The Back Squat - Does it have a Direct Application to the Olympic Weightlifting lifts?
I have debated the question of whether the back squat has
any direct influence on the Olympic lifts. Now I must first say that I have
only recently started to train the lifts but I have trained in the strength
sports such as powerlifting, odd object lifting strongman etc for 20 years. I
must also say that ninety percent of my training has been in my home gym in my
power rack with a heavy barbell and to say that my passion is strength would be
an understatement.
I must also say that I have squatted 200kg in my power rack
and worked well above that number for top position partials and three quarter
partials. To say that I love squats would be totally true. I always recommend
to others who are looking for not only leg but full body strength and growth to
squat.
However I took a devastating injury to my lower back while
squatting with a warm up weight of 140kg that resulted in me been unable to
walk, sleep or lie down for over a year. My doctors, physiotherapist and back
specialist told me that I wouldn’t walk again but I ignored their gloom and got
back on my feet and started training again.
Now funnily enough it was the squat with an empty steel bar
that enabled me to come back and start hitting the heavy iron again after 3
years. So let me make it clear that squats are an excellent exercise and worth
the sweat and brutality of training the movement, because there is nothing like
the feeling of a heavy loaded barbell
draped across your shoulders and the sheer feeling of strength and power squats
give you!
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It seems to me that there is no direct correlation to how
much a lifter can squat and how much they can clean & jerk or snatch. But it seems that the majority of athletes
or trainers are quite interested in how much they/you can squat. It reminds me
of the question I use to hear in the 80’s and 90’s, which i still hear and
that’s ‘how much do ya bench?’. It still makes me chuckle to this day
because I don’t believe the bench press is a true barometer of bodily strength
unlike the deadlift and squat.
Syzmon
Kolecki, the Polish 94-105kg lifter claimed that his back squat was ‘235kg,
while his clean & jerk was 232.kg’. (Kirksman,2013). Even the banned 2012 Albanian lifter
Hysen said his front and back squat were 200KG, while his clean &jerk was
211kg and his snatch was 166kg. Now lets step back in time and have a look at
what Paul Anderson the American 1950s lifter. He was reported to have a ‘squat
of 548kg, (1206lbs) but his unofficial clean jerk was 218kg, (480lbs) and he
regularly worked his snatches into the 136kg-170kg, (300-375llbs) range’, (American
Strength legend 1998). Even John Davis another American lifter of the 1930s/50s
had been reported to have a clean and jerk of 167.5kg and snatch of 135kg.
Now John
Davis admitted in an interview 10 years before his death that in his early
training career he did ‘no squats’
(Kilha, 1993). However he did also say that he went on an intense
leg program and did many hours of ‘squatting in a rep range of 15 with 181kg
(400lbs)’. (Kilha,1993), which helped his power tremendously. Now this is
interesting because his squatting helped his strength to increase, which by my
logic tells me that this strength increase helped his other lifts to increase.
So its his strength increase that helped his clean and jerk and snatch and not
the amount of weight he could squat. So straight away its possible to see from
this example and others that the back squat shouldn’t be used as an indicator
of how much a athlete can clean and jerk or snatch.
To help
understand my logic I read an interesting article on the development of the
squat for weightlifters and in this article the writer pointed out that
‘If a weightlifter has a 80kg clean & jerk, and a
100kg back squat, if he increases his back squat to 120kg, then 80kg will
represent a relatively smaller percentage of his maximal strength, and the
weightlifter can now make the 80kg clean & jerk even if the lift is
mechanically suboptimal. Because of the relative lightness of the load,
the lifter can make small corrections to position during the lift which he
would not be able to make if the load were heavier relative to his absolute
strength’, (Tyspkin, 2013)
So again I
can say its strength gained through squats that allow the lifter to display his
strength in his lifts. But again its clear to see that just because you can
squat for example 100kg its quite clear that you will not be able to clean and
jerk or snatch that weight. In my opinion a lifter should in theory be able to
clean and jerk 80% of his or her back squat and if they cannot then they lack
the efficiency, which is less than optimal. This is because the sport of
weightlifting can be summoned up in three words ‘technique, technique,
technique’, which by my understanding is the systematic procedure of
accomplishing a complex task until its proficiently ingrained in the mind.
So by trying to increase the back squat in a hope to increase the Olympic lifts
will only result in a reduction in ‘efficiency and be detrimental to the
lifters long term competition results’ (Tyspkin, 2013).
A question was posed to me, which relates to the above point
of the reduction of efficiency, while writing this article and it was ‘what
if you had a 16-17year old, who had the technquie ingrained in them but was
weak?’ So my answer to this question would be to personally recommend that
a good strength program was developed, which would inculde, core and flexablity
work. The strength program would include the squat as well other moves like
power cleans, clean grip & snatch grip deadlifts+power shrug etc and it would use porgressive overload with
decending rep range, i.e. 5x5 working down to 3x3 down to single reps training.
