SW Portland Martial Arts Blog

http://youtu.be/HJUxDz1qSnM

Some days we do crazy moves like pause squats and people are all “aargh!  Why do we sit down there and wait?”

There are several good reasons to pause squat but one particularly strange one to consider is because you aren’t supposed to pause when you clean.  Instead, you should bounce out of the bottom of the squat.  So why the heck practice something that you aren’t supposed to do?  Well, pause squats will make you stronger because you lose the assistance of momentum but the point of today’s post is that sometimes it is good to do things the “wrong” way so that when you do it the “right” way it feels so much easier.

So yes, you should do pause squats to get stronger but you should also do them so that when you bounce out of the bottom of a clean properly you think to yourself “wow that is 1000 times easier that sitting at the bottom and waiting.”

http://youtu.be/uWnjeCH6bic

There is great value in doing reps at lighter weights.  I recommend that when you are struggling with a move and you figure out a specific piece of that move that you need to work on that it is time to go down in weight and drill that specific piece.

For instance, I struggle with keeping my back from bowing in the jerk.  As the weights get heavier, I bend my back and (unsurprisingly) it hurts.  To remedy the problem, I dropped the weights down until I stopped making that mistake and then slowly tried to add more weight back on.  If the problem reappeared, I dropped the weight back down.

There is merit in trying to fix problems while staying at a heavier weight.  But if it is a persistent problem (I’ve been bowing in my back for quite some time) then maybe dropping the weights down is a good idea.