How to Squat for Competitive CrossFit

The Back Squat

One of the most important exercises in CrossFit is the Squat. If you are not strong in the squat you will never be a competent CrossFitter. The Squat is paramount for lower body strength and it also translates into a better performance in weightlifting like Snatches, Cleans and their variations along with Thrusters, Wall Balls, and Box Jumps.

The Squat should not deviate too much for the sake of consistency, so whether you are Back Squatting, Front Squatting, or Overhead Squatting, they should all be pretty similar.

How to Find your Squat Stance

A good squat is simply lowering the hips down and standing back up. There is a lot more to it than that if you are trying to find your optimal squat stance. As a general rule, what makes you feel strongest is probably going to be the best position for you, but for the sake of good performance in CrossFit we want an upright torso due to the specificity of it in relation to other movements. Training a Low Bar or Powerlifter Squat pattern isn’t ideal for CrossFit because it will have less of a carryover to other movements.

Once warmed up go through the 9’s Squat Test three times and take note what feels best.

Here are some tips:

• Position over everything

• don’t spend too much time grinding out reps, find optimal weight and start there

• follow a program that has deload workouts in it so that you give your body breaks from challenging squat progressions

• Remember that squatting itself isn’t often tested in competition but it has so much carryover that it needs to be trained often and the bigger the squat you have, the lighter most standard CrossFit Workouts will feel