Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory. – Gandhi
Purpose.The White Belt Weightlifting Program is our beginner weightlifting program. It is designed to get you used to snatching and cleaning and jerking on a daily basis. At the end of this program, you should be able to complete the daily weightlifting workouts that are posted on Weightlifting Academy.
Structure.This is a 12-week program, which is broken into multiple phases. It assumes that you are training a MINIMUM of 3x per week. You may be training as often as 6x per week. In all cases, you will rotate through the daily workouts (A, B, & C) on a weekly basis and reset at workout A at the beginning of every week. Please note: If you have some experience with weightlifting but aren’t quite ready for the daily weightlifting workouts, then you may not need to complete all 12 weeks of the program. You may decide to jump ahead to a week that is in line with your current level of proficiency.
Exercises.
- Warmup. The Samurai Warmup Routine can be found HERE.
- Squat. You will either be following the White Belt Squat Program or The Nemesis WODs for your squat programming depending on your ability level. So, when it says “Squat” in the weightlifting workout, follow the appropriate squat program. This means that you might be on different A, B or C days if you are using both the White Belt Squat Program and the White Belt Weightlifting Program. For example, you might be on Day B for squats and Day A for Weightlifting. This is okay. Rotate through the days for each exercise every week and reset to Day A for all exercises at the beginning of the week.
- Snatch. All snatches are performed from the floor. You may power snatch or full snatch depending on the weight on the bar and your ability level.
- Clean. All cleans are performed from the floor. You may power clean or full clean depending on the weight on the bar and your ability level.
- Jerk. We encourage lifters to split jerk and not power/squat jerk. If you are just doing jerks, then you will jerk from the rack and rerack on your shoulders between reps. For example, Jerk 5×5 means you will take the bar out of the rack for the first rep, jerk it, and then lower it back to your shoulders to jerk it again for reps two through five.
- What the heck do you mean by 30 reps? Your goal is to get 30 reps in a weight range that feels challenging. You can work up in triples or doubles. If you get to a weight that is too difficult, you can always go back down to a lighter weight. The goal is to practice the movement correctly not to set a PR.
- Bodybuilding. Yes. We’re serious. Don’t skimp on this part. The Samurai Bodybuilding Routine can be found HERE.
Weeks 1-3
DAY A
Samurai Warmup Routine
Snatch 30 reps
Squat
Bodybuilding
Weeks 4-6
DAY A
Samurai Warmup Routine
Snatch 30 reps
Squat
Bodybuilding
DAY B
Samurai Warmup Routine
15 sets Snatch Doubles
Squat
Bodybuilding
Weeks 7-9
DAY A
Samurai Warmup Routine
Snatch 30 reps
Squat
Bodybuilding
DAY B
Samurai Warmup Routine
Jerk 5 x 5 ascending sets where you add a small amount of weight to the bar for each set with the goal of working up to a heavy-ish set of 5 that isn’t so heavy that you miss.
Squat
Romanian Deadlift to 5RM
Bodybuilding
Weeks 10-12
DAY A
Samurai Warmup Routine
Snatch 30 reps
Squat
Bodybuilding
DAY B
Samurai Warmup Routine
Clean and Jerk 30 reps
Squat
Romanian Deadlift to 5RM
Bodybuilding
DAY C
Samurai Warmup Routine
Snatch to 1 rep max
Clean and jerk to 1 rep max
Squat
Bodybuilding
