How To Make Big Gains In Weightlifting - Attack Your Weakness!

To make big gains in weightlifting, stop continually playing to your strengths. Attacking your weaknesses is where the big gains lie. Marty Gallagher’s lesson is built around one stubborn lifter, one obvious flaw, and one brutally simple fix: if the barbell only moves slowly, even with light weights, then explosiveness is the weakness that must be trained.

To Make Big Gains in Weightlifting, Attack Your Weakness

David Rigert is shown above doing a snap-snatch with 308 pounds. He doesn’t move his feet.

When men gather together repeatedly, over time nicknames will emerge based on traits and performance. Our training group has a core of a dozen or so lifters all aspiring to make big gains through weightlifting. We gather every Sunday and train. Over the years, traits and unique aspects of personality or physique lend themselves to the assignment of nicknames.

One of our lifters, when lifting, always appears to be in slow motion. Be the weight on the barbell 135 or 435, the bar speed is always the same: slow. I have talked till I am blue in the face about the need for some explosiveness on the concentric phase of a lift. He hears, he groks, he is unable. His nickname is “Slow Twitch.”

This is a smart guy, so I can hit him with logic. After watching him grind a warm-up set of five reps in the deadlift with 225 as if it were 800, I appealed to his intellect.

“Look, that set was slow as hell. Should a man not be able to move 225 twice as fast as 450?”

He was a 450 deadlifter. He ponders everything. After pondering, he said, “Sure.”

He is not highly excitable and uses words as if he had a finite amount and it cost him money every time he used one. His next set was 315 for three. Before he commenced, I yelled at him, “315 is 70% of 450. Coil, load the eccentric, EXPLODE the concentric!”

He nodded and proceeded to pull 315 like it weighed 700. There was dead silence in the room as he set the final rep down. I shook my head and looked perplexed. This guy could, no doubt in my mind, deadlift 315 for 15 reps. But why on God’s green earth must each rep look like another step in the Bataan Death March? Google it up, dummies.

He set the barbell down, stood up and announced non-plussed, “That felt a lot faster.”

“Oh my God!” one of the lifters said under his breath. I was past chastising him. The other eight lifters confirmed my impression. They were all stifling giggles and cutting wisecracks.

The Human Dump Truck

I concluded that our boy was hardwired to grind. He was a human dump truck, all torque and low-end push power. No horsepower to speak of. No one was going to confuse him with a 650-horsepower, 200-mile-an-hour Ferrari 488. Still, dump trucks and road-graders are unbeatable within their designated tasks.

He was unable to move even light weights fast on the concentric, loaded phase of a rep. He could not make his muscles move faster. I explained to him what was going on.

“You are letting your subconscious drive the car and call the shots.”

I poked his chest. “You have got to seize back control of the steering wheel. The body cannot be allowed to govern itself. The Mind must be the Boss. The psychological must rule the physiological.”

Now he looked perplexed. I continued. “The human body, left to its own devices, will choose the path of least resistance. Whatever is easier, the body will pick. This is a DNA survival gene: conserve energy, exert the minimum amount of effort to complete the task at hand.”

I tapped my temple. “The conscious Mind must stay online throughout the set. The instant the lifter spaces out or loses concentrative focus, the body, the physiological reptile mind, will take over and revert to old minimal-expenditure habits and patterns. The reptile slow-mind can be overcome by overriding it.”

Snap Cleans: The Anti-Slow-Twitch Remedy

I decided this was a good time to introduce Mr. Dump Truck Reptile Mind to “snap cleans,” a simplified version of the foot-slapping power clean. This exercise forces explosiveness. After a slow and precise pull from the floor to just above the knee, slow precision instantly morphs into explosiveness. The explosion is generated by moving the body in a short, precise, explosive fashion.

To commence a snap clean, the hips are set high, the spine arched, the shoulders thrust forward, purposefully in front of the barbell. Once the barbell passes the knees, the hips snap forward, causing the thighs to forcibly impact the barbell, creating a violent upward pull.

IRON COMPANY 5150 Olympic Barbell for snap cleans.

A mere 95 pounds proved insurmountable for Slow Twitch: his technique was robotic. His version was an upright row followed by an awkward reverse curl. A collective suppressed giggle went around the room as he finished the set. I just shook my head. We dropped the weight to 65 pounds, and it was a repeat performance. He was incapable of rapid movements.

Use Less Weight Until Speed Appears

The remedial protocol? He could get acceptable velocity using an empty 45-pound bar. I upped it to 50 pounds. Until he can generate genuine velocity with 50 pounds, there will be no poundage added. When there is, no more than five-pound increases. This sounds snail-like until you realize that in ten sessions, he will be handling fifty more pounds, now with the requisite explosiveness.

A clean or snatch must have velocity, or it isn’t a quick lift. A slow clean is no clean at all. There is no earthly reason that a man with a 450-pound deadlift cannot power clean 225 pounds, 50% of his deadlift max. The 450-deadlifter has the requisite strength: he lacks the skill to capitalize and amplify.

