Training: Health vs Performance and Optimal Oly's

With there being a clear distinction between training for health and training for performance, it is necessary to examine some of the types of lifts, especially some of the lifts which carry a greater risk to benefit ratio, in light of this distinction.  The Olympic lifts are fascinating, fun and exciting movements, to watch being executed eloquently.  They also are fascinating, fun and exciting to perform, eloquently. they require tremendous strength, power, coordination, body awareness, and mobility.  But are they, or should they be, a necessary component of a training regimen for health, and/or performance.

Let's tackle the performance issue first.
Your goal is to compete in the American Open in Weightlifting. Yes.  You need to train the Olympic Lifts, in all varieties and all facets.  You should work on drills to enhance mobility in the shoulders and hips, you should work technique, the whole gamut.  For a person whose performance related goal is the American Open, or any weightlifting tournament, an Olympic Lifting regimen is necessary.  Benefit > Risk

Your Goal is to Compete in a "CrossFit" type event. Yes.  You need to train the Olympic Lifts, in all varieties and all facets.  Whether I personally agree with High Rep Oly lifting is another blog post, however, there are certain precautions and necessities one should take before performing high rep Olympic weightlifting.  You should work on drills to enhance mobility in the shoulders and hips, you should work technique, the whole gamut.  You need to ensure you have technical proficiency of the lifts and full mobility to complete the lists before any volume and/or "going for time" is added to the equation.  If these are not ensured, there is an huge increase in the risk.  Personally, for any CrossFit Athlete, I would tend to make sure that technique is solid during all Olympic lift strength work before adding Olympic Lifts to a WOD, and even then the volume needs to be monitored, along with the weights used and the two balanced (i.e. Prilipen's Chart).  Total reps more than 10-15 should be based on percentages of Max.  I would tend to lean on the side of re-setting fully on consecutive reps, as you want to make sure you build solid motor mechanics of every facet of the lift as well as minimize risk.  The issue when you bring volume and time into the equation, and is typical for a Crossfit Athlete, as you fatigue and as you try to go faster, proper form and technique slide, and the muscle memory that is built around this sloppy form takes longer to correct, when you slow the tempo and the volume down.  This is why making sure technique is flawless is the foremost priority.  Olympic lifts appear in all levels of CrossFit competition.  If you are set on being a CrossFit Competitor, you need to train these lifts, however, you need to ensure proper technique before you try to go as fast as you can.  Benefit>Risk

Your Goal is to compete in some other sporting endeavor. Not Necessarily.  Most sports require you to be forceful and powerful.  Do you need to train the Olympic Lifts for other sporting endeavors like Hockey, Soccer, Basketball, Rugby or Football?  Yes, but not the full Olympic lifts.  I think the power varieties, work just as well, and even more so, the Hang/Mid Thigh Varieties if explosive power through the hips is wanted.  First off the power varieties carry less risk than the full Olympic movements, and this is important as you do not want to lose an athlete from playing on the field due to an injury in the weight room. Paul Comfort authored a few papers the past year in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research where he showed that if you are training to maximize power, that mid thigh power cleans and mid thigh clean pulls were the most advantageous versus the full movement, and even the hang movement.  The other benefit of these movements, are that mid thigh clean pulls and mid thigh power cleans also have an easier learning curve. You also do not need to worry about any other issues, like lack of mobility in selected joints.   Comfort also showed that as you increased weight, you reduced the peak power and velocity of the lifts, however, you increased the amount of force generated.  To maximize both force and power, training at 60-80% of 1RM loads is the most advantageous. Benefit>Risk when dealing with Power Varieties, Risk>Benefit for full movements

Non-Performance Based Goals
Your goal is to be healthier, stronger, fitter, more powerful in your everyday life. No.  In a person training for general health is it necessary to perform full Olympic movements?  I tend to believe not.  Is the mobility that an Olympic Lifter good for general populations, yes, it is good to have full range of motion in all planes, but mobility is required for Olympic lifting, but Olympic Lifting is not required for mobility. Mobility means your joints are healthy.  As mentioned previously, there is risk associated with Olympic Lifting. In a person training for health, the idea is to minimize risk, as they are coming to "the gym" to be healthier, and if they get laid up with an injury, they all of a sudden are not as healthy as they were, and are also unable to come to the gym.  Power generation is important in all populations however.  The ability to generate power and force through the hips allows daily tasks to be easier.  As mentioned above, Comfort's studies showed that utilizing easier lifts from the mid thigh and hang positions, generate substantial amounts of power.  These lifts also have the benefit that they require less instruction, have a faster learning curve, and are relatively safer compared to the full Olympic movements.  If having the ability of generating power is what is needed for health, why then risk health, by adding in highly complex technical movements that require precision and coordination? I don't feel it is necessary.  I don't even want to discuss adding high volumes of reps, going for as fast a time into the equation. Risk>Benefit for full Olympic movements