PARIS—Ever since Team USA won its last Olympic weightlifting gold at the 2000 Sydney Games, a generation of Americans has tried and failed to outdo rivals in hoisting dangerously heavy pieces of metal above their heads.

After nearly a quarter of a century, the gold-medal drought finally ended Friday at the chalked hands of a 21-year-old Tennessean. Entering the 157-pound weight division as the unambiguous favorite, Olivia Reeves proceeded to lift an Olympic-record 258 pounds in the snatch en route to her milestone victory.

In a sport teeming with inspirational quotes about no gain without pain, what’s unusual about Reeves is how she got here. Instead of grinding away in the gym for countless hours, she soared to the peak of international weightlifting by doing the opposite.

She trains half as much as other world-class lifters.

Put another way, her secret to lifting weights is not lifting weights.

For example, the top three finishers in Wednesday’s men’s 134-pound competition, including American bronze medalist Hampton Morris, said they lift at least six times a week, for no less than 15 hours per week. The American champ in 2000, Tara Nott-Cunningham, had seven or eight weekly sessions, each 90 minutes to two hours long, said Team USA coach Mike Gattone.

But Reeves lifts just four times a week. Three sessions are two hours long. The fourth is 90 minutes. The total: just 7.5 hours a week.

“It’s unusual for this level, but it works for me,” she said.

Reeves makes each session count by making them intense, lifting 90% of the maximum weight she can handle. Ample rest between sessions keeps her fresh.

“When you train often, you can’t go heavy as often because when you have a lot of volume, you’re really tired,” she said.

This approach isn’t a personal quirk. It’s backed by evidence.

“It’s not about how many times you lift,” said John DeWitt, director of applied sports science for Rice University athletics. “It’s about how much you lift, the intensity.” In other words, muscles respond better to fewer but more challenging reps, compared with more reps at lighter weights.

Rest matters too. People don’t get stronger while lifting, DeWitt said, but rather in recovery, when their bodies adapt to the load placed on them.

The data doesn’t come just from people pumping iron on Earth. There’s also extraterrestrial evidence.

As a National Aeronautics and Space Administration exercise scientist, DeWitt observed how astronauts returned from the International Space Station with bone and muscle loss, even though they used the treadmill and a weight-resistance machine onboard.

So scientists upped the workout intensity, replacing the treadmill that maxed out at 7 miles per hour with one that maxes out at 12.4 miles an hour—under a 5-minute mile. A new weight machine doubled the resistance, to 600 pounds. The result: Astronauts consistently came back in better shape, DeWitt said.

This research backs up Reeves’s training plan. But her coach didn’t develop it to build muscle. He was afraid of chasing away his best-ever pupil.

Reeves started lifting weights in fourth grade, at her parents’ CrossFit gym in Chattanooga, Tenn. Getting serious about it three years later, she started working with Steve Fauer, who had decades of experience honed by trial and error.

Especially error. “I’m probably the dumbest coach in the world,” Fauer said.

For years, the former University of Nebraska strength coach had seen promising young weightlifters walk into his gym. Then, after pounding through 300 to 500 reps over nine weekly sessions, they walked out and never came back.

“You can see the kids get beat up, but I would keep pushing because that’s what everybody does,” he said. “What I should’ve done was back off.”
Olivia Reeves lifts just four times a week. Three sessions are two hours long. The fourth is 90 minutes. The total: just 7.5 hours a week.

So with Reeves, he prioritized keeping it fun. They started with three sessions a week. As she sailed through youth competitions, they added a fourth. They monitored whether her progress would plateau.

It didn’t, so the regimen stuck. “Why would I be training nine times a week when I’m getting the same results training four times a week?” Fauer said.

The less-is-more approach lets her train while studying sociology at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. After she graduates in December, she’s considering a master’s and career in public health.

To the delight of Team USA, she said she believes she can pursue that and still squeeze in 7.5 hours per week lifting weights.