Weightlifting

Weight training is a popular recreational activity
that is performed by people from all walks of life
in many parts of the world. While most of these
individuals use weight training as just one part of
their health-and-fitness routine, a number of athletes
compete in sports in which weight training is
the primary form of training, it is the competitive
event, or both. These sports include weightlifting,
powerlifting, bodybuilding, and strongman.
Weightlifting currently requires the lifter to lift
the maximum load for one repetition in two exercises;
the clean and jerk and the snatch. In the
snatch, weightlifters lift the bar to arm’s length
above the head in one movement. In the clean and
jerk, they lift the bar to the shoulders, stand up
straight, then jerk the bar to arm’s length above
the head (Figure 24.1). Lifters are allowed three
attempts at each lift, and their best snatch and
best clean-and-jerk figures are added to determine
the winner. As both of these exercises require
the barbell to be lifted explosively from the floor
to an overhead position, they produce probably
the greatest power outputs of any human activity
(Garhammer 1993). Men’s weightlifting was on
the program of the first modern Olympic Games
in Athens in 1896. Women participated for the first
time at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.