Building Champions: Jessie Stemo’s Secrets to Weightlifting Success

We recently had the chance to interview Jessie Stemo, a standout figure in the world of Olympic weightlifting.

Jessie is a weightlifting and nutrition coach, and the owner and head coach of Power and Grace Performance. With over a decade of experience as an athlete, including 10+ international appearances with Team USA, Jessie brings a unique perspective on what it takes to excel in the sport. She also works as a nutrition coach at Cedar's Nutrition.

In this conversation, we discussed:

• The fundamentals of Olympic weightlifting for complete beginners.

• The science of periodization and physically peaking at the right moment.

• How wearable technology and readiness tests like the counter-movement jump are changing the sport.

• The mental side of competing and coaching at an elite level.

• Nutrition strategies for athletes and non-athletes alike.

• Jessie’s personal journey from youth competitions to owning a top coaching business.

Here’s the conversation, edited for clarity:

Jacob: Today we’re joined by Jessie Stemo. Jessie is a weightlifting and nutrition coach with over a decade of experience as an athlete in Olympic weightlifting, including 12 international appearances with Team USA. She’s also the driving force behind the Coach and Development Program Design Initiative at Power and Grace Performance and works at Cedar’s Nutrition as a nutrition coach. 

For context, neither Benji nor I are weightlifters, so would you mind giving us an introduction to the sport?

Jessie: Absolutely. To add to my bio, I recently became the owner of Power and Grace Performance—just in the past couple of weeks. I think it’ll make for a really fun 2025.

Weightlifting is a strength sport. We compete in two lifts: the snatch, and the clean and jerk. Each athlete gets six attempts—three for the snatch and three for the clean and jerk. Your ranking depends on how much weight you lift in each and on your total. At events like the Olympics or the Pan American Games, the total is what matters for medals. Weightlifting in the U.S. has grown significantly in the last 10 years, largely thanks to CrossFit. Many people, like me, discovered they enjoyed the Olympic lifts more than all the other CrossFit elements and went on to compete in weightlifting specifically.

Jacob: That makes sense. Could you talk us through the finer points of the sport, and maybe how you got started?

Jessie: Sure. Weightlifting is highly technical; the snatch and the clean and jerk aren’t just about brute strength. You have to be explosive, flexible, and in control of your body. When you train for weightlifting, you spend a lot of time on these lifts, but you also do squats, deadlifts, and even bench press to build overall strength. There’s also a huge focus on technique. Little changes in your grip, stance, or timing can make big differences in your lifts. And we use the science of periodization to help athletes peak at exactly the right time—because you only have a short window for a physiological peak of power.

I started as a youth and junior lifter. I made a youth international team, then junior international teams like Junior Worlds and Junior Pan Ams, and progressed from there.

Benji: Could you explain periodization? I’m not fully sure what that entails, and I’d love to know if it’s unique to weightlifting or applies elsewhere.

Jessie: Periodization isn’t unique to weightlifting; it’s used across many sports. In simple terms, it’s how we organize training over a year, or season, to keep athletes healthy and continuously making progress. Typically, we’ll start with hypertrophy—building muscle size and work capacity—then move into a strength phase, and finally a peak power phase just before a competition. The intensity goes up while volume goes down, although we adjust it in waves throughout a training cycle. Depending on the athlete’s needs, it can get more or less complex, but that’s the general structure.

Jacob: How do you track progress day to day with individual athletes?

Jessie: My team uses Google Sheets to track everything: volume, relative intensity, total tonnage, average peak intensities. At the start of a 12-week training cycle, we’ll lay out a plan—what exercises we’ll use, how we’ll progress them, and which accessories we’ll include, especially if an athlete has a particular weakness. Then we adapt as we go. Most lifters benefit from working with a coach because it’s hard to be objective about your own weaknesses. The coach can also analyze technique and make changes.

Jacob: Have there been technological advances that help with weightlifting-specific tracking, similar to how runners use various wearables?

Jessie: Yes. A lot of athletes use wearables like Whoop or Oura Ring to track sleep, heart rate variability (HRV), and general strain. HRV is especially helpful for monitoring trends in recovery. Another big one is the countermovement jump test—a vertical jump with your hands on your hips, measuring how high you jump. If you jump higher than usual, you’re probably well-recovered. If you jump lower, you might be under-recovered, which could lead to injury. The challenge is setting baselines, because as you get stronger, your vertical jump might improve naturally. We often use rolling averages to track that over time. These tests help us avoid overtraining by giving us more objective data than just “How do you feel today?”

Jacob: How often do top weightlifters train in a week? It seems pretty intensive.

Jessie: It varies. An elite lifter like Olivia Reeves—who’s incredibly strong—might train four days a week. Others train up to eight sessions a week, doing doubles (morning and evening sessions) on certain days. I’ve gone as high as nine sessions a week myself, which I think was too much. But if you’re a full-time athlete supported by funding, you can recover more easily. You can go home, eat, use compression boots, nap, etc. If you work full-time, you might need fewer sessions for optimal results.

Jacob: Tell us about your personal career in weightlifting—how you found your passion and where it led.

