WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.299 If I am a coach in an Olympic weightlifting, 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:04.599 I should take notes of the training load and 00:00:04.599 --> 00:00:07.679 also look at it then at a greater time spent, 00:00:07.900 --> 00:00:12.130 which training load had more. or had which outcome 00:00:12.130 --> 00:00:16.969 and also for research purposes we have to investigate 00:00:16.969 --> 00:00:20.510 on long -term training load effects so not just 00:00:20.510 --> 00:00:23.030 two weeks four weeks six weeks whatsoever but 00:00:23.030 --> 00:00:27.129 maybe we have to document as coaches over a span 00:00:27.129 --> 00:00:30.309 of years which training loads had which outcome 00:00:32.170 --> 00:00:35.549 Hi, Flo. Welcome to Evidence Strong Show. It's 00:00:35.549 --> 00:00:37.549 my pleasure to have you. Please briefly introduce 00:00:37.549 --> 00:00:40.310 yourself. Alex, thanks for having me. My name 00:00:40.310 --> 00:00:43.009 is Florian Wieners. I'm 24 years old. I'm from 00:00:43.009 --> 00:00:46.289 Germany and I myself compete in Olympic weightlifting 00:00:46.289 --> 00:00:49.170 martial arts and I study my master's in sports 00:00:49.170 --> 00:00:52.149 science, specifically in sports performance. 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:55.020 performance sports. Besides that, I work as a 00:00:55.020 --> 00:00:56.759 strength and conditioning coach for professional 00:00:56.759 --> 00:00:59.679 youth athletes and right now also voluntarily 00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:03.740 coach two young kids in Olympic weightlifting. 00:01:03.899 --> 00:01:07.230 Awesome. Great background in relation to Olympic 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:09.109 weightlifting. And this is important because 00:01:09.109 --> 00:01:12.989 we're talking tests that correlate or relate 00:01:12.989 --> 00:01:15.890 to Olympic weightlifting performance. We should 00:01:15.890 --> 00:01:18.569 start with what we think matters for Olympic 00:01:18.569 --> 00:01:20.989 weightlifting performance. Well, in theory, what 00:01:20.989 --> 00:01:24.049 has always been researched a lot is explosiveness. 00:01:24.150 --> 00:01:26.909 So in the sense of counter -movement jumps on 00:01:26.909 --> 00:01:29.709 force plates, muscle mass, max strength testing 00:01:29.709 --> 00:01:32.329 when it comes to back squat, front squat and 00:01:32.329 --> 00:01:36.319 so forth and else. also power so like power cleans 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:39.439 and the relation to the olympic lifts themselves 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:43.359 and In practice or in real life, the state of 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:46.560 the art in Olympic weightlifting is or seems 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:50.180 to be training experience. So when you look at 00:01:50.180 --> 00:01:54.359 Russians or Chinese training regime, you see 00:01:54.359 --> 00:01:59.000 young athletes in the age of seven upwards who 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.560 are already be training for Olympic weightlifting, 00:02:02.780 --> 00:02:05.659 kind of like the same for gymnastics. And yeah, 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:08.659 it seems that training experience and also power 00:02:08.659 --> 00:02:11.620 or explosiveness. plays a huge role and also 00:02:11.620 --> 00:02:14.740 muslims if we specifically look at for example 00:02:14.740 --> 00:02:17.419 the chinese weightlifters we see and like kind 00:02:17.419 --> 00:02:20.539 of highly developed muscle mass also in the upper 00:02:20.539 --> 00:02:23.319 body. How did you go to your study? When I looked 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:27.199 at the paper or the research, I only found like 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:30.500 research that solely focuses on, for example, 00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:34.879 just elite level athletes or just explosiveness 