Originally Posted by Hermes

I do not do the Olympic lifting since it is too hard on my back and we have an Olympic weight lifting setup at Equinox gym. It is popular with many coaches and trackies. You are wise to get used to doing it first and I am not sure about standing on the ball. IMO, the benefit of Olympic lifts is having a stable foundation and use a lot of weight. That will help with the first couple of pedal strokes. Having said that, I am not sure how much it actually helps compared to doing max power standing starts in a big gear and 100 meter jumps.