The Difference Between Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting

Powerlifting Versus Olympic Weightlifting Explained

Link to the Original Article

Powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting are very often confused with one another. Yet, despite their evident similarities, powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting could not be further apart. In this piece, we will get into the details of how powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting are similar and different from one another.

Powerlifting: What is Powerlifting?

I myself am a powerlifter, having learned much of my grasp of weightlifting in general from Mike Matthew’s Bigger Leaner Stronger and Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger. I am often asked “what exactly is powerlifting? Powerlifting is simply a competitive sport or recreational activity where the athlete in question attempts to get as strong as possible on three specific lifts—namely, the powerlifting big three: the squat, bench, and deadlift. Insofar as you are getting progressively stronger overtime on the squat, bench, and deadlift, you are powerlifting!

Olympic Weightlifting: What is Olympic Weightlifting?

I’ve only dabbled in Olympic Weightlifting, so my knowledge of the sport is superficial. Nonetheless, Olympic Weightlifting is just as straightforward as powerlifting is. Olympic weightlifting is simply a sport or recreational activity where the athlete in question is attempting to get as strong as possible on two specific lifts. Namely, the Olympic Weightlifting big three: the clean and jerk and the snatch.

Similarities Between Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting

Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting are alike in many ways. Both are competitive sports, wherein the athlete in question is trying to outlift their opponents. And if the athlete is not competing, they are trying to outlift their last best personal record. For both powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting, the primary objective is not aesthetics or improving your look. Rather, the prime emphasis of both powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting improves your power and strength on specific lifts.

Another similarity is that both powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting can have the great side-effect of building an awesome body. It is fairly common for powerlifters and Olympic Weightlifters to be mistaken for bodybuilders because powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting invariably build muscle and — if you are in a calorie deficit — lose weight.

It is often assumed that a difference between powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting is that powerlifting is just for building strength, and Olympic Weightlifting is just for building speed and power. However, building strength, speed, and power are potential attributes of both powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting — making powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting complementary if the athlete in question wants to participate in both.

Differences Between Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting

Aside from the obvious differences between powerlifting and weightlifting — i.e., that both focus on different lifts — how else do they differ? A significant way that powerlifting and weightlifting differ is concerning injury susceptibility. When compared side-by-side, for every 1000 hours practiced, powerlifters experience one to four injuries, whereas Olympic Weightlifters experience two and a half to three and a half injuries. Thus, when it comes to safety, powerlifting is ever so slightly safer than Olympic Weightlifting. These numbers might make weightlifting in general sound dangerous, but that is not true. Basketball players experience roughly eight to eleven injuries per 1000 hours of practice or play, making basketball twice as statistically injury-prone as weightlifting.

The difference between powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting concerning injury proneness might be related to the next difference to be mentioned: technique. The clean and jerk and snatch are much more technical and difficult to learn than the squat, bench, and deadlift. Indeed, it's generally inadvisable to attempt Olympic weightlifting in any serious manner without the guidance of a coach or experienced Olympic weightlifter for this very reason.

For instance, powerlifters generally perform the squat, bench, and deadlift at a slower tempo than Olympic Weightlifters perform the clean and jerk and snatch. This is because, on average, powerlifters can lift a lot more weight than Olympic Weightlifters. After all, the squat, bench, and deadlift, when done correctly, have bar-paths that are advantageous from physics, of moving the most weight possible. A squat and deadlift, for example, move along a straight bar path. To quote perhaps the greatest strength coach alive, Mark Rippetoe:

Gravity is the force that makes mass “weigh” what it does. It’s the attraction between two masses. In the case of the earth, it’s really really big relative to the barbell, so the attraction between the two masses is heavily skewed. Since the attraction is between the two Centers of Mass, the center of the barbell and the center of the earth have a very predictable relationship: gravity operates on the bar, and it does so as a downward pull, in the precise direction of the center of the earth’s mass. Always.

The bar path of the bench press is not verticle — it’s curved (the barbell starts at the top perpendicular to your nose, and is brought down to your sternum, and back up to the starting positon).

This advantageous vertical bar path is absent from Olympic Weightlifting, which makes Olympic Weightlifters much more reliant upon perfect technique than sheer strength or force — as powerlifters often do. As Olympic Weightlifting coach Dresdin Archibald writes, “On a snatch, clean, or jerk drive, if the path is not right or if the three joints are not opened up in the right sequence, the lift will fail.” The squat, bench, and deadlift are much more forgiving — though, don’t take such forgiveness as an excuse to perform with sloppy technique! Therefore, Bar-path and center of gravity play a role in performance during competition, as it is much more common for Olympic Weightlifters to fail in their lift attempts than it is for powerlifters. Due to their advantageous vertical bar path, powerlifters can grind out or muscle through reps, whereas in Olympic Weightlifting, attempting to grind through a snatch or clean runs a very high risk of injury.

Finally, Olympic Weightlifting is an Olympic sport, whereas powerlifting isn’t. The powerlifting community has been attempting to become recognized by the Olympics for decades but has thus far failed in their attempts.

Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting are competitive sports and recreational athletic activities, which both entail getting stronger on key compound lifts. With marginal differences between the two, any athlete would benefit from incorporating either powerlifting or Olympic Weightlifting into their exercise routines for optimal strength, conditioning, and power.