How to Train The Olympic Lifts During A Squat Peak Phase

One of the biggest mistakes I made early on was training to peak my squat and my Olympic lifts at the same time. As you advance, your strength work becomes significantly harder to recover from. Because of this, you should reserve as much of your training recovery for the squat during a squat peaking phase, and back off the intensity of your Olympic lifts.

Here’s how I do it.

Modifying The Olympic Lifts

During the squat peak phase, I pull back the intensity of the Olympic lifts and also on the amount of full range of motion Olympic lifts if someone has issues with their knees. Instead, we’ll take a 4-week block to work on power snatch and cleans from the power position (longer torso lifters will do blocks), and typically for higher rep sets.

This will limit the total amount of load being used in the cycle and the amount of overall knee-bending happening, making it easier to focus all of your efforts on increasing the squat.

Modifying The Structure Of The Session

In some instances, particularly for those with a very low squat compared to their Olympic lifts, it may be a good idea to reorganize the session. Most weightlifting sessions start with the Olympic lifts, then transition to the strength lifts, as the Olympic lifts require more coordination. However, in the squat peak phase, it may be a good idea to put the squat FIRST, before the Olympic lifts. This will help make sure you are fresh for the most important part of the training for the block.

If this was useful, then you may want to consider hopping on one of our Olympic weightlifting team programs over on TrainHeroic! Click here to start your FREE 7-Day Trial!