Hack Squats for Olympic Lifting
by Roger LaPointe
Roger LaPointe getting ready to pull a Hack Lift.
The old school strongmen had some really innovative ways of training. Sometimes you did a lift to force someone to learn technique, they just happened to get strong at the same time.
Where did I read about this one? I have no idea. Yet, I remember reading that a deadlift, which “started from the floor and behind the calves” was helpful in learning the clean. Whoever wrote that was absolutely correct.
Use the same barbell that you will be using to do your cleans. Use the same hand position on the bar. Here are some of the things that the Hack Lift will force you to do.
1. High Chest
2. Narrow grip will make you have narrow foot position off the floor
3. Curling your wrists
4. Pulling the bar back
Try doing three hack lifts then immediately do three power cleans with those ideas in mind.
Don’t worry. You do not even have to do super heavy weight in the Hack Lift to get those benefits for your cleans.
Live strong,
Roger LaPointe
