TL;DR: Olympic weightlifting forced me to work on my squat mobility, making me a more efficient lifter. This enabled me to reach a 2,5 year old goal with relative ease.

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Today I improved my squat PR from 135kg to 144kg, a massive 9kg increase. Combined with my 120kg bench press and my 190kg deadlift, that finally put me in the 1000-pound club. It took me 8 years of training.

Here's how I did it:

• Mess around in the gym for 3 years without touching a barbell because I was clueless.
• Get some very expensive personal training lessons to learn how to squat, bench and deadlift.
• Get into powerlifting, slowly work my lifts up.
• Join a beginners meet where I squatted 125kgs, benched 110kgs and deadlifted 170kgs.

Things were going pretty well. I knew that my squat was by far my weakest lift, so I started to follow a program (GZCL) that introduced a bunch more training volume.

I have a strong back in comparison to my legs, and my technique reflects that. So adding more training volume didn't actually make my legs any stronger, it just put more strain on my back. And by the end of 2022, I injured my lower back. An injury that would linger for all of 2023.

Then Sibren joined our gym. He does olympic weightlifting and I was super impressed with what he was able to yoink overhead. We started talking and he very generously offered to teach me some of the basics.

I figured that working with a near-empty barbell would give my body some much needed rest, so my focus slowly shifted from powerlifting to weightlifting.

But I quickly realized that I had nowhere near the required mobility to catch a barbell in a deep snatch position. Using Squat University's tips I worked on my ankle mobility, which was by far the biggest bottleneck.

By the end of 2024 my squat mobility had improved greatly. I could stay relatively upright instead of folding over like a pancake. Squats finally felt like a leg exercise instead of a back exercise. This gave me confidence to add more volume to my squats. I did four weeks of linear progression with no issues whatsoever. It was like unlocking newbie gains after 8 years of training.

After those four weeks of training I decided to test my one-rep max squat again. I managed to lift 144kgs with more ease than any of my earlier squat records.

So things are looking very hopeful now. I have learned a lot about my body and I'm excited to see how far I can push my squat. My next goal will be 160kgs.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I know I'm not the most inspiring writer but I don't have a lot of friends who are into this hobby and I wanted to share the good news some way. Cheers!