An inability to handle poundage explosively betrays a problem in the body’s electrical circuitry. Slow Twitch used his muscles quite effectively when bulling around heavy poundage for short distances, with no regard for speed or velocity. His central nervous system was not used to explosiveness. Moving quickly is part genetic and part learned. He had neither the genetics nor the practiced skills.

Explosive Doubles and CNS Rewiring

Our remedial protocol was to concentrate on explosive doubles in the snap clean. I work with some really good Olympic lifting coaches, and the cutting-edge thinking is that single and double reps are ideal for optimizing explosiveness.

The technique is simple. Establish a bowed spinal column. Place the shoulders in front of the barbell. Pull with precision and control until the barbell rises to just above the knee. The hips are shoved forward, and simultaneously the torso straightens. The thighs hit the rising barbell with such an impact that the bar leaps upward.

Everything happens at once. The result is that the barbell is catapulted upward. Velocity is attained. Sets of two reps, done every day, take all of 15 minutes. The trick is attaining velocity with light weight, then not losing that velocity as the poundage is crept upward over time. If you lose velocity, reduce the payload; retrench and reestablish.

The good news is weak points come up quick. Sets of two reps in the snap clean are used as a warm-up for the deadlift. The weights are light, recovery is not an issue. Rule of thumb: a man should be able to snap clean his bodyweight. Obviously, this is a goal to be worked toward.

Stay Mentally Engaged

Stay engaged mentally: every fiber of our being wants to pull cleans slowly. This can be overcome by consciously retaining mental control. Before and during the set, concentrate. Think SPEED at that exact instant when the barbell clears the knees and it is time to drive the hips forward.

Add snap cleans to your training regimen and your traps, lower lats and erectors may respond dramatically when the movement is performed properly and progressed intelligently. The combination of deadlifts and cleans is the ultimate exercise pairing for big gains. Any time you are performing an explosive lift, do the explosive stuff first in the workout, when the central nervous system is fresh and firing on all eight cylinders.

Ignore the weight on the bar. Is the barbell moving explosively, or are you muscling it up? If you are bulling up the weights, take the ego hit, drop the weight way down and reestablish velocity.

We’ll keep you apprised of Slow Twitch and his power clean journey. I have flat told him that getting a 75% of bodyweight power clean, a 150 double, would add mounds of muscle to his traps, lats and spinal erectors, and it would help him attain the 500-pound deadlift he has his sights set on.

To lift bigger weights, you need bigger muscles.

We shall see if he can overcome his natural aversion to quickness and rapidity. If he gets traction with the quick lifts, it would be a classic example of a man that stopped playing to his strengths and attacked his weaknesses for big gains. I am hopeful that he takes on the challenge. I would be hard pressed to come up with an individual that had a worse deadlift-to-power-clean ratio.

Can Slow Twitch rewire his central nervous system hardwiring and become Fast Twitch? Or at least Medium Twitch? Time will tell.

Equipment Notes for Snap Cleans and Big-Gain Weightlifting

Explosive lifting is not about buying a magic tool. It is about using the right tool correctly and refusing to let ego select the load. A snap clean demands a barbell that can be handled safely, plates that allow repeatable setup, and collars that help keep the bar organized while the lifter focuses on speed, timing and technique.

For Olympic lifting variations, snap cleans, power cleans, and speed-focused barbell work, a bar such as the IRON COMPANY 5150 Olympic Weightlifting Bar can support the kind of repeated practice described above. When the training calls for cleans, snatches, or other explosive pulls, rubber bumper plates and secure collars such as Lock-Jaw Flex collars are practical pairings for organized barbell work.

Safety note: explosive lifts should be learned progressively, with light loads, crisp technique, appropriate space, and qualified coaching when needed. If bar speed vanishes, lower the weight and rebuild the groove before adding poundage.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you make big gains in weightlifting?

Marty Gallagher’s answer is to stop playing only to your strengths and attack your weaknesses. In this article, the lifter had plenty of grind strength but almost no explosiveness, so the solution was to train speed with light snap cleans.

What is a snap clean?

A snap clean is a simplified explosive clean variation. The lifter pulls the bar with control to just above the knee, then drives the hips forward, straightens the torso, and uses that violent hip-and-thigh action to catapult the bar upward.

Why does Gallagher use snap cleans before deadlifts?

Snap cleans are used before deadlifts because explosive work should be performed when the central nervous system is fresh. Light explosive doubles can help the lifter practice speed and intent before moving into heavier pulling.

Why should a lifter use light weights for explosive training?

Light weights allow the lifter to learn speed without being forced into a grind. If a lifter cannot move the bar explosively, the load is too heavy for the purpose of the drill. The goal is velocity first, then gradual loading.

Can a strong deadlifter still have a weak power clean?

Yes. A lifter can have excellent low-end torque and still lack the timing, speed and coordination needed for a good power clean. Gallagher’s “Slow Twitch” example shows how strength and explosiveness are different abilities.

What equipment supports snap cleans and power cleans?

A dependable Olympic barbell, bumper plates and secure collars can support snap cleans and power cleans when the lifter has adequate space and uses proper technique. The most important element is still intelligent loading and precise practice.