The men's 56 kilograms weightlifting event was the lightest men's event at the weightlifting competition, limiting competitors to a maximum of 56 kilograms of body mass.

The whole competition took place on August 10, but was divided in two parts due to the number of competitors.

Each lifter performed in both the snatch and clean and jerk lifts, with the final score being the sum of the lifter's best result in each.

The Athens gold medalist Turkish Halil Mutlu was not in Beijing to attempt his 4th straight gold medal.

[1] All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00) Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.