The Greatest Barbell Movement of All Time

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Mobility:
Keg Drill, 2 minutes
Hip Prep

Warm up:
10 Back Squats, empty bar
10 GHD Sit ups
10 GHD Hip extensions
10 Back Squats, light load

Back Squat  3-3-3-3-3 reps

Team 2K Row:
Set a rower to 2K.  With a partner, take turns rowing 500 meters as fast as you can.  Transitions between getting on and off the rower are in the hundredths of seconds, and can mean winning or losing a race.

Tools of the trade.

Yeah, you know who’s writing this post.

  Let’s talk about the Back Squat for a minute.

  High levels of athleticism are correlated with what we call powerful hip extension.  For every wall ball shot, thruster, kipping pull up, snatch, clean, or jerk, there is a powerful extension of the hips that is involved.  Furthermore, if you want to be stronger, run faster, jump higher, and punch harder, our recommendation is to first observe, then develop your ability to produce force from the hips.  ‘Posterior Chain’ is the term we use for the muscles responsible for producing hip extension (glutes, hamstrings, adductors, lower back.)  The Back Squat, trained in the way we teach it (low bar, using hip drive) is the only exercise in the weight room that develops the posterior chain in such a way that is progressively improvable, making it the best exercise you can do with barbells, and therefore The Greatest Barbell Movement of All Time.  Heavy triples are rough living if you’re not used to it.

  Build up incrementally, be aggressive, and use your hip drive!

Here is one of the best articles articulating why we teach the Back Squat the way we do.

Low-Bar vs. High-Bar Squats by Mark Rippetoe