Wave Loading for Olympic Weightlifting

If you want to see massive improvements in your Olympic lifts it is going to take a lot of high quality work. One way we accelerate learning is implementing wave loading.

What is wave loading?

Wave loading is essentially this. The athlete will have an exercise or complex to complete at a weight range from 30 to 85%. The athlete will attempt to complete a complex on an interval for a set amount of time, usually 8 to 15 minutes. Intervals can vary from 30 sec to 2 min. The athlete will then rest for 5 minutes and repeat. The athlete can go up or down in weight thus creating a wave like structure.

Why wave load?

Wave loading is important for out of season training. In wave loading you are giving the athlete time constraints and thus dense blocks of work. This is great for conditioning the athlete as well as getting large volumes of technical work done in short periods of time. If managed properly you can do all of this without placing a great load on the body. This produces a wonderful stimulus for optimal learning and physical growth.

Here is a sample wave; 1 power snatch+1 Hang snatch, for 10 min every min on the min, rest 5 minutes and repeat 1 more round.