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Olympic Weightlifting Programs

Olympic weightlifting programs are training programs that help an athlete improve the clean and jerk and snatch movements.

These training routines may also prominently feature back squats, front squats, push press, power cleans, power jerks, and various deadlift accessories, as these movements have significant carryover for the clean & jerk and snatch.

You can find the latest Olympic weightlifting programs below, or you may choose from the list of popular training programs.

Popular Olympic Weightlifting Programs

3 Day Chinese Olympic Weightlifting Program Spreadsheet

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This Chinese Olympic weightlifting program is a 3 day, 4 week peaking block designed for competition preparation. It was originally designed for school-aged lifters that were only able to train 3 days per week.

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6 Day 8 Week Intermediate Olympic Weightlifting Program (Glenn Pendlay)

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This is a 6 day, 8 week Olympic weightlifting program originally shared by Glenn Pendlay. It was originally shared over the course of 8 weeks in 2015 on his blog. The program is designed to be run in preparation for a weightlifting competition and can be considered a peaking program. It is well suited for an average intermediate weightlifter.

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Torokhtiy 13 Week Olympic Weightlifting Program Spreadsheet (3 Day)

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This is a 13 week 3 day Olympic weightlifting program designed by Oleksiy Torokhtiy. It is a well-rounded base program, training a variety of snatch variations, clean variations, and squat variations in addition to back accessories.

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Glenn Pendlay Beginner Olympic Weightlifting Program Spreadsheet

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This is an Olympic weightlifting program outline for beginners. It was originally published by Glenn Pendlay in 2010 on his blog, which is now defunct. The article and program template have been reproduced here for archival purposes.

I also have created an accompanying spreadsheet that can be used to follow along with the program.

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Takano 12 Week Olympic Weightlifting Program Spreadsheet

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This is a 12 week Olympic weightlifting program with 3 to 6 training days per week, depending upon your classification. It can be used by beginner, intermediate, and advanced weightlifters, as it provides programming for multiple lifter classifications.

This program can be used in preparation for a weightlifting competition.

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12 Week Supertotal Basics Program by Next Step Strength

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This is a 12 week Supertotal program by Next Step Strength (Instagram). It has 4 training days per week and uses block periodization to expose the athlete to hypertrophy, strength, and peaking phases. It could be used when preparing for a Supertotal competition. [Read more…]

SuperTotal Program (17 Weeks) by Brian Simmons

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This is a 17 week program for SuperTotal training designed by Brian Simmons. As a quick reminder, SuperTotal training combines the power lifts (squat, bench press, and deadlift) with Olympic lifts (snatch and clean & jerk). So it really requires well-rounded athleticism from the lifter. There’s a video at the bottom of this post that discusses SuperTotal training in more depth if you’re interested. [Read more…]

FAQs About Olympic Weightlifting Programs

What is an Olympic weightlifting program?

An Olympic weightlifting program is a training routine designed to improve the one rep max in the two competition lifts: the snatch and the clean & jerk.

In order to accomplish this, a few key variables are manipulated: exercise selection, training frequency, training intensity, and training volume.

What exercises are commonly included in an Olympic weightlifting program?

While there are only two competition lifts in Olympic weightlifting, a wide variety of exercises are utilized to help achieve the best training result.

Variations of the snatch and clean & jerk are frequently used to help train specific portions of the movement pattern. These can include the snatch from hip, snatch from knee, power snatch, power clean, clean & jerk from hip, clean & jerk from knee, cleans, and so on.

In addition to competition lift variations, front squats, back squats, push presses, overhead presses, Romanian deadlifts, and back extensions are also programmed to help strengthen key muscle groups.