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:37.840 or muscle mass and so forth. But I never found 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:40.379 a really comprehensive studies that also includes 00:02:40.379 --> 00:02:45.159 athletes from not. elite level and also that 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:48.300 includes other performance factors like training 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:52.300 experience or includes all aforementioned performance 00:02:52.300 --> 00:02:55.099 factors like counter moment jump like muscle 00:02:55.099 --> 00:02:58.099 mass or training experience so i thought i was 00:02:58.099 --> 00:03:01.580 highly interested in creating a study with lina 00:03:01.580 --> 00:03:06.120 and to look or to find out what's most important 00:03:06.909 --> 00:03:09.550 in Olympic weightlifting or in the success of 00:03:09.550 --> 00:03:12.930 Olympic weightlifting. So we took, or I took 00:03:12.930 --> 00:03:17.370 broad spectrum of success. Or yeah, I took a 00:03:17.370 --> 00:03:19.830 broad spectrum of subjects, which starts with 00:03:19.830 --> 00:03:23.569 CrossFit athletes who execute Olympic lifts regularly, 00:03:23.770 --> 00:03:27.909 goes over competing athletes like myself on a 00:03:27.909 --> 00:03:30.849 national level, and then also include elite level 00:03:30.849 --> 00:03:34.210 athletes that compete, for example, in the Europe 00:03:34.210 --> 00:03:38.150 championships or even in the Olympic Games. And 00:03:38.150 --> 00:03:41.930 yeah, I just wanted to find out what's the predictor 00:03:41.930 --> 00:03:44.810 or the most significant predictor or correlation. 00:03:45.289 --> 00:03:47.669 between counter movement jump, training experience 00:03:47.669 --> 00:03:51.590 and muscle mass on Olympic weightlifting performance 00:03:51.590 --> 00:03:55.430 or success. The athletes would come in and we 00:03:55.430 --> 00:03:58.889 tested the muscle mass via bioelectrical impedance 00:03:58.889 --> 00:04:03.050 analysis. And then we warmed up for the performance 00:04:03.050 --> 00:04:05.750 test, which was counter movement jump in my case. 00:04:05.889 --> 00:04:09.949 And then I asked them for how long they trained 00:04:09.949 --> 00:04:13.530 and to get... a sense of training experience 00:04:13.530 --> 00:04:15.750 or to get the training experience calculated. 00:04:16.110 --> 00:04:18.949 And then depending on the athlete, I looked up 00:04:18.949 --> 00:04:21.850 in the data bank of the Austrian Federation for 00:04:21.850 --> 00:04:24.730 Olympic Weightlifting, their max lifts and took 00:04:24.730 --> 00:04:26.709 the Sinclair score because the Sinclair score 00:04:26.709 --> 00:04:30.589 is a practical score that allows me to compare 00:04:30.589 --> 00:04:34.529 individuals independently of gender and body 00:04:34.529 --> 00:04:38.149 weight. And then, yeah. And for those who had 00:04:38.149 --> 00:04:40.569 not an official record, they had to max out. 00:04:40.689 --> 00:04:42.910 Are we ready for this? the results yes i am ready 00:04:42.910 --> 00:04:46.870 let's go so the results were to say superficially 00:04:46.870 --> 00:04:49.529 the counter movement jump was the best predictor 00:04:49.529 --> 00:04:52.550 for the single score for the success in olympic 00:04:52.550 --> 00:04:56.149 weightlifting then training experience and surprisingly 00:04:56.149 --> 00:04:59.389 the muscle mass or the relative skeletal muscle 00:04:59.389 --> 00:05:03.129 mass has had no correlation no significant correlation 00:05:03.129 --> 00:05:06.310 with the success in elliptic weightlifting. And 00:05:06.310 --> 00:05:09.250 when it comes to the semi -partial correlation 00:05:09.250 --> 00:05:12.449 coefficient, it was 50 % for the counter movement 00:05:12.449 --> 00:05:16.220 jump height. So 50%. The Katamuni jump explained 00:05:16.220 --> 00:05:19.040 50 % of the variance in the Sinclair score with 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:21.079 inclusion of the other variables. But if you 00:05:21.079 --> 00:05:24.939 square it, it's 25 % for the Katamuni jumps. 