Hi CT!
I know you are friends with Charles and gave a few conferences with him.
Do you agree with his advice on olympic style squat form, though? Shooting the knees forward, i.e. breaking at the knees first?
[quote]bro1989 wrote:
Hi CT!
I know you are friends with Charles and gave a few conferences with him.
Do you agree with his advice on olympic style squat form, though? Shooting the knees forward, i.e. breaking at the knees first?
To maximize quads development and to have the largest transfer to the olympic lifts, yes. That’s how chinese lifters squat and that’s also how olympic lifters front squat (not always back squat)… that’s how you should dip for the jerk so it makes sense to do that in front squats to have the biggest transfer and that also give you the most strength for the second pull/explosion.
I will say though that for people with longer legs it can be somewhat hard on the knees (pushing the knees out helps a bit).
Thank you, CT!
The point regarding people with longer legs is very true in my experience.
I am 5’10’‘-5’11’’ and have rather short legs. To me, breaking at the knees first for some reason even feels better than sitting back. But my current trainer partner, who is around 6’3’', has to sit back in the squat because otherwise he feels his knees explode.
Do you find gender may also be a factor?
[quote]bro1989 wrote:
Thank you, CT!
The point regarding people with longer legs is very true in my experience.
I am 5’10’‘-5’11’’ and have rather short legs. To me, breaking at the knees first for some reason even feels better than sitting back. But my current trainer partner, who is around 6’3’', has to sit back in the squat because otherwise he feels his knees explode.
Do you find gender may also be a factor?[/quote]
To some extent because of the “Q angle” of women (upper leg tend to be aimed slightly inward which in itself increases knee stress). However the fact that women tend to have a bit more mobility can compensate for it.
Agreed with CT on all accounts. It will blow up your quads but there is a lot of stress happening on the patellar tendon when you squat this way consistently and with heavy loads. If you are hell-bent on squatting this way and have less than ideal limb lengths (i.e. above average height, like me), then use some knee wraps.
When you see someone like Ilya Ilin or the Chinese squat with a total knees forward/upright torso, don’t make the assumption that you must squat this way too. They have ideal limb lengths and were built for those lifts.
For me personally standing at 6’2", squatting this way (at least, the back squat) tore up my knees a bit. I NEED some type of hip action. Vids for reference below.
Antoniy Savchuk: http://instagram.com/p/mkQOkDRKia/
Klokov: Dmity Klokov Seminar - Advanced Power Drills cont'd - YouTube
The guy that I train who has the biggest quads (IFBB 212 pro Patrick Bernard) squats like that. Always has, it’s automatic in his case. Same thing with another of my clients. Both have VERY short legs and a long torso. I believe that those who are built to squat like that will tend to do it naturally. If you have to be taught to squat like that you might not be designed to do it.
Thank you, CT and Andy!! Much appreciated.