calories in your body.
Weight gain comes when you have a lot of calories in your body that haven’t been turned into energy but it’s stored as fat. So, as you go to the gym and do Olympic weightlifting exercises, you are a step in the right direction in regards to losing weight. In this regard, it’s imperative for you to take note that the weights you are lifting should be heavy enough to give you a challenge.
In the same vein, make sure that you can be consistent with the weights; if they are not doable, go for the ones that you are fine with. If, with time, you realize that you can lift heavier weights, it will be a great idea to go for that. It will make your weight loss program more effective and see positive results as you maintain 2-3 workouts per week.
Olympic Weightlifting for Beginners
Yes, you want to lose weight, and you want to use Olympic weightlifting as your highway to a healthier and fit body. But, if you are a beginner, you need to know how you can go about it to be successful in your goals. The most fundamental thing is that you have a goal, which is to lose weight.
And to emphasize, Olympic weightlifting has proven to be an effective way to lose weight, but, as a beginner, you should learn how to do it well. From the onset, you should choose a weight you can lift without a struggle. Since you are experimenting, you can choose a weight that you can lift a number of times and you go higher. The aim of this is to challenge your body.
If you find that you can do consistent repetitions, you can consider going for a heavier weight. Remember, the heavier the weight that you lift, the more you will be able to burn more calories. Since you are just beginning your Olympic weightlifting exercises, you should take a gradual pattern until when you get used to it.
In other words, you can begin with 1 session of exercise as you slowly increase your pattern of workouts. Keep on increasing your sessions until you can 2-3 sessions in a week.
As you get to understand more about this type of exercise, what is most important is the quality, as opposed to the quantity. Move at a pace that will allow you to get used to the routine. When you are comfortable with doing 2-3 sets of workouts in a week, and you maintain consistency, you will note that you will be in a position to increase the weight of your lifts.
What you need to take note is that strength training is more of building muscles, and the best way to build muscles is by exposing them to more weight. As you push yourself to the limit, you will see a big difference in your body. By the end of the fourth week, you will not be a beginner anymore. Olympic weightlifting will be your preferred option in maintaining your perfect body weight.
Do You Need Expert Help On Olympic Weightlifting To Lose Weight?
It’s evident that Olympic weightlifting is not a workout like any other. There are dynamics and techniques involved in this workout that are not common in others. Therefore, you need help if you are not familiar with this type of strength training.
In fact, the need to find help becomes more important because of the reason why you are doing the workouts. You are not only doing Olympic weightlifting to improve your fitness levels but also to lose some weight. This requires a greater degree of knowledge for you to attain positive and quality outcomes.
In case you are wondering where you can get expert help, there are resources available to help you get started on the right note. Firstly, you can visit a professional fitness coach to find out more about Olympic weightlifting and losing weight. Certainly, you will get all the help you need for you to begin on your journey to bring your body weight to a level that you are comfortable with.
Besides, you can get help online on how you can go about Olympic weightlifting to lose weight. In this regard, you can download apps that will guide you on your workouts. For example, you can download the Strong Lifts app to get help on what you need as you do your weightlifting workouts.
Also, you can download online programs like the Texas Method for additional information and guidance on how to lift weight in the right way for you to reduce the amount of fat in your body. YouTube channels are another great resource that you can try out for you to get the assistance you need on Olympic weightlifting to lose weight.
The advice that you will get from the afore-mentioned resources will play an instrumental role in not only helping you to do the right workouts but also to do them in the right way. Remember, both quality and quantity are important when it comes to weightlifting, so make sure that you are consistent with what you should do, and you will have quality results.
How to Get Better At Olympic Weightlifting For Optimal Weight Loss Results
Do you want to begin Olympic weightlifting, and you don’t know how to start? Or have you been doing it, and you want to become better for quality results? Well, there are various things you need to consider for you to achieve the results you are looking for. Workouts aimed at losing weight have been and continue to be a challenge to many people.
The amount of commitment and best practices required to make it possible are not for the faint-hearted. Especially when it involves high energy exercises like Olympic weightlifting, you have to make sure that you are doing everything right to give you quality outcomes.
· Maintaining Consistency
As Swift et al (2014) put it, consistent workouts are important for you to attain optimal results in terms of losing weight. If you eat foods with high amounts of calories and fail to do the required exercises constantly, you will not be doing your body a favor. You will continue to add weight and affect the quality of your health negatively. As mentioned above, losing weight is not easy because it doesn’t happen overnight.
There is a need for continuous workouts for you to maintain a healthy body size. For you to get better at Olympic weightlifting, you need to train yourself to do it as often as possible. Take note that you can do weightlifting often, but still do it in the wrong way. So, as you plan to start your workouts, it’s imperative to know that you are not just lifting weights.
