Hey everyone, first time poster, long time reader and all that.
Basically I'm in quite a weird situation in that I can power clean more than I can squat.

My PC is at 125kg now, but my Squat (ATG) is only 120kg.
Have you come across something like this before?

Lifters at the gym tell me that I should be squating at least 160kg with a 125kg PC.
I'm trying hard to improve my squat, but it never gets above my PC.
I'm I doing something wrong? I train squats after the o-lifts, working around 5x3 normally.

For reference my current numbers are;

Body Weight- 81kg
Power Clean and Jerk - 115kg
Power Clean - 125kg
Squat - 120kg
Front Squat - 105kg
Power Snatch - 85kg

Thanks

Alex

it isn't unheard of - but your squat should indeed be stronger than your powerclean (that is how come people squat clean more than they powerclean - you can, theoretically at least, lift more with your legs).

i knew a guy who could squat clean more than he could squat. he was pretty good at riding the bounce out the hole for squat cleans... that is pretty unusual too, though.

your squat should get stronger than your powerclean eventually. like how your deadlift will be stronger than your bench.

Guess I should just keep working at it then.
The problem stemmed from not having a squat rack for the longest time when I was starting out. So my squat was limited to what I could lift of the ground onto my back - hence clean.

Have you had any experiences with squatting first before OL? I'm worried it will wear me out for them though, and I'll lack explosiveness.

Cheers

Alex

Yah, I wouldn't worry about it. My atg fs pr is 225, but I power clean 235 from the hang. Just work on squats and full cleans more.

squat more frequently. do some heavy doubles and singles, not just triples. if you can pc 125 with a 120 back squat, you must have a monstrous pull. imagine how much you could clean if you had the leg strength to stand up with more weight.

I always squat before I do the lifts. You get used to it pretty quickly, all my olympic lift PR's are done after squatting. I wouldn't do a lot of volume before lifting though, I normally work up to a max single/double or triple on the FS before lifting. Then extra volume at the end

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I noticed that one thing setting my squats back isn't leg stregnth, but that after the o-lifting, my posterior chain is already quite fatigued, and I end up rounding the back quite a lot, and losing balance.
Might trying starting with a short low volume squat workout, few singles, then O-lifts, then finish off with another squat workout, lighter this time, 3/5 reps for 5 sets.