Why does Ilya half squat?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Apparently it's also sacrilege to believe he is performing a movement in a specific way for a specific reason. Klokov has said that people try to replicate things they see in his videos, and he thinks it's laughable, because he is doing them differently for a specific purpose (to work the back more, to work the back less, to ______, etc).

If only Ilya had all of you armchair warriors to guide him...

Isn't it more likely that these athletes just work their asses off and sometimes get results DESPITE what they're doing programming/technique/voodoo lifting wise?

[Grinder]

I agree that it is possible. However, I don't think it's possible to make the assertion "more likely".

Why is it so crazy to some of you that athletes who are at a supremely advanced level might need to add in some unusual assistance work in order to increase performance? If I recall correctly, complexity increases with level of advancement.

[krazyduck]

I got the idea by watching videos of Ilya Ilin front squatting, in which he cut his front squats above parallel, which is almost unheard of for a weightlifter, since weightlifters require so must strength in the hole to stand up from a heavy clean. I did some searching, and found an article talking about how he started cutting his squats high because he used to have a problem standing up under heavy cleans, stalling and failing just above parallel. In effect, he was actively reversing the lift at the sticking point, making the hardest part of the lift even harder on himself. This was confirmed by Donny Shankle when I met him this summer.

Source: http://gregnuckols.com/2013/09/27/a-...t-squat-depth/

Yes, that is our friend Greg.

[Mr_Rogers]

He actually addressed the youtube comments about him squatting "high" at the end of one of his training videos. But does how he squat even matter? It's not a competition lift. It seems to be working for him, he's got some WR, OR and a few gold medals.

[perman]

His explanation sounds totally reasonable. Partials usually are done to improve a particular range of motion, which is exactly what he's claiming to be doing.

It's ridiculous really how much couch-critiquing a bunch of people here are doing.

The converse to weightlifters not necessarily understanding barbell theory in this context is people who are very familiar with Rippetoe's stuff (that mostly deals with novice and intermediate lifting) evaluating a super-advanced athlete. At that level, I reckon a certain level of experimentation is required, so conventional theory falls short.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

His explanation sounds totally reasonable. Partials usually are done to improve a particular range of motion, which is exactly what he's claiming to be doing.

It's ridiculous really how much couch-critiquing a bunch of people here are doing.

The converse to weightlifters not necessarily understanding barbell theory in this context is people who are very familiar with Rippetoe's stuff (that mostly deals with novice and intermediate lifting) evaluating a super-advanced athlete. At that level, I reckon a certain level of experimentation is required, so conventional theory falls short.

To be 100% clear- I understand why he is doing it or at least how he thinks about it, but I do not think that his method works the way he is interpreting it to work, which is important when analyzing training methods of the elite.

[Tennisgolfboll]

Isn't it more likely that these athletes just work their asses off and sometimes get results DESPITE what they're doing programming/technique/voodoo lifting wise?

i do not think half squats are as healthy and def would not recommend his training "advice" to anyone here and i would def recommend yours (full squat)

[perman]

To be 100% clear- I understand why he is doing it or at least how he thinks about it, but I do not think that his method works the way he is interpreting it to work, which is important when analyzing training methods of the elite.

The thing is though, we have no clue what part this exercise plays in his program, how frequent he does this or other exercises. Can't really properly evaluate it then.

Partials are usually part of a whole package from my understanding. He probably does tons of full-range squatting anyway, adding more of the same might be overkill (if more full-range squatting is what's supposed to be done instead), so this might be different enough to not fuck too much with recovery, but specific enough to help a specific problem.

Again, I'm a couch critic too, but he's the one best able to evaluate whether it works or not, not us.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Partials are usually part of a whole package from my understanding. He probably does tons of full-range squatting anyway, adding more of the same might be overkill (if more full-range squatting is what's supposed to be done instead), so this might be different enough to not fuck too much with recovery, but specific enough to help a specific problem.e

How is full range squatting overkill and how would a circa/supra maximal partial less stressful? I could make a very strong argument about total training volume being much more important than individual variations used, though I agree that analysis is context specific

[Grinder]

Isn't Rip's suggestion of rack pulls in complete contradiction to what you've just said about stress?

When deadlifting every X amount of time becomes too much, he suggests partial movements, such as rack pulls, which can be alternated with the main movement to apply a recoverable amount of stress while, sometimes, addressing weak points in the lift.