“Through the roof, through the roof, through the roof.” Those are the words that I kept repeating to myself, as I approached the bar, loaded with 905 pounds for the American Record raw squat in the 308 weight class. I wanted to launch the bar through the roof on that squat and explosive strength is what was needed to make that happen.

With the exception of maximum speed sprinting, jumping, is the highest velocity you can move. I don’t advocate sprint training if your primary goal is improving your squat because it carries too high an injury risk with it. Jumps will serve to develop your rate of force development, enhancing your ability to accelerate the bar through sticking points. This program will employ weighted box jumps, box jumps and depth jumps to enhance your RFD. It is critical when performing box jumps to focus on displacing your hips as high as possible, not just pulling your knees up to land on the box, you shouldn’t use a box that causes you to land in anything lower than a parallel squat. Ensure you are landing on the box softly on all reps. Depth jumps are an extremely powerful training tool but are also very taxing to the body and nervous system, so they must be used strategically.

If you want to squat huge weights, you must be explosive, there is no way around it. Building an explosive squat requires a 4 part approach, consisting of jumping, heavy squats, speed squats and pause squats. These 4 training modalities will develop speed and strength through every portion of the squat and make you like a bomb ready to explode out of the hole with huge weights.

Heavy Squats

If you want to squat big weights, you have to squat big weights. Weight selection for your heavy work is critical, you need to ensure that you NEVER MISS A WEIGHT. Missing reps doesn’t make you stronger, making them does. You will be much better served to take 10-15 pounds off your training weights and dominating them, then going for broke each training session. Being able to walk away from a training set of 3 reps and telling yourself that you could have done it for 5 reps will not only build strength without overtaxing your CNS, it will also build confidence and confidence goes a long way when you looking to squat huge weights.

Speed Squats

Speed squats, also called compensatory acceleration squats, will ingrain your technique, build your work capacity and give you practice imparting maximal velocity to the bar. Your speed squats will be performed after your heaviest set of squats and done on controlled rest periods to improve your general fitness. It is imperative that you always try to move the bar as fast as possible during these sets. I try and do the whole set in one breath. Take a huge breath into your belly before beginning the initial descent and hold that air as you do the entire set. Think about trying to perform 1 rep per second, so aim to perform a set of 4 reps in 4 seconds or under. These sets are also the best time to perfect your technique, so while speed is critical, speed through the optimal technique is even more important. One of the most common errors made by people when squatting maximal loads, is lowering the bar too slowly or more slowly than you would during lighter sets, use these sets to become more comfortable without a quick descent.

Pause Squats

Right out of the hole is the most common place that raw lifters will miss squats. To train the explosive strength qualities needed to improve this area of your squat, pause squats are a simple (there is a big difference between simple and easy) and effective answer. We will do pause squats with 7, 5 and 3 second pauses in the bottom position, these long pauses will force you to learn how to ‘turn it on’ coming out of the hole, as well as building strength in the hips and back. Paused work will also teach your body to find its strongest position and improve your ability to replicate this position during regular squatting. The other common way that raw squatters will miss weights if because they fall forward due to upper back weakness, so if you have access to a Safety Squat Bar, use that for your pause squats and you will correct that weakness, while you are building strength out of the hole with the pause.