IronMind Spotlight on Ivan Chakarov: From the 1993 Worlds Training Hall

[jiyanwr]

Only weightlifters know how to squat? Well, if you compare their squat to the squat of the powerlifters in the WPC or whatever it is called, then yes. But if you compare it to powerlifters in the IPF, then no. You have to remember that not all powerlifters compete in those circus-like competetions, where the rules are absolutely silly.

[hsefootball36]

Until he took an arrow to the knee. Ya I shot it.

[R7T7W77]

skirts364 I agree wholeheartedly with your comments. My light sarcasm was directed toward the juvenille remark that, ONLY Olympic weightlifters know how to squat. I am a novice powerlifter and an avid follower of both sports. Both disciplines and their practitioners are deserving of respect.

[leeonr]

also look into chinese weightlifters squatting videos on youtube. they break parallel. ass to grass is not a guideline to perfect squat, doing a perfect squat is.

[R7T7W77]

Only Olympic weightlifters know how to squat??? Tell Ed Coan that!

[skirts365]

@R7T7W77 Coan achieved great strength. In a deeper squat than he was used to doing, these men would have outclassed him and it would have been by a decisive margin. In a bench press he would have won because they seldom train it. Coan could have done well at Olympic lifting. Maybe better than any other American his size. Can US lifters ever achieve world records again? If they had 2% of the public mania backing them that pro football players have---maybe.

[leeonr]

yea i doubt his knees are 'healthy' so to speak, after all he is training for olympic style lifting. powerlifters on the other hand would have healthier knees than oly lifters

[Siedlerdeo]

@leeonr Why do you think that Power lifter should have healthier knees then oly lifters?

[leeonr]

@Siedlerdeo too much squatting. 3 times a day, 5 days a week for 10-11 months a year, all part of their joint would suffer.

[Siedlerdeo]

@leeonr That's alot of squatting

[EndlersaurusRex]

@leeonr But the point is the joints only suffer from the natural soreness accompanied with lifting, assuming the lifts are done correctly. Most Olympic lifters have extremely healthy lifts; their injuries arise from competition where their form is called into question as they attempt to max and get the weight no matter what.

Proper diet, routine, and lots of sleep (most people don't get this) go a long way to keeping everything healthy, too.

[leeonr]

@EndlersaurusRex their injuries arise from volume, intensity, stress of training which determines why oly lifters suffer from injuries despite having strong muscles and denser bones.

[rehanbbbl]

@leeonr yeh sure, overloading a partial range of motion in a population suffering from a slight to severe lack of mobility (crucial to joint health) is vastly superior to people with near perfect mobility and strongly developed supporting connective tissue

[leeonr]

@rehanbbbl powerlifters on the other hand have healthier knees in average compared to professional oly lifters ;)

[skirts365]

@leeonr Well their knees do get more pressure due to heavier loads. You're worried about the deep full range squats causing harm. They do NOT. There are questions about tightly wrapped knees and other "gear." Malfunctioning immune system can hurt joints very badly. Small injury occurs, system recognizes it as attack, and starts harming the cartilage. Nutrients make immune system work right.

[leeonr]

@skirts365 incorrect. volume and intensity of training is main cause of injuries in oly lifters. full squat is beneficial to the knees as long as your posterior chain stays tight and not loose.  many of oly lifters backsquat til they break parellel, too

[skirts365]

@leeonr All training causes "injuries" repairs are made by rest & nutrients causing strength increase till potential is reached. Oly lifters go till they pass parallel? Look again, most go butt to ankles. Low squats are not optional, they have to have leg strength at bottom since heaviest weights are racked by going fast & low under bars. You say PL's have healthier knees, show documented medical stats to prove it. We're WAITING. Rusev did 20 tons/day sometimes, no injuries!

[leeonr]

@skirts365 1. i would never recommend any beginner lifter to clean or snatch unless supervised by oly coach 2. 99 per cent of strength coaches arent certified to train oly movements. unless you are intermediate level which is for example sohp ur bw i would never consider adding oly movements in my regime for functional strength, unless i want bulgrd disc at age 24. it is in fact the benefits of frequent barbell complex exercises that keeps these guys from being crippled at age 40.

[gabbu1984]

how can u dislike a squat like this?

