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.
Don’t Stick With Only One
You’ll be seeing the Traditional Back Squat, Pause Back Squats, Traditional Front Squats, 1 and 1/4 Front Squats, and Overhead Squats. Strengthening each squat will provide a different stimulus; all of which translate to a stronger snatch and clean.
Each class we will be performing a different squat! We only have a few spots left in our six week barbell course so if you are interested get signed up ASAP!
When: October 29 – December 8
Session 1 (SOLD OU!T)
Monday & Wednesday 6:30-7:30 AM
Saturday 8:00-9:00 AM
Session 2 (3 SPOTS LEFT!)
Monday & Wednesday 7:30-8:30 PM
Saturday 10:00-11:00 AM
Session 3 (2 SPOTS LEFT!)
Tuesday & Thursday 10:30-11:30 AM
Saturday 8:00-9:00 AM
COST: $150 for members ($200 for nonmembers). Full or partial payment of $75 is required to reserve your spot. If you would like to reserve your spot please email us at [email protected] stating which session you want to participate in and whether you want to do a full or partial payment.