You have to do it correctly. Once you identify how to lift weights correctly, you are now ready to maintain the much-needed consistency and discipline required to lose weight. As you begin, 2-3 sessions a week are okay for you. If you make it a regular habit for you to do Olympic weightlifting 2-3 workouts per week, you will definitely witness a significant impact on your weight loss program.
· Avoid Being Too Heavy On Yourself
There is a temptation for one to go too heavy in the name of losing weight. Yes, Olympic weightlifting is enough to lose weight, but it doesn’t happen instantly. Particularly for beginners, they can develop the idea that if they do heavy workouts, they will fix their weight problems within the shortest time possible. The danger with this is that it might lead to one not following the right weightlifting technique.
Moreover, it can cause serious injuries to a lifter, which makes it even more difficult to realize positive outcomes. Given the nature of Olympic weightlifting, you can’t do effective weightlifting when nursing injuries. You have to wait for the injuries to heal, which means you won’t be doing enough to lose weight. So, for effectiveness purposes, make sure that you do moderate workouts that will give you the optimum weight loss results you are looking for.
Guidelines to Help You Improve Olympic Weightlifting Technique
Like any other workout and skill, Olympic weightlifting requires you to develop the required technique for effective and optimal performance. Actually, this will be highly significant for positive outcomes. People are not at the same level; some will take time to adapt to the technical aspects of Olympic weightlifting, while others will find it easy to understand.
Considering that losing bodyweight is the main goal here, it’s essential for one to grasp the skills, movement patterns, and technical components of Olympic weightlifting.
· Beginners
For beginners, especially, it’s valuable to develop a great interest like workouts that Olympic lifts demand. Three workout days per week are enough for those who are beginning. The workout sessions should involve 4-5 movements. Usually, based on the nature of Olympic weightlifting, the movements should involve a variety of snatch and clean and jerk.
You can also consider adding squatting in the workouts. Since beginners are not quite acquainted with this type of strength training, it’s prudent for them to master positional awareness as well as timing. This deems it necessary for accessory movements like push presses and snatch balances to be part of the workout.
· Intermediaries
For intermediates, 3-5 days workout sessions are okay. This, of course, will depend on various factors, including one’s schedule, workout duration, and recovery time. Some can have 3 workouts in a week for longer sessions while others can have 3 workouts for shorter sessions.
For intermediate Olympic weight lifters, since they are not new to the strength training exercise, they understand most of the techniques involved. What is needed, therefore, is for one to maintain the level of consistency required to master the movements and techniques in the best way possible.
· Advanced Weight Lifters
Advanced weight lifters have a better understanding of Olympic weightlifting compared to beginners and intermediates. For them, 5-6 sessions in a week are possible. Those who have a good mastery of Olympic weightlifting can take up to 60 minutes in their sessions. From the discussion above, what stands out is that different people adapt to the dynamics of Olympic weightlifting differently.
However, according to Mangine et al (2015), the goals that a lifter should focus on the most to improve the technique and performance of Olympic weightlifting are monitoring recovery time, one’s workout volume, and a program that integrates diverse movements and exercises. Consequently, this should play an integral role in one’s capacity to lose weight to desired levels.
Factors Affecting Olympic Weightlifting Frequency for Weight Loss
When it comes to finding the best frequency for you to do some heavy lifting, it’s only fair to say that it depends. Several factors influence how often you will be doing your Olympic weightlifting workouts. It’s worth noting that different lifters view the issue of weightlifting frequency differently.
Some believe that having less frequency and longer workout sessions are good for them. Others opt for more frequency but shorter workout sessions. For you to decide the best frequency for Olympic lifts workouts to lose weight, you can take a deeper look at these factors.
· The Level of your Expectations
The level of one’s expectations determines how far he is willing to go with the weight loss program. For example, if you are tired and sick of being overweight, it means that you have very high expectations from your Olympic weightlifting workouts. Having known that high-energy strength training exercises can reduce your body weight to a large extent, you will commit yourself.
On the other hand, if you are not overly overweight and you want to reduce a small amount of weight, the chances are high that your level of expectations will be lower. In other words, the higher your level of your expectations, the more time you will require to put in to attain your goals. However, irrespective of one’s expectations, the bare minimum that you should be working towards in your workouts is 2-3 sessions in a week.
· One’s Ability to Recover
Various factors impact one’s capacity to recover after a heavy weightlifting workout. That is why it’s wise for you to monitor your capacity to recover and do more workouts continually. For example, if you do your workouts very aggressively, the chances are that you might injure yourself and affect your ability to recover in time for your next day of workouts.