This would enable the teen lifter to become strong over various rep ranges that
allow a heavier load to be lifted over a 10 week cycle. So again the squat
would be used as a leg and body stengthening move instead of using it to
imporve the olympic lifts.
So if the
load of the back squat has no direct relationship to how much the athlete can
lift in his/her Olympic lifts and the load could have a disadvantageous effect
on the lifters technical efficacy then what do you do?
Well back
in the history of Olympic weightlifting around about 1924 at the Paris Olympic
games the two handed press was introduced and in 1976 it was dropped due to
controversy about how it was to be judged but the point I am trying to make is
that we are weightlifters and our lifts that we are judged on and against
others are the clean & jerk and snatch. So the back squat and other lifts
are irrelevant and they should be trained accordingly.
So how
would you train the back squat accordingly? Well it should be trained for pure
leg and bodily strength as well as speed under the bar and it should be treated
in the mind and during training as a separate lift having no connection to the
affect on the Olympic lifts.
The squat,
for maximal strength, should be trained for speed to generate an explosive
effect in the lower posterior chain, i.e. the glutes, hip flexors, hamstrings
and lower back. In my mind I think that the load on the bar should be between
75%-80% of the 1 rep max for a rep range of 5 sets of 5 reps and over a 10 week
cycle the percentages should be taken higher to around 90% to 100% and the sets
and reps dropped to 5 sets of doubles or triples and even single reps if the
lifter wishes to push his max 1 rep percentages to 100%+. An important quote
that sticks in my head from powerlifter/trainer Louie Simmons of Westside
Barbell is that ‘strength is measured in time not weight’, which is
true, if you spend your training period and lift at 90% of your max your body
will become accustom and strong at lifting 90% of your max load. But remember
the key is to work on speed exploding from the bottom position of the squat to
help acceleration and execution of strength. Also I think that the lifter
should drop slowly into the bottom position of the squat so the de-acceleration
and reversing the direction of the squat is slow and deliberate therefore
emphasizing the negative of the movement.
Now I do
understand that it is speed under the bar that’s the desired effect and one
possible negative outcome for the lifter could result in been slow under the
bar. However the mighty super-heavyweight Soviet weightlifter Vasily Ivanovich Alekseyev
used a similar technquie where it allowed him to control the load on the way
down, this was due to having to use metal weight plates and ‘he still used
this way of training his squat when bumpers were available’, (Thibaudean
2007).
To futher
back up my reasoning its important to understand that when the weight is
lowered with less speed intramuscular tension is increased and this can be seen
in competive bench pressing because ‘It has been shown that the best bench
pressers in the world lower the bar to the chest at a slower pace’ (Thibaudean 2007) and
then they expolde up to complete the lift.
So this
could mean that if the proper tension is used during the eccentric, (lowering)
phase of the lift and lifted up quickly this will lead to improved gains in
strength. Again the drawback is if the load is moved down to slowly then the
muscles will become over worked and tire quickly and the lifter will experince
a loss of force on the upward proportion of the lift. Also if the lifter is
back squatting in this style and still working his olympic lifts with speed
then I think the negative drawbacks will be balanced out.
On a quick
note I think the lifter should squat with his snatch foot position or his or
her natural foot placement, while lifting in a high bar position. The reasoning for this is, in my
judgement, that there will be a better carry over in strength from the squat to
the olympic lifts and by using a high bar position it helps to impersonate the
receiving portion of the snatch and clean.
So to
summarize I think the squat is an excellent exercise and it should be used and
trained hard. However it should be purely used as a pure leg and body strength
exercise so the effects of the squat are about bodies growth in strength and
leg power so the lifter becomes stronger in the body.
References
(Chinese Weightlifting System, (ANON), Back Squats are Not
Necessary, (Online), Available online at
http://lifthard.com/back-squats-are-not-necessary/
(Accessed 20th July 2013)
American Strength legends, (1998), Paul Anderson, (Online),
Available online at http://samson-power.com/ASL/anderson.html
(Accessed 20th July 2013)
Poliquin, C, (2011), The Strength Legacy of Strongman Paul
Anderson | Poliquin (Online), Available online at http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/768/The_Strength_Legacy_of_Strongman_Paul_Anderson.aspx
(Accessed 20th July 2013)
Kilha, O, (1993), John Davis : A Tribute To Super Athlete
(Online), Available online at http://www.chidlovski.net/liftup/a_john_davis.asp
(Accessed 20th July 2013)
Tyspkin, J (2013) Squat Development for Weightlifting,
(Online), Available online at http://www.jtsstrength.com/articles/2013/01/23/squat-development-for-weightlifting/
(Accessed 20th July 2013)
Thibaudean C, (2007), The Black Book Of Training
Secrets, Francois Lepine
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