Set-Up and Positioning in the Olympic Lifts Part 3: Set-Up Variations

What’s the right way to approach the bar in the Olympic lifts?

There isn’t one, Coach Mike Burgener says during this CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting Trainer Course.

To illustrate, he has six of his athletes demonstrate how they approach the bar and how they set up at the start of the lift. Some like to squat down and roll the bar away from them, others prefer a quick set-up and take-off to avoid excessive thought, and some favor a dynamic start.

“There’s not a right way,” Burgener says. “There’s an efficient, effective, safe way. You gotta figure that out. The only thing that I say is that when that bar comes off the ground, the hips (must) be above the knees and the shoulders are ahead of the bar—and get that stretch reflex going with the hamstrings.”

9min 33sec

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SD wmv file size: 114 MB
SD mov file size: 55 MB

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Additional reading: Oly Optimization by Chad Vaughn, published Nov. 18, 2011.