First, Olympic lifters don't compete in the squat. They use it as an assistance exercise to aid in their competition lifts: the snatch and the clean & jerk.
While it's true that certain lifters routinely "max out" on their squats, it's done without emotional arousal and usually without assistive gear, with the exception of maybe a belt. Soviet weightlifters routinely used weights between 75-85% of their 1RM's to improve their competition lifts.
Second, for the most part, Olympic squats and powerlifting squats are completely different animals from the ground up. We'll start with the Olympic squat.
The Olympic Squat
The Olympic squat (or back squat as it's known in Olympic lifting circles), is categorized as a high bar squat. The bar is placed on top of the traps, on the shelf created by retracting the shoulder blades between the upper trapezius and the middle trapezius. The torso is relatively upright during both the descent and the ascent of the lift.
The feet are positioned somewhere between straight ahead and externally rotated 15 degrees and set approximately shoulder-width apart. The hands are placed in the same position as in the clean; in the case of the heavyweights and superheavies, sometimes slightly wider.
Unlike the powerlifting squat, Olympic lifters stay relatively relaxed under the bar, preferring a "long spine" position where they lengthen from the crown of the head to the coccyx. They use high-tension techniques sparingly. These squats are performed relatively fast with a quick, yet controlled eccentric and an explosive concentric action.
This matches the sporting need of the lifter to pull himself under the bar and recover the lift quickly. Too much tension will slow him down and cause him to miss the lift.
The Powerlifting Squat
The powerlifting squat is about lifting more weight, not necessarily getting stronger. This may be a controversial statement, but most powerlifters will tell you that they don't care if you've gotten stronger or not; they simply want to know how much you lifted in any given meet.
There are two current schools in powerlifting: "Assistive Gear" and "More Assistive Gear" (although raw federations and meets are starting to make a comeback). These two schools are exemplified by two major and distinct federations: the IPF and the WPO.
Broadly speaking, the IPF is dominated by the Eastern Europeans who use a hybrid type squat, which we'll discuss shortly. The WPO lifters use a squat style designed to optimize the advantages of their assistive gear. Let's discuss the WPO style of squat first because it best contrasts the idea of "lifting more" as opposed to getting stronger (although these lifters are obviously still verystrong!).
Jeff Lewis moving massive weights at the Arnold.
This style of squat is characterized by a low bar placement across the rear deltoids with the shoulder blades retracted and with a very wide foot placement. It's initiated with the hips; the shins stay perpendicular to the floor during the entire lift. This reduces the reliance on the quadriceps and maximizes the contribution of the hamstrings, gluteals, lower back, and the assistive gear.
There's a forward torso displacement during the descent and ascent. The hands, although in theory are kept close to the torso, are usually placed almost collar-to-collar among the heavyweights and supers due to lack of shoulder flexibility from bench press specialization and torso girth. Because of the massive loads used in the upper weight categories and the bar positioning, high-tension techniques are practiced routinely on this style squat.
The IPF lifters use modified styles of the Olympic and WPO lifters: low bar placement, medium hand spacing, and a just-wider-than-shoulder-width foot position. Their assistive gear provides less support/enhancement when compared to the WPO. Some have argued that the wide stance squat of the WPO lifters has evolved to maximize the limits of the gear, and we'd tend to agree.
Now that we've looked at the differences between the two types of squats, let's briefly examine why you should be squatting. Later on, we'll figure out which method is best for you.
Why Squat?
Why not? There are lots of myths regarding squatting: bad for the knees, bad for the back, etc. The reality is, whether or not a squat is bad for someone is dependent upon that individual, at that moment.
Many articles have been written on the merits and benefits of squatting, so let's quickly review:
• The legs "feed the wolf" — the stronger the legs, the stronger the body
• Improved athletic performance
• Improved metabolism
• Improved body composition
• Improved sex hormone profiles/production (determined by load)
• Improved activities of daily living
Which style of squat is the best? Neither and both. The individual's limitations usually dictate the style of squat he uses. Most individuals should learn how to box squat before any other squat. Why? Because most of the people we work with are office workers: everything's tight that needs to be loose and everything that needs to be strong is weak.
