As a aspiring Olympic lifter and university strength & conditioning coach, I was frustrated when my athletes couldn’t execute barbell Cleans.

Most of them had stiff shoulders, tight lats, and tight wrists from too much benching and not enough rehab work.

(This was back in the late 1990s when recovery work was practically unheard of .)

So, barbell Cleans became barbell High Pulls.

Or dumbbell Cleans.

Plus, doing more sets - anything more than 5 - with the Olympic lifts practically guarantees your technique deteriorates .

And that’s a ideal set up for an injury.

And no one wants one of those.

Especially not an athlete training to prepare for competition .

I remember seeing the “Kettle-Stack” advertised in the back of a Muscle & Fact - uh, Fitness - left on my desk.

I made a reminder to investigate further.

When I transitioned from University Strength Coach to Personal Training Business Owner, I ran into the same issue:

Teaching the Olympic lifts (O-lifts, as some call them), was a “juice that wasn’t worth the squeeze.”

Too technical and clients had to suspend their disbelief .

So, back to the dumbbell versions of the O-lifts.

Then, I saw the Dragon Door ad for kettlebells in 2001.

I bought my first set in January 2002 and started using them with my clients shortly thereafter .

We all loved them for their powerful, efficient workouts.

More repetitions of the Olympic lifts did miracles for people’s physiques.

They got leaner, faster.

They got stronger, limberer , and better conditioned.

Plus, they were tough , so they were mentally engaging.

In fact, I Training still train one of my clients from 2001 today.

Now she’s in her 50s, the 16kg is a toy , and the 24kg routinely goes over her head.

Back in the early 2010s, I wrote a lot about Olympic lifters' physiques primarily coming from Snatches, Cleans, Overhead work, Squats, and Pulls.

Sure, it’s true that the Chinese - some of the most muscular lifters in the world - do some bodybuilding.

Usually (according to at least one source ), it’s in the form of around six sets of 10 reps AFTER all their major lifts for a session have been completed.

“See, Geoff! They didn’t get all that muscle from ‘ merely’ the O-lifts!”

No, they didn’t.

But they did get most of it - especially from Olympic lifting assistance exercises.

“Oh yeah, how can you be so sure?”

Because that’s how I built much if not most of mine:

Squats, Deadlifts (a form of a “Pull”), Presses, Bench, Rows, Cleans, and Power Shrugs up until age 22.

Then, I dieted down to 200lbs from 252lbs, and still kept the Squats ( with more depth - and many more)...

Pulls (LOTS of them! )...

And Overhead work.

Nothing blows up your upper back faster than Snatch Grip High Pulls from above the knee!

And high frequency Squats?

Complete muscle development!

Not just the legs!

Which is how I got back up to 230lbs in my late 20s.

So, if your goal is to change the way you look, feel, and perform, you can’t go wrong by using the “Hybrid” versions of the Olympic lifts found in the kettlebell exercises.

Especially the double kettlebell exercises, which, I’ve found over the last 20+ years, is where much of the true progress lay.

Exercises like:

Double Clean

Double Press

Double Push Press

Double Jerk

Double Front Squat

Double Clean + Press

Double Clean + Push Press

Double Clean + Jerk

Double High Pull

Double Snatch

They’re just so challenging on the body.

Your body literally cannot resist changing when you perform these exercises regularly.

Start with a few .

Learn the techniques.

Build your strength first. Then your muscle .

And in most cases, your conditioning and even fat loss will “just happen.”

You practically work all the muscles in your body at once.

(You haven’t “lived” until you experience the biceps soreness you get the next day after higher rep / higher volume Double Cleans or Double Snatches.)

Plus, using the double kettlebell lifts is time-efficient .

You can accomplish A LOT of work in just twenty minutes - if you know how to structure your training correctly.