00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:28.819 And the overall model that we used, and we also 00:05:28.819 --> 00:05:32.060 included the sex, the gender, male and female, 00:05:32.259 --> 00:05:35.160 to account for biological differences. And the 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:40.779 whole model explains R squared 66 .7 % of the 00:05:40.779 --> 00:05:43.860 variance in the Sinclair score. So it's pretty, 00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:46.550 yeah. Good explaining model, let's say. All right. 00:05:46.589 --> 00:05:49.129 I have some questions. So were there any differences 00:05:49.129 --> 00:05:52.410 between females and males? I didn't look at the 00:05:52.410 --> 00:05:54.930 direct differences between females and males. 00:05:55.110 --> 00:05:58.029 But when you look at the descriptive statistics, 00:05:58.709 --> 00:06:01.610 you can see without any statistical analysis 00:06:01.610 --> 00:06:05.850 that the elite level, regardless of sex, was 00:06:05.850 --> 00:06:07.970 always better in the counter -moon jumper. Their 00:06:07.970 --> 00:06:10.870 level of explosiveness was just always better 00:06:10.870 --> 00:06:14.300 than the other levels. And the muscle mass. was 00:06:14.300 --> 00:06:17.180 the lowest of all three like in the descriptive 00:06:17.180 --> 00:06:21.050 statistics yeah the rsm percentage For elite 00:06:21.050 --> 00:06:25.769 level was 39 .5%. And the competitive level was 00:06:25.769 --> 00:06:30.269 41 .7%. And for the fitness level, so the CrossFit 00:06:30.269 --> 00:06:34.589 level was 40 .2%. So, yeah. Why do you think 00:06:34.589 --> 00:06:38.050 it's a fat mass in elite weightlifters is higher? 00:06:38.189 --> 00:06:41.870 Why? We had some individuals without saying the 00:06:41.870 --> 00:06:45.569 names that had some more fatness than others, 00:06:45.670 --> 00:06:49.170 I would say. But it shouldn't be any significant 00:06:49.170 --> 00:06:51.490 effect because... on the crossfit levels we also 00:06:51.490 --> 00:06:53.829 had some individuals who had respectively higher 00:06:53.829 --> 00:06:57.209 fat mass but i would say because in crossfit 00:06:57.209 --> 00:07:00.370 and also competitive athletes who might do other 00:07:00.370 --> 00:07:03.470 sports too besides that have higher upper body 00:07:03.470 --> 00:07:06.509 mass especially crossfit athletes they spend 00:07:06.509 --> 00:07:09.829 respectively i guess higher amount on developing 00:07:09.829 --> 00:07:13.009 upper body mass or upper body performance than 00:07:13.009 --> 00:07:16.050 maybe elite level athletes and therefore if you 00:07:16.050 --> 00:07:18.870 take the whole muscle mass of whole body muscle 00:07:18.870 --> 00:07:21.899 mass you can't differentiate between upper body 00:07:21.899 --> 00:07:24.139 muscle mass and lower body muscle mass. So for 00:07:24.139 --> 00:07:26.720 future research, I would also suggest to maybe 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:30.500 take the lower limb muscle mass, the upper body 00:07:30.500 --> 00:07:33.800 muscle mass, and also the trunk or the core muscle 00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:36.040 mass. Because when I looked into the data in 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:39.410 detail, I've seen huge... muscle mass values 00:07:39.410 --> 00:07:42.629 for trunk muscle mass in the elite level athletes. 00:07:42.829 --> 00:07:45.810 That's fascinating. A little bit unexpected. 00:07:46.290 --> 00:07:49.370 All right. What do the findings mean? So what 00:07:49.370 --> 00:07:51.889 coaches can and should take from your study? 00:07:52.009 --> 00:07:56.740 I would say spend time improving. explosiveness 00:07:56.740 --> 00:08:01.579 not just in regards to lifts but also with plyometrics 00:08:01.579 --> 00:08:04.000 and also when it comes to training with kids 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:07.160 do a lot of speed strength training and plyometrics 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:13.100 and a variety of speed training and also like 00:08:13.100 --> 00:08:17.019 i guess always without the problem of early specification 00:08:17.019 --> 00:08:20.459 train the movements have a high training experience 00:08:20.459 --> 00:08:22.800 because if you want to get better at something 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:28.259 you have to do that something I guess. And yeah, 00:08:28.339 --> 00:08:31.819 just train a lot and put a lot of effort in explosiveness. 