Move Optimally to Lift OPTIMALLY

Whether you want to lay down the most force in a Squat, Peak the velocity of the bar in the Snatch, or Jump as high as possible for your sport, you need to work your positions first!

Thats why ‘move optimally to lift optimally’… Or something along those lines is alway the overriding message I give my athletes for their training sessions.

Its what will maximise your ceiling and reduce the chance of and help keep you from injury.

The chart to the right is admittedly specific to weightlifting in nature and shows that the position of the first pull is to facilitate the second, but thats not the end of it.

It also helps to get the idea and concept across that regardless of the lift in question, one phase is always connected to next and sub optimal position in one area will lead to not just sub optimal position, but sub optimal force, or velocity in the next.

Apply it to the deadlift, if you lose back position off the floor, you’ll probably still get it off the floor… But you’ll likely have a hard time locking out.

I find this is an important concept to remember when coaching beginners, or when the weight starts to get heavy for my athletes.

Regardless of the movement or sport the mindset should remain the same and maximising your technique and positions in training should almost always be in the forefront of your training mindset, both in terms of potential ceiling and injury prevention.

This isn’t to say that everyone will look the same in every movement. Differences in joint anatomy and proportions among a multitude of other possible differences can change how a movement looks compared to the other.

Just look to hit the overarching technique points for each lift, keeping the bar over the middle of the foot in the squat with even weight distribution being an example, and then hit the positions that allow for maximum force/velocity to be produced & expressed for you.

Without optimal position, everything else quickly falls apart, so play the long game in training and value positions over weight on the bar.

That may mean you can’t boast about PBing your Deadlift with a progressively worse cat back every week, but long term you’ll shift weights you never thought you could...

And you’ll move better, look cooler and stay more injury free while doing it!

*Just a little disclaimer to finish*

I’m not saying you should never experience any sort of technique breakdown or a loss in position when training.

Its all part of the learning process and if you’re training hard enough to force adaption it’s going to happen at some point.

Just keep it to the last reps of the last sets and make sure it doesn’t get too severe, but you’re cat backed in the deadlift, or good morning-ing your squat from rep 2 of set one then you should probably look at how you’re programming your sessions or take a step back to really learn and work on technique.

Adam Johnston, 13th August 2020