There is a purity and simplicity to weightlifting that makes it almost meditative; in a complex world filled with contradictions and complexities, weightlifting is just you against the bar and any Olympic plates you choose to put on it.

Whilst strength is what lifts it off the ground, the three keys to improvement, success and achieving your personal goals are the same ones that are key to succeeding in life; determination, strength of character and a willingness to learn the right technique.

One of the best examples of this was an unlikely weightlifting legend who became so successful that much like Dick Fosbury in the high jump before him and Simone Biles after him, he has a technique named after him.

Beyond his frog-style technique, however, Yoshinobu Miyake was one of the most innovative and successful weightlifters of all time, in no small part because he took an approach in the 1950s that is not too dissimilar to modern preparation.

Taking The Hard Road

When he was born in Miyagi Prefecture in 1939, Yoshinobu Miyake was not destined to be a weightlifter at all, let alone the architect of a Japanese weightlifting dynasty.

Whilst supporting his family by delivering newspapers during his school days, Mr Miyake initially planned to become a judoka and compete at the prefectural level, but an injury during practice changed his perspective entirely.

The injury was minor, but it made him focus on how he could improve his strength. This took him to the weight room of his local high school, and from there his dream was to become an Olympic athlete.

This meant going into higher education rather than straight into the workplace, working alongside his course in order to afford the fees to enter Hosei University. His world-record snatch at the 1958 Asian Games proved his potential.

From there the stories of how he made it to Rome in 1960 are legendary; he survived on a single imagawayaki (a red bean paste cake) a day, his family sold pigs to pay his way to Rome and he joined the National Self-Defence Force, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant.

He made it, and remarkably placed second behind only Charles Vinci, the champion American weightlifter best known for having a haircut to lose enough ounces to meet the weight limit.

The biggest achievement was getting there. Reaching the top step of the podium required a different approach.

Forging A New Path

Whilst at Hosei University, the weightlifting programme was relatively primitive, featuring little coaching, relatively primitive equipment and primarily training outdoors. Following his success, Mr Miyake realised that he needed to develop a complete system of training mostly by himself.

Much of this is key to success in weightlifting and weight training today; understand the connection between mental and physical strength, minimise fatigue and lessen training intensity when you see the signs, focus on nutrition and use scientific knowledge to set up a training regimen.

He also bought a camera to film his lifting and help him perfect his technique, something that is very common with weightlifters at all stages of training and competition.

As well as this, he focused on technique, which is where his signature “Miyake pull” was developed.

Rather than take a wider, more conventional stance, Mr Miyake would place his heels close together and spread his knees, which led to it being called “frog style”

Despite being relatively short for the featherweight (60kg) division, Mr Miyake would dominate the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, not only winning gold and setting a new world record during the ‘three lifts’ era but becoming the only winning weightlifter to succeed in every single lift.

This last statistic, even more than the others, highlights the importance of technique and strategy, and how it can beat uncoordinated strength.

Building A Dynasty

Throughout his career, Yoshinobu Miyake won three Olympic medals, set 25 official world records and was utterly dominant in featherweight weightlifting throughout the 1960s, even during an era when the Soviet Union otherwise dominated the sport.

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, he competed with his brother Yoshiyuki, which led to the first and only time two Japanese brothers have shared a podium.

He retired after finishing fourth at the Munich Olympics in 1972 but moved straight into coaching a new generation of weightlifters in the national team.

Rather fittingly, his niece Hiromi won two Olympic medals using a technique not too dissimilar to the Miyake pull, showing the influence that lifting technique can have throughout different generations.