Pound for Pound

Olympic weightlifting is a very simple sport, in terms of its objective. Simply lift the most weight from the ground to a locked out position overhead.

When people think of strength they think of fat American powerlifters wearing full lifting suits who are limited in their range of motion. However, the lifts that these athletes perform (squat, deadlift and benchpress) are essentially not power movements.



Simple physics dictates that Power = Work/Time. The so-called powerlifts are performed over a large time frame. eg. A heavy deadlift make take 3-5 seconds to lock out.



However, Olympic weightlifting requires lifters to be very explosive and go from ground to lockout overhead (in the case of the snatch) or ground to chest, then to lockout overhead (clean and jerk) in less than a second per movement.



Therefore, Olympic lifting is a much more technical sport in that it requires more coordination between the muscles and subsequently neuromuscular engagement. Humans are only able to require a fraction of their muscle fibers in daily activities. In this sport, lifters are conditioned to use many fibers at once in strict coordination. This is analogous to the mother who, having undergone an adrenaline rush upon seeing her baby's head trapped in the cradle, pries open metal bars. Muscle recruitment.


The next video is an example of such pound for pound strength. The teenager lifts twice his weight, 225lbs, from the ground to shoulders in the clean. There aren't a whole lot of 225lb men who can do this in your local gym.