eastern bloc lifting: Raw Power Squat

Raw Power Squat. The king of all strength exercises. No.1 Go to... exercise for powerlifters, strength athletes, bodybuilders, average gym rats, sprinters, blah, blah.

Raw power squat builds tremendous strength, mass and power in your whole lower body; hell, in your whole body.

Stance
Approach the bar which is in the squat stands at your chest level. Grip it tight with a thumbless grip. Where? As close to your shoulders as your flexibility allows. My grip is with pinkies on the power rings. This gives me a great contraction in my whole upper back and lats. Your wrists should be wrapped tightly and your grip on the bar very hard. It should feel very uncomfortable.

Duck under the bar and place the bar on your rear delts and just below your upper traps. There is a sweet spot there where it feels just perfect. Take a deep breath into your belly. Not in your chest because it will make the rib cage rise and worsen your leverage. Push your belly hard against your belt. Everywhere - in the front, your obliques as well. If you squat beltless, still your abs should be like a giant basket ball. With your upper back super tight, elbows pointing downwards, your belly full of air, bend the bar accross your upper back, it will tighten the lats even more and secure your torso even more.

With super tight upper body, do a quarter squat, squat the bar out of the squat stands and with two short backward streps, take a stance which is exactly your shoulder width, or a little wider or a little narrower. Everybody is different. Generally taller lifters or long legged lifters will naturally assume a little wider stance and shorter and stocky lifters probably a little narrower stance. You have to play with this. I suggest take 50% of your max and devote one full session to doing lots of triples and find a stance where the motion feels natural, smooth and powerful. Then you know where your stand is.

Toes should be flared out a little. Anything between a few degrees to 45 degrees. Everybody is different. Again, you have to play with this. You are standing there now with a supertight core and upper back, glutes flexed, weight on your mid-foot.

Descent
Your descent starts with breaking in your hips. Your butt travels backward and you sit back but not so much as the Westside guys because there is no suit to help you. A split second after you broke in your hips you break in your knees too and squat down. Actually, you squat down and back at the same time.

In the bottom position if your knees travel forward a bit it is ok. Watch some of the greatest squatters and their knees travel forward in the bottom position but not over their toes. Knees should be in linear position over the feet. They should not cave in, neither should they be pushed out too much as many not so good coaches will tell you. In the bottom position your knees are forward (but not over the toes), directly over your feet and your hips are below your knees.

You should feel now tremendous tension in your quads, hams, hips and glutes - the primer movers. Yes quads, please do not believe the Westside crap that you don't need quads for squatting. You do. Thick and strong quads.

Squat
A slight bounce off your hams and you are driving up with your heels and feet into the ground. Hams will take care of the rebound and the initial few inches, then it is all quads and glutes.

Your torso is still the same angle as in the beginning, you must not cave in. That is why you created the fixed torso and lats when preparing before descent. Strong abs are paramount. If you have weak abs, train them heavy 2-4 times a week. No excuses.

With a raw power squat, notice that you never get burried in the hole because the hams and the rebound can carry you through the first couple inches. Where raw squatters usually miss or grind is the 2-3" above parallel. That is why you need strong quads, to overcome the sticking point.

Frequency and Volume
Several times a week. Twice is minimum. Three times is better. Cycle intensity.

Bodybuilder? Twice a week. Once 6 sets of 5 and once 4 sets of 12.

Strentgh athlete? Twice a week. Once 5 sets of 5 and once 8 sets of 3 with light weight but great power output.

Powerlifter? Twice a week. Once 6 sets of 5 and once 6 sets of 2 heavy. Or the Sheiko "sandwiches" where you squat twice per session and three times per week. Or three times a week: once 6 sets of 5, once 6 sets of 2 heavy, once 4 sets of 8 with light weight for hypertrophy.

Or do Smolov and be miserable for 12 weeks ;-)

Watch Youtube vids of Malanichev, Belayev, Pozdeev for some stupid strong raw squatting with impecable form. Over the lake, guys with insane squatting power and superb form are Dan Green and Jeremy Hamilton.

Easy, right? Now load the fucking bar !!!

Malanichev squatting: