STARTING POSITION

Stand with feet flat and placed slightly less than shoulder width with toes pointed slightly outward. Squat down with hips lower than shoulders and grasp bar with a closed, alternated grip. Place hands on bar slightly wider than shoulder width apart, outside knees and with elbows fully extended. Place bar roughly 1 inch in front of shins and over balls of feet.

UPWARD MOVEMENT

Lift bar off floor by extending hips and knees. Maintain a flat back and keep hips ahead of shoulders. Keep elbows fully extended. Keep bar as close to shins as possible. When bar passes knees move hips forward. Keep body erect at point of full knee and hip extension.

DOWNWARD MOVEMENT

Allow hips and knees to flex to slowly lower bar to floor. Repeat or finish set.

To achieve continuous improvement you will need to keep reaching for higher levels of training intensity otherwise improvement process will grind to a halt. Fortunately, this is relatively easy to plan for provided certain basic principles and rules are clearly followed. Subsequent articles in this series will examine these principles in detail.