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:35.659 What I do not want to say is to not spend much 00:08:35.659 --> 00:08:38.740 time in hypertrophy because like I said, I looked 00:08:38.740 --> 00:08:41.370 at the whole body muscle mass. And the lower 00:08:41.370 --> 00:08:44.850 body muscle mass is still, I would say, important 00:08:44.850 --> 00:08:49.090 for Olympic weightlifting. And so we have to 00:08:49.090 --> 00:08:51.889 differentiate there. And yeah, but it doesn't 00:08:51.889 --> 00:08:54.570 seem like the whole plays a lot of role in the 00:08:54.570 --> 00:08:56.970 success of Olympic weightlifting. Yeah, takeaway 00:08:56.970 --> 00:08:59.649 message. It always comes down to the basics, 00:08:59.669 --> 00:09:03.990 I guess. Be explosive, train a lot. And yeah, 00:09:04.129 --> 00:09:05.830 you don't have to look like a bodybuilder. All 00:09:05.830 --> 00:09:08.509 right. Did you change anything in your coaching 00:09:08.509 --> 00:09:12.159 or in your training? after running a study? Yes, 00:09:12.200 --> 00:09:14.399 I decreased the hypertrophy volume for upper 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:19.600 body. Just kidding. I put more value on plyometrics 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:23.019 and on power development. And also for my other 00:09:23.019 --> 00:09:26.240 athletes because I'm not just coaching Olympic 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:28.580 weightlifting athletes, I'm also coaching a variety 00:09:28.580 --> 00:09:31.860 of athletes. track and field, volleyball, even 00:09:31.860 --> 00:09:37.139 swimming athletes or martial artists. And yeah, 00:09:37.299 --> 00:09:40.360 if it comes to power development. I have some 00:09:40.360 --> 00:09:43.279 more insights into that now, some more knowledge 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:46.480 about it. And yeah, I have more emphasis on power 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:50.399 explosiveness development and the variety of 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:52.639 training you can use to develop that. Do you 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:54.299 use Olympic weightlifting with your athletes, 00:09:54.419 --> 00:09:57.460 sports, the volleyball players and other sports? 00:09:57.720 --> 00:10:01.350 Yes, I do use them, but it's... Depends on the 00:10:01.350 --> 00:10:05.629 age and on the experience with it. So if somebody, 00:10:05.809 --> 00:10:08.490 when a professional volleyball player athlete 00:10:08.490 --> 00:10:12.649 comes to me and he's like 20 to 25, let's say, 00:10:12.710 --> 00:10:15.649 or he's now an older athlete, let's say, and 00:10:15.649 --> 00:10:18.250 he does not have any experience with the snatch, 00:10:18.470 --> 00:10:21.669 I would teach him the clean to develop power. 00:10:21.830 --> 00:10:25.289 I would not spend too much because I guess, or 00:10:25.289 --> 00:10:27.990 I think, and the research, some research shows 00:10:27.990 --> 00:10:31.940 too, If you have to take a certain percentage 00:10:31.940 --> 00:10:35.500 of the 1RM of the snatch or the power clean whatsoever 00:10:35.500 --> 00:10:39.019 to have a significant influence on power development, 00:10:39.299 --> 00:10:42.360 that means the athlete has to have some experience 00:10:42.360 --> 00:10:45.139 with those lifts. If he does not have the technique 00:10:45.139 --> 00:10:48.980 to execute a certain amount or a certain threshold 00:10:48.980 --> 00:10:52.019 for power development, then it doesn't have much 00:10:52.019 --> 00:10:55.879 significance in the development of power. I don't 00:10:55.879 --> 00:10:59.059 want to waste any time developing something that 00:10:59.059 --> 00:11:02.419 does not have meaningful effect on certain variable 00:11:02.419 --> 00:11:05.320 I want to improve. But also when it comes to 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:07.919 younger athletes, so for example, American football 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:11.259 athletes, which I also train, when they're 16, 00:11:11.500 --> 00:11:14.980 I coach them a hang snatch or hang power clean. 