This means that your workouts will be greatly affected. You can’t train when you are injured. In as much as losing weight is your primary goal here, it doesn’t mean that you have to be doing workouts in an overly aggressive way. This will only affect you negatively.
Another factor related to recovery time is how frequent one does his sessions per week. If you exercise frequently, your volume of workouts will be less compared to less frequent exercises. Less frequent exercises mean that you will have to do more volumes of your workouts. As a result, you will need more time to recover in between sessions.
· Age and Experience
Age and experience are imperative when analyzing the frequency of weightlifting workouts. The level of one’s experience in Olympic weightlifting, as well as his chronological age, plays a big role in determining the extent to which he or she can go with workouts. Generally, the level of experience that advanced weight lifters have is higher than that of beginners.
So, the amount of time they have invested in learning more about weightlifting is more compared to those who have just started. Thus, they can handle the stress of Olympic weightlifting compared to beginners. The impact of this is that while beginners have low-frequency levels of workouts, experienced weight lifters have a higher frequency of workouts.
In the same vein, older people have lesser abilities to recover from a workout because of the physiological changes they go through. Additionally, they have other sources of stress that minimize the amount of frequency in their workouts. Work schedules and family have a limiting factor on how they can balance their weekly workouts and other aspects of their lives.
On the contrary, younger weight lifters can recover quite well between sessions; hence, enabling them to have more frequent workouts. Again, they don’t have many external limiting factors like their older counterparts. As a result of this, it’s evident that the age and experience of an Olympic weightlifter has a great impact on the frequency of workouts.
Consequently, this affects the degree to which one can lose weight.
· The Nutrition That One Takes
The foods that you take have, to a large degree, an impact on how you do Olympic weightlifting to lose weight. The amount of calories you take plays a critical role in your ability to maintain good workout routines for weight loss. Whenever you do strength training workouts, you engage your body to great limits. Therefore, you need to take the right diet for you to have the required frequency for a good workout. If you are not taking a balanced diet, then that means that your body will not recover well from one workout session to another.
In other words, you will not have the energy needed to do enough workouts to handle Olympic weightlifting. In such a situation, your body will not only suffer, but you will not be making much progress regarding your goal to lose weight. Essentially, you will realize that the less frequency of workouts you have, the lesser the impact on your body’s capacity to reduce weight.
Combining Olympic Weightlifting with Cardio
Research published by the Clinical Rehabilitation Journal in 2006 shows that combining weightlifting and cardio has a significant effect on weight loss. Cardio (aerobic exercise) can catalyze notable benefits to the body including maintaining the required amounts of cholesterol levels and reducing the amount of fat in the body.
Weightlifting has also been found to: reduce the amount of cholesterol in the body, reduce fat content in the body, build muscles, and improve bone density. Since both exercises have an impact on body weight, combining the two can certainly have a significant impact on your overall body weight. The results will be more effective when you combine both Olympic weightlifting and cardio.
A study published by the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research in 2014 found out that a combination of cardio and weightlifting had significant results when it comes to weight loss.
A group of female college students who had been previously inactive was selected to do resistance training (weightlifting) and endurance training (cardio) for 8 weeks. They were supposed to do weightlifting either before or after cardio. They were doing four workouts in a week, and each workout lasted for 1 hour. Each type of exercise was taking 30 minutes.
At the end of the 8 weeks, there was a significant impact on the participants’ body weights. Each of the participants recorded having lost a considerable amount of body fat. Having been living inactive lives before they started doing the exercises, they could note the difference between how their bodies were before and how they looked like after the cardio and heavy lifting workouts.
Indeed, you can combine Olympic weightlifting and cardio. Concerning the research mentioned above, you don’t have to shy away from such if your workout goal is to reduce the weight of your body. Moreover, a combination of the two works quite well in reducing body fat and giving your body a healthier look. If you are looking forward to an effective way of losing some bodyweight, consider combining Olympic weightlifting with cardio.
Relationship Between Olympic Weightlifting and Metabolic Function
Olympic weightlifting is highly beneficial to the improvement of your body’s metabolic functioning. In case you didn’t know, Mayo Clinic (2019) asserts that your metabolic function has a huge influence on the overall weight of your body. The amount of physical exercise you engage in has a significant effect on your metabolic rate, and, as a result, it determines how much weight you carry.
Are you the person who takes up a lot of calories and does little or no exercise to burn them? This is definitely why you are adding a lot of weight on your body and risking your health. When you do regular workouts, you are simply making your body’s metabolic function to be at its best. This is where Olympic weightlifting comes into the picture. As you do Olympic weightlifting exercises, you are doing your body a huge favor.
You allow its metabolic function to improve to a large extent. Since metabolism is the process that enables your body to burn the calories you take into energy, the process becomes more effective when you are active in workouts. Specifically, Olympic weightlifting does a great job of boosting your body’s metabolic function. Since it’s a high energy strength training exercise, you will lose a lot of fat and give you healthy body weight.
