Olympic Lifts for Olympic-Sized Gainz?
August 10, 2022 | Words by Gabe Yanez
The Best Lifts to #GETBIG
If you’ve missed any of the previous #GetBig write-ups in this series, you can catch them here:
Now that you’re all caught up, what are the best lifts to help you #GetBig? Is it a single joint movement like the bicep curl or is it more complex, multi-joint movements like the Olympic lifts?
The short answer: It depends. The longer answer: Let’s chop it up below.
Next time you’re scrolling through social media and land on a fitness influencer claiming to have the best movement for a bigger chest or a bigger butt, keep scrolling — there’s no such thing.
There isn’t an exercise that’s the best way to grow anything for anyone. We are all built so differently that, like with most things nutrition or fitness-related, the ideal way to achieve a specific goal will vary from person to person.
That said, there are some universal principles that make some movements better than others when it comes to building and maintaining muscle. In order to stimulate muscle growth, you need to hit a threshold level of consistency, intensity, and volume in your workouts.
Generally speaking, lifting in a rep range of 8-12 reps at an intensity that gets pretty close to maxing out the movement is the ideal way to build muscle. This is the type of training you’ll find through our NCX program on the NCFIT App that’s currently going through a hypertrophy cycle. You’ll also see this approach in our NCFLEX track pretty much year-round.
What about the Olympic lifts for building muscle? While these more technically complex lifts take some significant time and reps to become proficient in, they do eventually allow you to move larger loads, which can help you build and maintain muscle when they’re incorporated into a well-rounded program.
They’re also super fun, dynamic movements that will keep things interesting and help keep you consistent!
One Thing to Try This Week
No matter what program you’re following, the key to reaching any fitness goal is consistency.
Unfortunately, a lot of athletes tend to jump around from program to program, constantly looking for the secret combination of movements, reps, and sets that will unlock the fast track to their desired fitness goal. This, of course, is counterproductive, which leads to frustration, more jumping around different programs, more frustration, and so on.
These things take time, especially if you’re trying to #GetBig.
This week, make a commitment to follow a specific program and stick to it for the next 8 weeks at a minimum.
You could download the NCFIT App today and follow our NCMETCON track as we gear up for our new Olympic lifting cycle that starts in September. With a few weeks left in August to build up your proficiency and volume leading up to a cycle that will incorporate progressive overload while focusing on the Olympic lifts, you’ll be setting yourself up for some serious gainz and big-time PRs over the next 8+ weeks.
Regardless of the program you choose to follow, the goal is consistency. Give 8 weeks of consistent EFFORT and you’ll be surprised by how far that gets you.
LET’S GO!