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:17.860 So the clean is easy to teach. The snatch depends 00:11:17.860 --> 00:11:22.120 on the experience and the age, I guess, so that 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:25.350 I don't waste much time on it. developing something 00:11:25.350 --> 00:11:27.809 that, you know, yeah. Like Louis Simmons also 00:11:27.809 --> 00:11:31.129 said in West Side Bible, he said, when you waste 00:11:31.129 --> 00:11:33.129 too much time developing the technique before 00:11:33.129 --> 00:11:35.710 it has meaningful effect, then you might exchange 00:11:35.710 --> 00:11:38.809 the exercise. Right. So you balance long -term 00:11:38.809 --> 00:11:41.870 development with immediate usefulness of the 00:11:41.870 --> 00:11:45.830 exercise. I ask myself the question, is the time 00:11:45.830 --> 00:11:49.529 I spent getting the technique down or having 00:11:49.529 --> 00:11:52.490 the meaningful effect? And then I decide, am 00:11:52.490 --> 00:11:55.090 I doing it or not? Right. it awesome do you have 00:11:55.090 --> 00:11:58.169 a last minute advice for coaches not really i 00:11:58.169 --> 00:12:02.269 guess olympic weightlifting is one of in my opinion 00:12:02.269 --> 00:12:04.740 one of the best sports in the world We should 00:12:04.740 --> 00:12:07.179 use it regardless of sports, whether you are 00:12:07.179 --> 00:12:09.419 Olympic weightlifting or not, because it has 00:12:09.419 --> 00:12:13.559 many positive effects. And when it comes to specific 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:17.460 Olympic weightlifting coaching, spend time with 00:12:17.460 --> 00:12:20.399 the development of explosiveness. And yeah. Awesome. 00:12:20.460 --> 00:12:23.320 All right. Two short questions to finish. The 00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:26.500 first one is, what is your favorite lift? My 00:12:26.500 --> 00:12:29.120 favorite lift would be the clean and jerk, the 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:32.519 snatch. It's nice to lift a high amount in kilos 00:12:32.519 --> 00:12:36.419 of snatch and to lift the first 225 pounds or 00:12:36.419 --> 00:12:39.120 100 kilos, but you can take more weight in the 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:40.960 clean and jerk. And for me, it's about, yeah, 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:43.320 getting the most amount of weights over my head. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:44.940 And that is possible with the clean and jerk, 00:12:45.019 --> 00:12:48.539 I guess. It feels like more raw power. The snatch 00:12:48.539 --> 00:12:50.740 is more technical. Therefore, you have to pay 00:12:50.740 --> 00:12:53.100 attention on the technique while lifting. But 00:12:53.100 --> 00:12:56.360 for the clean and jerk, you just grab the barbell 00:12:56.360 --> 00:12:59.159 and just lift it, I guess, and be aggressive. 00:12:59.340 --> 00:13:01.620 with it. Awesome. So where people can find you 00:13:01.620 --> 00:13:04.740 online if they want to follow your journey, ask 00:13:04.740 --> 00:13:08.159 a question, look at your research? They can follow 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:10.740 me on Instagram or LinkedIn on both platforms. 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:13.740 I'm called Florian Venus and yeah, I'm happy 00:13:13.740 --> 00:13:16.100 to help some people or connect with some. Thank 00:13:16.100 --> 00:13:18.360 you so much and all the best for your research 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:20.940 and coaching and training. Thank you, Alex. I 00:13:20.940 --> 00:13:21.519 wish you the best.