Need Studies about Safety of Olympic Lifting

[Ryan A]

Big uprising here at school. Administration trying to stop the use of all olympic lifts because they are unsafe. I am trying to find evidence showing them to be as safe if not safer than most weight training movements.

'Ryan

[ExRx.net]

Here's the stats:

http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Tidbits.html

Perhaps they should think about getting rid of some of the other sports first if they are so concerned about injury.

I've also included some other information here:
http://www.exrx.net/ExInfo/InjuryTidbits.html
(See "Weight Lifting Injuries" 3/4 down)

Here's a reprint:

Weight Lifting Injuries

Rhea (2003) suggests there is no practical difference in injury rate between using free weights or machines in healthy adults.

Requa RK, DeAvilla LN, Garrick JG. (1993) Injuries in recreational adult fitness activities. Am J Sports Med, 21(3):461-7.


Injuries substained during weightlifting training and weightlifting competition are substantially lower than injuries incurred from other sports such as football, gymnastics, or basketball.

Stone MH (1990). Muscle conditioning and muscle injuries. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 22(4):457-462.


In college football players, time lost from injuries during weight training amounted to 1% of the time lost from injuries during football participation.

Zemper ED (1990). Four-year study of weight-room injuries in a national sample of college football teams. N atl Strength Cond Assoc J. 12(3):32-34.

[Peter]

Technically they are not safe if you do not have the personal to correctly teach the biomechanics of the complex movements.

[Ryan A]

Nor are many other exercises.

Not to mention I am not advocating the school endorse that everyone adds them to their personal training program but merely allow those who wish to do them to do them.

[pubcast]

Maybe they just need to invest in a lifting coach or advisor that knows correct form.

[Ryan A]

This is just for the recreational facility.

They have no trainers present at any time. All of the current employees are students.

[TimD]

Well, I didn't jump in earlier, because when I did a search on studies of the dangers of O lifting as opposed to other sports, James' (exrx.net) link was right up there at the top. Good stuff. As to learning the lifts on your own, well, a coach is nice, but quite frankly, most of us back in the 50's and 60's learned on our own. Sure, most coaches at the time new them, as opposed to today, beause prior to the 60's the majority of the lifting was based on based compound move and lifts. I had no problem picking up the power version, and then (at the time) the split versions were the common variety of what was used (the squat versions were just coming into popularity), and the split versions are much more forgiving of bad technique. Still, all that being said, if you just get your hands on a video, study it, have a training partner get a camcorder on you while you practice with a pipe or empty bar, you'll just do fine. Maybe not national caliber, but you can learn technique, and it's no more harmfull than falling off a snowboard or skateboard, probably a lot less likely to happen.