Why do we squat? Did you ever wonder why CrossFit is all legs on legs for movements. From squats, hip drive, and explosive lower body movements, squatting is very important. One thing that many people ask me about is what squats they can do to get better in Olympic lifting.
The video below will discuss two reasons why the squat is so critical for weightliftign. Also, there are specific squatting techniques that can be utilized to help you Snatch, Clean & Jerk bigger weights with far less effort.
There are two ways we can approach squat training for the Olympic Lifts. The first is to spend time building general strength, so that your body can get used to higher volume training and using your glutes for good! The second way to train the squat is to focus on building “positional strength,” which is how you will learn to apply your new found strength to the lifts effectively. Think of the bottom of a clean when your “in the hole” and can’t get out… Just think if you practiced being there and you can get yourself out with ease!
First off you need TIME UNDER TENSION! Your primary job in the squat is to accumulate more time under the bar by doing five or more repetitions per set (4-5 sets is great). That amount of work will certainly stress the joints and connective tissues, but it will also thoroughly fatigue and activate just about all of your muscle tissue. That level of work is required if you want to MAXIMIZE your strength and long-term weightlifting performance.
Then you work into working the weak positions of your training. You need to practice the parts of the lift that you struggle with. So if you are always getting caught in the bottom of a clean and can’t get up, pause squats are a great positional squat to focus on. Pause squatting trains the nervous system to activate all those secondary muscle fibers that generally don’t get activated when you execute the lifts at full speed. This will help build your positional strength in what was previously a “weak” portion of the lift. If all goes right, next time the lifter should be able to stand up much easier during heavy Cleans.
When life goes wrong, go LIFT !