[siwof]

how he keeps his balance O.o

[skirts365]

Reading something has less credibility than seeing it. Having so stated, I read somewhere that David Rigert, who mostly competed at 90kg, but never more than 94kg (as a light 100) did 672 pounds for a double in this same style. Anyone have authoritative info on his best? The form demonstrated here, if powerlifters had to use it, would lighten their weights dramatically. The less the range of movement, the more can be "lifted."

[ForgedInStone]

I have flat feet and I can't squat properly. If I practice more would my form improve?

[JordanSpecops123]

@ForgedInStone Ankle mobility and flexibility of the achilles tendon or soleus is what you need to work on

[ForgedInStone]

@JordanSpecops123 Very good. How do I go about doing that? :>

[JordanSpecops123]

@ForgedInStone Buy chucks as they are the most stable shoes for squatting. Try and fix your flat feet if you can. But if you are going to give it a go use chucks.

Also search ankle mobility routine and watch the first 2. Try doing those as well

[captainjosue]

@ForgedInStone Buy weightlifting shoes Forged. They're better than chuck's because of the elevated heel. Why an elevated heel? Because not everyone has the range of motion to perform an Olympic squat. If you're going to squat only going paralell like they do in powerlifting, then go buy chucks. but if you're going to Olympic squat and front squat, you gotta get weightlifting shoes.

[Apjooz]

In Russia, Chakarov squats 270 for triple.

[eowdaoc]

His knees are healthy because he knows how the fuck to squat. You have to go down far enough for your hamstring's "stretch reflex" to activate, which prevents anything from stressing your knees. All you parallel squatting idiots "HALT" halfway into the lift, transferring all the pressure to your knees.

[kalossimitar]

@eowdaoc the stretch reflex is activated by going parallel. You don't have to go ATG for that.

[captainjosue]

@kalossimitar The stretch reflex isn't necessarily activated by going parallel. It's initiated when the muscle spindles detect a stretch in the muscle (usually under heavy and fast loads) then it sends out an action potential to the spine where the spine sends a signal to the muscle to violently contract. Why? So that the muscle doesn't get injured. This happens whether it's parallel or not. It can happen lower than parallel and usually does. But it all happens when it detects a rapid stretch.

[eowdaoc]

@kalossimitar Maybe if you're crazy inflexible.

[Germansbmbperlharbor]

Triple like it was nothing

Do want that strength

[leaba]

Looked easy and like he could have done 5+ reps!

[guitayrplaya]

Lol not even phased by the weight, just another day at the gym

[Kreimehn]

Only Olympic weightlifters know how to squat.

[kerwinmatt]

@Kreimehn amen

[captainjosue]

@Kreimehn That's damn right...well said Kreimehn

[Kreimehn]

@captainjosue I had a trainer who was an competitive Olympic lifter, and now is a trainer of Olympic champions. In his prime, he could squat 600 lbs, raw, of course, and without even using his hands because his balance was that good. Should he get in trouble, he just dumped the load. What power lifter can do that? They cannot even squat without 5 spotters, and a fucking exoskeleton. Should they get in trouble, the weight still crushes them, and the 5 people spotting. How pathetic!

[captainjosue]

@Kreimehn I hear you Kreimehn. Just so you now I exclusively ONLY do weightlifting: snatch, clean and jerk, power snatch, power clean, front squat and Olympic squat for all the reasons we know. People in America mistakenly believe that heavy lifting and performing the Olympic lifts will hurt you and all other non sense. They use to believe the world was flat....same concept with Olympic lifting.

[puppiesNicecream]

@Kreimehn 100% correct.

[sherwin3]

Thanks for the upload Randy! I was wondering when these golden classics would make an appearance!

[MrSammers12]

"...powerlifting coach Louie Simmons would say that just by looking at Chakarov, he could tell that Chakarov didn't know how to squat right - because his quads were too big."

Just thought i should share this great quote by the 'great Louie Simmons'.

[irishlax13]

@MrSammers12

louie simmons was also a big fan of the bottom of a squat ending when your butt hits a box

[Draykid]

@irishlax13

Good for powerlifting, not so for oly squats.

[brands1]

@MrSammers12 i hope he was being sarcastic

[captainjosue]

@MrSammers12 First thing Louie Simmons would have him do is a box squat and squat super ass wide....so that the quads don't get in the way. Such non sense man. Now, everyone is doing box squats as if they think everyone needs to squat wide because of non active glutes. Non sense.

[AeacusCanti]

It looked like he could've got 5 or 6 if he wanted to.