Jessie: I started weightlifting through CrossFit around age 16. I realized I was built more for weightlifting than for all-around CrossFit. I qualified for international competitions and loved it. I moved to the Olympic Training Center at 18 for about a year and a half, until they closed their weightlifting program. Recently, I decided to step away from competing and focus more on coaching. I’d competed full-time for about 10 years, making junior worlds, junior Pan Ams, senior Pan Ams (where I medaled), and qualified for worlds during a COVID year, although I didn’t get to compete.

Benji: What are some career highlights?

Jessie: They all kind of blur together, but traveling and meeting so many people was incredible. One standout was Nationals in 2019. I hit my best total of 250 kg in the 81 kg weight class—110 kg snatch, 140 kg clean and jerk. I was the second woman in that class to total 250, and the first did it in the same session. As a 16-year-old, I’d never dreamed of hitting those numbers, so doing it in competition was really special.

Jacob: Which do you find harder—coaching or competing?

Jessie: Physically, competing is harder because your body becomes your job. Every meal, every hour of sleep, every stress affects performance. Coaching is more mentally and relationally challenging. You have to understand each athlete’s needs and communication style, guide them technically, and manage all the variables in the back room at competitions. When they’re on the platform, you’re not in control—you can only hope you’ve prepared them well. It’s also tactical: selecting weights, managing timing, and making changes based on what your competitors are doing.

Jacob: How do tactics play out in the back room during competitions?

Jessie: It’s like chess. You declare an opener for the snatch or clean and jerk, but you can make up to two changes per attempt. The bar only goes up, never down. You track how other athletes are changing their attempts and adjust your own plan accordingly. If someone jumps from 85 to 89 kg, that might alter your timing. You want to align your athlete’s final warm-up attempt to be about two to three minutes before they take the competition lift. You also want to ensure they get enough rest between attempts, so you might go up by 1 kg at a time if it means stealing more rest from the clock.

Jacob: What about the mental aspect of hitting big lifts like PRs?

Jessie: If the training cycle went well, competition is mostly mental. You rarely attempt weights you can’t handle; you want to avoid injury, so you choose lifts you believe are possible. The real challenge is dealing with unpredictability and nerves. A technical stop in the event could last five minutes, throwing off your warm-up. An athlete’s pressure might be sky-high if they’re aiming for a world team or an Olympic spot. Learning to harness that adrenaline rather than letting it overwhelm you is key.

Benji: Injuries can be a concern with heavy lifts. What are the most common ones and how do you prevent them?

Jessie: Weightlifting has a relatively low injury rate. It’s not a contact sport, and movements are pretty linear. Most injuries come from overuse. Common spots include the back, knees, and sometimes shoulders. It depends on your body’s structure and where your weaknesses are. The best prevention is a well-structured program—avoid doing nothing but snatch and clean and jerk. We prescribe accessory work like single-leg or single-arm exercises to address imbalances. Every new athlete does a physical assessment with a physical therapist so we know where to be careful.

Jacob: Let’s touch on nutrition. What does working with you as a nutrition coach look like?

Jessie: At Cedar’s Nutrition, we often use macro tracking—not to restrict, but to gather data. We want to see if someone is getting enough protein, carbs, or fats, and how that correlates with their training, sleep, and mood. We also look at meal timing and food quality—things like fiber intake and variety. The software we use can sync with wearables, so we see everything from sleep hours to step counts. Each week, the athlete checks in, and we adjust as needed, whether that’s increasing calories because of higher training volume, or focusing on better sleep habits.

Jacob: What about people who aren’t elite athletes but still want to improve their diet?

Jessie: Focus on the big rocks first:

1. Sleep – Are you getting enough?

2. Hydration – Are you drinking enough water?

3. Whole Foods – Aim for a variety of vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins.

Don’t get bogged down in fancy supplements if you aren’t nailing these basics. Even in weightlifting culture, sometimes people obsess over macros at the expense of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Eating a wide variety of foods keeps things interesting and helps you stay healthy in the long run.

Benji: So your system integrates data from Whoop into Cedar’s Nutrition?

Jessie: Yes, exactly. We can see all the athlete’s metrics—sleep, steps, and so on—alongside their food logs. If an athlete suddenly gains weight but their activity is down, we might reduce calories. If they’re under-recovered, maybe we add more carbs or focus on better sleep. It’s all about looking at trends and making informed adjustments.

Jacob: As the new owner of Power and Grace, what are your goals for the upcoming year?

Jessie: I want to focus on educational resources for other coaches—helping them learn programming, technique analysis, and athlete support. We’re also working to partner with a velocity-based training company to bring more remote readiness testing to our athletes. Long term, we’re expanding beyond gym programming to the entire athlete experience: yoga, breathwork, sleep seminars, and so on. A successful athlete isn’t just training hard; they’re sleeping, eating, and managing stress effectively.

Jacob: That sounds fantastic. Where can people follow your journey?

Jessie: My personal Instagram is @jessiestemo. You can also visit powerandgraceperformance.com or look up Cedar’s Nutrition, all linked on my page.

Jacob: Thanks so much for your time, Jessie. This was a pleasure—so much valuable insight.

Thanks for reading. We hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as we did. 

Until next week,

Benji and Jacob

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