The men's 56 kg weightlifting competitions at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki took place on 25 July at Messuhalli.

The best score for each lift was summed to give a total.

The weightlifter could increase the weight between attempts (minimum of 5 kg between first and second attempts, 2.5 kg between second and third attempts) but could not decrease weight.

If two or more weightlifters finished with the same total, the competitors' body weights were used as the tie-breaker (lighter athlete wins).

[1] Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.