[fuerzabruta88]

super easy

[VastChoirs]

that is incredibly sick. This guy's technique was actually kind of bad, but he was just so much stronger than the competition that he could become a world champion.

[novan08]

@VastChoirs How was it bad?

[EliteBlackmetalist]

@novan08

Look at his knees when getting back up. They bend almost against each other. That gives a risk of serious injury...

[novan08]

@EliteBlackmetalist I'm not an o-lifter, but observing other lifters and videos of their squats - this seems to be a common occurrence, especially once the bar is loaded with such heavy weights. It also happens as they come from the bottom position of a clean. Perhaps when they're that elite, and when the load is that large, it just 'happens'? Maybe they know something we don't

[KingHenryXI]

@novan08 They go that deep because it gives them the most room to make their catch in the clean position. Deeper they go, the lower they have to pull the weight up, and the more weight they can effectively clean.

[novan08]

@KingHenryXI Thanks for the reply. My reply earlier was in response to someone saying that he squats bad or wrong because his knees go inwards while lifting from the bottom position

[KingHenryXI]

@novan08 Heh, yeah, his "knees in" approach is, conventionally wrong, but we're not talking about a conventional lifter. It's not that he knows more, it's just that he, along with a lot of elite level athletes can get away with things like this because they're such physical freaks. He would have benefitted from keeping his knees out mind you, but it wasn't his preference.

[captainjosue]

@EliteBlackmetalist He's been doing these squats for over 20 years and will be doing them after his competitive days are over. He has no knee injuries because his training has kept his knees healthy.

[kalossimitar]

@captainjosue knees aren't muscles. So, no, training has not kept his knees healthy, he was just lucky. Look how much he rounds inward his knees when squatting. It's because he is quad-dominant, aka that his quads are way too strong compared to his glutes and his hamstrings. Rounding them is the perfect recipe for knee problems. Again, he was just lucky.

[captainjosue]

@kalossimitar If he was lucky then that means that the majority of these Olympic lifters are lucky. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of these lifters don't have knee problems and they all squat like this. I'm not disagreeing with you just want to shed some light that these guys don't have knee problems and because their squat technique keeps their knees from getting hurt. That's all.

[kalossimitar]

@captainjosue To be honest, considering he's an athlete, I guess it has more to do with him either being genetically gifted or not being bothered by chances of getting hurt. For example, you got konstantin deadlift with his upper back curved like crazy. Why? Because it helps him pull more just like rounding your knees does. Should anyone except such athletes do it? No. Why? Because they have years of training and thus have adapted the way they lift to their own bodies. Also,

[kalossimitar]

@kalossimitar they are in to get records, so at that point not hurting their knees is a second thought for them. Even advanced lifters should still keep proper form though. Those guys are the exception.

[eamh2002]

@captainjosue

And his knees sail inside too! He's proving that it's not a bad thing :p

[captainjosue]

@eamh2002 Exactly eamh2002. Everyone has this non sense idea that if the knees are tracking away from the knees then that's a bad thing. However, I will say that if your knees track away from your toes going down (eccentric loading) you can cause some long term trauma. But this rarely happens. Most O lifters squat like this. That's why I like O lifting and O lifters because they dispell all the ridiculous myths that are still perpetuated in gyms. Glad you noticed and good comment.

[anepales]

@captainjosue "has kept his knees healthy"? how the hell does one do that lifting what he does? serious question. it's amazing. simply squatting 315 for reps all these years have really done a number on mine. and my form is as good as ivan's. some people are just blessed, i guess.

[captainjosue]

@anepales You pretty much answered your question. His knees have been kept healthy because he's been Weightlifting (clean and jerk, snatch, squats) well over 20 years. You can't do that with busted knees. As a weightlifter myself, my knees are healthy as well as all other Weightlifters I know. Why? Because we snatch, clean and jerk, and squat for well over 10 years. Think about it man, it makes sense. You can't do this kind of lifting for this long with knees that hurt.

[thebigtortuga]

@anepales it's because of the volume of their training. …and their nutrition and their sleep. they simply have the time to adapt to stresses of squatting EVERY day. most people can't squat every day, let alone get an adequate 10+hours of sleep every day and proper nutrition. when people squat once or twice a week, it's a shock to the system. ask john broz about it. he has a great explanation for it.

[grambo22]

Thanks for uploading this Randall, was just looking for it yesterday to show a friend. Amazing stuff.