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!