Tony and I were talking the other day about the origin of the modern day "Power Squat" style . . . by that term meaning squats characterized by having the bar as low on the back as allowable, wide stance placing of the feet, sticking your butt out, trying to keep your knees over your ankles . . . the kind of squat that most of the top squatters of today practice.
Tony feels that most lifters start out doing pretty much of an Olympic style squat . . . bar high on the traps or neck, narrow stance, lots of forward body lean at the bottom, etc. . . . an they continue that way substantially, even though they feel that they may be evolving into the "Power Style" . . . until someone knowledgeable grabs them and tells them exactly how to get into the Power Style.
The difference can be amazing. Tony recalls one guy who worked up to a 540 squat in training, in Olympic style . . . went to a contest, made a 550 . . . everyone told him that his squat was beautiful and deep, but that if he would change his style he could do a lot more. Next contest, same bodyweight, two months later, he went 630, BUT . . . after making that 630 he dropped all Olympic style squats from his training and just did Power Style . . . and his max squat poundage dropped . . . which makes a case for including some Olympic style squats, at least as an assistance movement, in order to maintain and increased development and strength in the lower quadriceps, which are not so actively stressed by the Power Style squat.
To return to the point, Tony feels that in the early days of lifting, when guys got away with canvas shorts and multiple ace bandages, that kind of paraphernalia allowed the Olympic squat to remain, but when that stuff was outlawed the new pioneers on the lift developed the Power Style in order to catch up toe the old, inflated marks of the previous era of extreme bundling and surpass them.
One characteristic I've noticed is that aside from regular power squats, most top squatters include some other squatting movement in their routines . . . narrow stance, squatting with heels raised high, pause squats . . . that will activate the tissue in the lower quads, deep in the tissues . . . this seems to promote continuous progress in the lift, moreso than when pure power squats are done to the exclusion of all else.
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