Squats and Oly lifts for core strength and power

[BossaGator]

Good, short piece by Charles Poliquin digesting a recent study on the athletic impacts of training squats and olympic lifts. I'm not endorsing his point of view, merely putting it out there for discussion.

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Blog/...and-Power.aspx

I will say, however, that my own athleticism has benefitted from squats and oly lifts, and I am a firm believer in training heavy compound lifts for athletic benefit as opposed to, say, isolating. I also agree that lots of situps/crunches are a waste of time for building all-important core strength, and am a firm believer in pullups & chinups even though I suck at them.

[Dreamliner]

Unless I'm mistaken, Polquin is citing the same study that I cited on my "Functional Training Is Still A Myth" thread!

I would make a more modest claim for Oly lifts: they fall into the category of other movements one might employ to increase strength generally.

[BossaGator]

He may be. I remember that thread but didn't notice it was the same study!

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by BossaGator

He may be. I remember that thread but didn't notice it was the same study!

That being the case, I would again agree that, say, a snatch is a marvelous way of increasingly strength generally. I just don't know that I'd go much beyond that. And as a matter of interest, although I'm not a machine guy (boring) I would not argue that machines are inferior to dynamic lifts to enhance performance. As far as I know, there are still top-flight competitive programs that use machines extensively if not exclusively.

[BossaGator]

I haven't used machines in long enough now that I barely remember what it was like building strength with them, but I'll never go back. I can say in my experience compound lifts with a heavy load that must be controlled in all planes are superior to the typical exercise machine. But then again, that's just my experience and what I know works for me based on my own training. I don't have any empirical data to back it up (although I'm sure there's plenty out there making this argument) and freely admit that what works for me may not work for someone else.

In the end I'll oly lift for certain benefits just because I enjoy the oly lifts too much to look for another way to do it. There's something so wonderfully violent, aggressive, and savage about them. I do agree that there's nothing "magic" about the oly lifts other than the fact that they are yet another compound movement that trains multiple groups and builds strength. Lots of ways to skin that cat and as always the most important thing is to actually do the work.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by BossaGator

I haven't used machines in long enough now that I barely remember what it was like building strength with them, but I'll never go back. I can say in my experience compound lifts with a heavy load that must be controlled in all planes are superior to the typical exercise machine. But then again, that's just my experience and what I know works for me based on my own training. I don't have any empirical data to back it up (although I'm sure there's plenty out there making this argument) and freely admit that what works for me may not work for someone else.

In the end I'll oly lift for certain benefits just because I enjoy the oly lifts too much to look for another way to do it. There's something so wonderfully violent, aggressive, and savage about them. I do agree that there's nothing "magic" about the oly lifts other than the fact that they are yet another compound movement that trains multiple groups and builds strength. Lots of ways to skin that cat and as always the most important thing is to actually do the work.

That's what I'm talking about. I might go so far as to argue that the violent/aggressive/savage lifts are more appropriate for guys like us who don't also have to compete in a violent/aggessive/savage pursuit. Our training IS our sport.