Beyond that, sitting on a chair is an environment in which they feel "natural" (as sad as that may be!). Why not take them from a familiar environment where they can feel successful, and then move them to a less familiar environment once they have some success under their belt?
As their mobility improves throughout the body, they should be moved into an Olympic style squat. Why? Because this is a "natural" squat. If we watch children squat, this is how they do it — the body folds like an accordion with the joints stacked one on top of the other. This takes advantage of natural bone rhythms and allows all the muscles to work in harmony with each other. It also allows for the full development of the leg musculature.
Don't believe us? Look at the leg and hip development of elite weightlifters and try to argue with us. Pyrros Dimas is a great example. However, if the mobility doesn't suitably improve, they should stay with a hip initiated squat.
A Personal Story
When I (Geoff) taught myself how to Olympic squat, it was at a time when the shin was supposed to stay vertical, the knee never moved over the foot, and you never squatted below parallel, or in the words of Harold Ramis's character in Ghostbusters, "Something very bad will happen."
I'd just been diagnosed with bilateral patella alta, or lateral kneecap tracking, apparently brought about by powerlifting style squats — low bar, wide stance. Walking up and down the stairs was excruciating, let alone squatting.
About that time I'd become interested in Olympic lifting. I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I did notice that weightlifters squatted below parallel and their knees moved over their feet, even sometimes over their toes! And you know what? They had huge, well-developed quads, even that hard-to-get tear drop thingy right above the knee that leg extensions were supposed to be for (the same ones the ortho gave me to "fix" my condition) but never seemed to really work.
The funny thing at the time was, everyone who'd told me that I shouldn't squat rock-bottom couldn't do it themselves and couldn't justify why weightlifters could and how they achieved that spectacular leg development in spite of violating all the known "laws" of squatting.
Nobody told me how to make the transition from power to Olympic squats, so I just made some stuff up. It seemed reasonable to me that even though I couldn't perform an Olympic squat, I should try to get my body used to that position.
So, I grabbed on to the power rack, placed my feet in the Olympic squat position and just tried to wiggle myself into a weightlifting squat position, sometimes spending 5-10 minutes just moving in and out of the hole, stretching the tight "squatting" muscles as I went along. The more I did, the greater my depth increased until eventually I added weight.
I just did what I thought made sense. And I did it all the time: in the gym, at home, whenever, wherever. I can't remember how long the process took, but it wasn't more than a few weeks.
Twelve years later while attending the RKC, I learned that Pavel calls this method prying. The gist is to "create space" in your joints in the specific weightlifting squat position. Here's what it looks like:
Specific Mobility
Performing mobility work for the feet, ankles, knees, and hips at a bare minimum is necessary to speed up the process of transitioning from the box squat to the Olympic squat. Focus on performing slow, controlled movements through full ranges of motion.
Never fight your balance while trying to regain mobility, so hold on to the power rack or a wall. Use two hands if you must. After you have the movements down, only then should you consider "stand-alone" joint mobility.
Mobility Work
For specific foot, ankle, knee, and hip mobility we like to use the R-Phase DVD from Z-Health. The prospect of explaining these drills here is too monumental to even begin, but if you want to explore additional mobility work—which we highly recommend—check out the R-Phase DVD.
Specific Flexibility
Specific flexibility for the calves, quads, hip flexors, adductors, and gluteals is also necessary. Perform these drills after your joint mobility work, or pair them with the mobility work in a manner similar to the following: ankle/calf, knee/calf and quad, hip/quad, adductors, gluteals, and hip external rotators.
The flexibility work you perform should match your weaknesses in the squat. If you have tight adductors, spend extra time there.
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