Bigger Squat for Bigger Lifts

Bigger Squat For Bigger Lifts

One of the best ways to develop your Olympic lifts is to get stronger. One of the best ways to get stronger is to squat, a lot. Regardless of what some people may say, Olympic lifting is a strength sport. Does it require a tremendous amount of technique and positional work? Of course it does. However, the reality is that perfect technique without strength won’t get us very far.  Here are a couple things to keep in mind when squatting to improve our Olympic lifts:

USE A HIGH-BAR BACK SQUAT

When squatting to improve our Olympic lifts it’s important that we mimic similar loading and movement patterns to what we’ll see in the bottom of a snatch or clean. To train this stimulus we need to use a high-bar back squat. This squat variation is not only the most common, but is great for developing strength in the quadriceps and glutes.

TRAIN PAUSE SQUATS

Have you ever caught a heavy clean in the hole, sat there for a few seconds and then not be able to stand it up? It happens to all of us. Training pause squats can be a great tool for practicing standing up heavy cleans and snatches from the bottom of your squat.

You’ll be seeing these and a few other squat variations in our upcoming barbell course. For more info on that or to sign up contact one of our coaches!