Olympic Weightlifting Squat Position - Trust What Works For The Best - Olympic Weightlifting & Instructional Video

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Olympic Weightlifting Squat Position - Trust What Works For The Best

When it comes to squatting for weightlifting, somehow there are still pockets of resistance to the obvious, and instruction contrary to all evidence.

Here are the bottom positions of the biggest cleans from each weight class from the most recent world championships. This includes male and female lifters with body weights from 45kg to over 160kg, a range of body types, and from a variety of countries.

In not one single case is the athlete sitting the hips back and leaning the trunk forward or keeping the knees back behind the toes.

They’re sitting as straight down and as deep as their anatomy, balance and correct spinal extension allow.

As a fun bonus, not a single one has the toes pointed straight forward, and none is trying to push the knees outside the feet.

Are there ever exceptions to these things at the international level? Of course—there are exceptions to everything. But they’re anomalies, not models to mimic.

This position is used by the world’s best weightlifters because it’s what works best—not because they’re idiots who haven’t been educated on a better way to squat.

Quit fighting the obvious facts, and quit misleading inexperienced lifters with nonsense novelty drills and positions to try to get a following.

Find your squat stance easily with this.

Dial it all in with this.

3 Comments

Mark

2018-11-29

Not one of these lifters are inexperienced, which means their muscular and connective tissue (including bone) have adapted to the demands of the task
- there may be a survivor bias
- these movements may increase the risk profile for maladapted or unadapted tissue (some suggest it takes 3 years of resistance training for connective tissue to optimally adapt
- these movements are goals for anyone that can keep their ego in check and abide by progressive overload of peak load, accumulated load, frequency of load within the concept of acute: chronic workload ratios (whose initial steps might be the foundational work you rail against)
- tribalism gets clicks, real life is found in-between the extremes

Opening line: "When it comes to squatting for weightlifting" - It's made very clear I'm talking specifically about squatting for the sport of weightlifting. A new lifter doesn't start squatting one way and gradually transition to this... he/she learns the right way and conditioning is developed over time from progressively increasing workload in the right way. In short, you're arguing with a claim that wasn't made, representing a group of people not being addressed here.

Greg Everett

Chris

2018-11-29

This article is based on a false premise. Nobody is advocating the low bar back squat (hips back, more of a closed back angle) as a way to support the Olympic lifts. Everyone knows the best squat assistance for the full clean is the front squat. There are not different schools of thought on that. Not! The LBBS(low bar back squat) is recommended to increase overall strength and it is the greatest exercise for that (now here there is disagreement and that is my opinion)

First, who said this was about the low bar back squat? But there absolutely are people advocating the LBBS to support the Olympic lifts - it's documented in print and online repeatedly. Your claim is either historical revisionism, or ignorance on the topic and its history.
And there ARE in fact arguments about front squat posture and stance - if there weren't, I wouldn't have felt compelled to make such a video.
Toes forward with knees out and sitting back with a more upright shin angle IN A FRONT SQUAT is absolutely taught by some. You don't have to squat this way, or teach anyone to do it, but you can't erase the existence of these things.

Greg Everett

DP	2018-11-30
Sometimes it is really frustrated to argue with someone for things that are so obvious. There are always people who take pride in thinking differently, without mastering the subject in the first place. Cheers.