Primary lifts or "Why my legs suck"

 In the sport of weightlifting there are only two movements. The Snatch and the Clean&Jerk. Everything else trained is considered secondary. Of course inside those movements are many other movements. Things like the deadlift, front squat, overhead squat, Pulls, etc. are all integral parts of the lifts. The odd thing is some people practice those lifts often, some rarely, some not at all. Many national and olympic level lifters say the best program for the Snatch and Clean/Jerk is to do the Snatch and Clean/Jerk.
 There is however one thing that all olympic lifters have in common. One movement that anyone who has ever been successful at the lifts does religiously. The back squat. If you neglect this you are planning for failure. It is weird that a movement that doesn't even appear in the olympic lifts is so vital to becoming proficient at them.There are several reasons for this.  The first being that there is no other movement better at creating over all body strength. Second being that the back squat is king of the lower body movements and the lower body is integral in all parts of the olympic lifts.
 So you must squat. Heavy and often. That brings us to the variations of the two.  High bar vs Low bar is probably a debate that has lead to many bloodied noses, Ripped affliction shirts , and shattered Bromances. It's pretty much the republican/democratic split of the strength and conditioning community. Arguments vary but the most relevant for this blog is as follows:

High Bar
Pros: Superior relevance to the front squat because of the angle achieved at the bottom of the movement, Superior at building quad strength.
Cons: Hamstrings do not fire until midway of the ascent. Weaker of the two movements for maximum loading

Low Bar
Pros: Superior at building Hamstring strength, superior at building lower back strength.
Cons: Neglects quads, Inferior at putting the lifter in an upright receiving position needed for the Front and Overhead Squat.

Both have valid points in their favor. The thing is, I have seen strict highbar squatters with 500+lbs deadlifts and militant lowbar guys that can clean 350+lbs. These numbers don't seem to jive with the Pros/Cons of each movement. The question of course isn't how weak they are because they only do one, but how strong could they be if they did both?
 I believe both need to be done in different ratios for different athletes. For instance, a Quad dominant athlete starting the lifts should primarily use the low bar squat with the highbar being a secondary movement to make sure we are able to achieve comparable loads with an upright position. On the other hand a lifter that has strong hamstrings but has trouble catching a clean at the bottom and bouncing out of the hole needs a highbar dominant training ratio.
 The important thing is that you stop spending time on arguing which one is better and just squat, Damnit! Do it heavy, do it often and keep adding weight to the bar. I did not do this and it turned into embarrassing numbers and failure after failure. Take a note from me. Not because I'm a Guru or a squat Jedi, but because I've made alot of mistakes and once I changed them, I improved! Don't be like me.

This is me Highbar Squatting 315 for 5 today. This is not impressive but considering less than 18 months ago my 1 rep max was 225lbs. it is proof what I am doing is working.


Highbar Backsquat 315x5