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    You are at:Home»Forums»Training & Conditioning Discussion»Strength & Conditioning»front squatting»Reply To:front squatting

    Reply To:front squatting

    Participant
    star61 on January 26, 2007 at 10:54 am #62115

    In my humble opinion, trying to improve your front squat to improve your Oly lifts isn't really necessary for people using Oly for explosive speed strength. Why do I say this you ask? Simple. The max effort back squat is not truly an explosive lift…at least its not nearly anything close to ballistic. But it is a great exercise, in my opinion the best exercise, for improving absolute or limit strength. The Oly lifts, on the other hand, are for explosive, nearly ballistic lifting, used by sprinters to convert the greater absolute strength developed in the back squat to functional, speed strength, something you can use as a sprinter. But think about the lift…only the first stages of the Powerclean, ripping it off the ground (or the initial pull if doing hang cleans) is explosive. If you are using such a heavy weight that you must drop to a low front squat to power it up, good for you, but the slow front squat isn't really doing much in terms of converting absolute strength to speed strength because that part of the lift isn't explosive, and the weight you handle will never approach your 1RM for the back squat, so it won't do much to improve limit strength either.

    Instead of improving your front squat in order to handle heavier loads in the clean, you might consider staying with a weight you can comfortably front squat, and focus on moving the bar ever faster and more ballistically during the the first phase of the lift. As you improve, you will still be able to move up your 1RM in the clean because you will learn to clean and catch the bar higher in the front squat. Your 1RM will go up, but not because your front squat is better, but because your clean is faster and higher. While this would not be a good strategy for an Oly lifter trying to go for a new PR, it should be effective in helping you convert your absolute strength to usable, functional, speed strength.

    And I hate front squats. :flaming:

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