The Connection Between Olympic Weightlifting and Human Growth Hormone
The relationship between Olympic weightlifting and Human Growth Hormone (HGH), with respect to weight loss, is worthy of a mention. Olympic weightlifting plays a significant role in improving the development of HGH in the body. Let’s first get to understand this hormone briefly. Rasmussen (2010) links HGH with the capacity to reduce the amount of fat in the body and increase muscle mass.
Rasmussen (2010) further proves that obese adults have lower levels of HGH than those with normal weights. This is an indication that low levels of this important hormone contribute greatly to increased body weight. To further understand how this works, the growth hormone is responsible for your body’s muscle growth. If you have it in a substantial amount, you will be in a position to build more muscle mass and, as a result, burn more calories in your body.
Now that you know the importance of HGH, it’s equally significant to take note of the role of Olympic weightlifting in improving its development. Essentially, people who are in the habit of doing Olympic lifts are in a better position to build muscle mass than those who don’t. Take note that not every workout pays much attention to building body muscles.
Thus, doing a workout that boosts your muscle development goes a long way in facilitating an effective weight loss program. Certainly, Olympic weightlifting has a significant relationship with the development of HGH. Basically, the more you do this workout, the more you boost the development of this highly fundamental growth hormone and ultimately help in the loss of excessive fat in the body.
Foods You Should Eat While Doing Olympic Weightlifting to Lose Weight
By now, you have known that Olympic weightlifting is good enough for you to lose the extra pounds on your body. What about the foods that you take? Do they have any significance in your desire to lose weight?
In other words, now that you are lifting heavy weights for your weight loss program, are there specific foods that you should eat? The answer is an emphatic yes. Just because you are doing Olympic weightlifting doesn’t mean that you can eat whatever you find on the menu. If you keep on eating foods with high percentages of calories, then you will not be helping yourself much.
Just like lifting weights has an important role to play in you losing weight, the food you take has a big role to play as well. The types of food that you take should complement your weight loss goal through Olympic weightlifting. There are particular diet tips that dieticians recommend for those lifting weights to lose weight.
Firstly, eating enough calories is important. Take note that consuming enough calories doesn’t mean that you take them in excess. The truth is that if you have to do Olympic weightlifting, you will need to take enough calories because this is a high-energy and explosive workout. For this reason, it will be highly imperative for you to fuel your workouts by taking enough calories.
Failure to do this will mean that you will be breaking down your muscles instead of encouraging their growth. If your muscle isn’t growing, then this is contrary to the goal of Olympic weightlifting in the first place. Just make sure that your calorie intake is not in excess, for this will make it difficult for you to achieve your ultimate goal, which is to lose weight.
Olympic weightlifting is an extremely heavy workout that causes inflammation. Naturally, after such an explosive strength training session, your body will be affected to a large extent. For your body to recover well, you need to take fruits, vegetables, and omega-3 fatty acids. Your muscles will need to recover faster for you to continue with your workouts.
Hence, the foods mentioned above will play an important role in making that possible. Examples of the fatty acids that will help your body recover effectively after a workout include: flax meal, sardines, and fatty fish.
Moreover, it’s equally valuable to make sure that you have a good balance of protein intake throughout the day. According to Cintineo et al (2018), proteins are good for recovery after a workout session. Maintaining the habit of protein intake during your weightlifting routines will play a crucial role in the development of muscles, which is directly related to weight reduction.
As you probably know, water is a great necessity for your body. You cannot do heavy and speed workouts like Olympic weightlifting and fail to take enough water. Staying hydrated will not only keep you refreshed but also help your muscles to get stronger.
The Physiological reports Journal (2015) reported that when you are dehydrated, your muscles only get weaker, which is a major setback to your goal of losing weight. Make sure that you take at the minimum, half a gallon in a day. This will be enough to keep your body refreshed and help your muscles recover effectively from every workout session that you have.
Conclusion
Olympic weightlifting is, indeed, enough to lose weight. The amount of research that has gone into the subject is enough evidence that you can lose weight through this type of strength training. There are quite a number of important dynamics, techniques, and movements associated with Olympic weightlifting compared to other workouts, but the bottom line is that you can lose a considerable amount of weight through it.
This is a heavy and highly intensified workout that requires you to be fully committed to you to realize the results you are seeking. Without such commitment, you won’t get quality results. Therefore, if you are looking for a feasible way of losing the excessive fat content in your body, you can consider doing Olympic weightlifting. Whether you are a beginner or you have been lifting weights before, you are sure to get quality results if you are consistent in this workout.
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References
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