Weightlifting

When people talk about weightlifting most people think it simply means lifting weights in a gym. This can be true but the sport of weightlifting is completely different to that

Weightlifting is an olympic sport and has a big background that i won't go into, but one thing to mention is that just like powerlifting olympics have different categories depending on your bodyweight these are

Men

56 kg (123 lb)

62 kg (137 lb)

69 kg (152 lb)

77 kg (170 lb)

85 kg (187 lb)

94 kg (207 lb)

105 kg (231 lb)

and over 105 kg

And the women's are:

48 kg (106 lb)

53 kg (117 lb)

58 kg (128 lb)

63 kg (139 lb)

69 kg (152 lb)

75 kg (165 lb)

and over 75 kg.

Weightlifting competitions such as in the olympics consist of two lifts. Clean and Jerk and Snatch

Clean and jerk: This lift is completed in two parts, the clean is where a barbell with weights on is lifted from the floor to resting in the clean position on the chest. the next part of the lift, the jerk is where the athlete then jerks the bar from the chest straight to lockout without pressing the bar. This requires very fast and explosive strength aswell as solid technique and balance

Snatch: We all love a good snatch, and when performed correctly it is a very rewarding and looks awesome. The athlete takes a wide grip outside the rings on the barbell, and lifts the bar from the floor to overhead without bringing the bar to the chest or a lockout. If the bar doesnt reach full lockout and it needs to be pressed, again they will get a no lift from the judges. The snatch is one of the most complicated lifts in any strength sport to do

In competitions the way the format works is that the lifter allocates an amount of weight he will lift in whichever is decided is the first type of lift. If the lifter sucessfully lifts that amount (to do this he needs 2 out of the 3 judges watching the lift to give a white light) then it becomes his best lift, if he fails the lift or doesnt get two white lights out of 3 from the judges then he then can take that same weight again on his 2nd lift or go higher, he cannot go lower. In total athelets get 3 attempts in total. His biggest lift gets put towards his total. After those 3 attempts they move onto the next type of lift. Where this process happens again.

After 3 attempts on each type of lift are completed, the athelete takes his biggest snatch and biggest clean and jerk, the weight gets added together and that forms that lifters total. This total then shows where he comes overall compared to other lifters totals, the winner is the athelete with the biggest total