Jumps And Sprints Are Useless For Weightlifting

Just because elite athletes do something, it does not mean that you should. People often see elite weightlifters training jumps (ie. chinese team) or sprints (ie. soviets), and think that this is somehow useful for the sport. It isn't.

The reality is that olympic weightlifting is a fragile and highly specialized endeavor. Anything that isn't easy zone 2 cardio or some mobility work WILL impact performance in weightlifting. This includes jumps and sprints.

Firstly, jumps are not comparable to weightlifting. Jumps are to weightlifting like sprinting is to swimming: completely unrelated. If you theoretically wanted to add jumps/plyometrics to a weightlifting program, they would need to be done for high volume at the start of the session where you are the freshest. You can see how this is a problem: you will be fatigued from all the jumping volume before you even start weightlifting! Plus, some jump variations like depth jumps are actually very stressful on the joints even if they are not weighted, which again impacts weightlifting performance.

Secondly, sprints. Sprints are even worse than jumping as far as impact on weightlifting. Max effort sprints are tough to recover from. They have a particularly high injury risk at both the ankle and the knee joint, especially if sprinting on flat terrain. They also contribute more to the interference effect. So stay away from sprinting as well.

A common argument for including jumps and sprints in a weightlifting program is that they help with 'power production'. Sure, to some extent. But this does not translate to weightlifting. Firstly, weightlifting is technical, and training technique whilst being the most fresh and recovered is high priority. Secondly, power production for weightlifting is trained sufficiently with pulls and the competition lifts.

There are only a handful of cases I would prescribe jumps or sprints to a weightlifter. If the weightlifter is a beginner or a youth athlete or obese, I may add some jumps and hill sprints as GPP training for a couple of weeks every training block. If the athlete is a hobbyist, then I may also add these jumps and sprints. 

But I would not advise anyone who takes weightlifting seriously to include jumps/sprints into the program. That time should be allocated to other, more productive work.

~ Prem