There’s a lot of controversy on whether to teach the double knee bend or to just let it happen. In my 10+ years of coaching, I found it’s best to guide the athlete through the movement rather leave it up to their interpretation.

Double Knee Bend

I coach the double knee bend to teach the proper placement. My method is always from static to dynamic, this method will teach them the correct alignment for the double knee bend in a static position, shown here:

On the left you’ll notice that the ankles, hips and shoulders are stacked on top of each other, this is the correct position. To the right you can see some commonly misplaced positions for the double knee bend. If you’re placed in the correct position it’s much easier just to go into a straight extension and straight back down = efficient lifting :0

Here you can see the bar going to the double knee position for a nice straight extension. While there is an arm bend (not recommended) it’s still in a pretty good position.

How to:

To learn the double knee bend, I typically have the lifter stand up tall and then bend the knees that’ll mimic the above pics. The lifter will hold the correct static position for 5+sec at a time per rep. While this isn’t glamorous it will effectively reinforce quality positioning. If done correctly the weightlifter should feel it in the VMO’s.

After they’ve learned the static positioning, I’ll add the dynamic motion and have the lifter just stand straight up, literally stand up to learn a straight extension. For this all they have to do is squeeze the glutes. Once they’ve got that down they can start to add in a bit more power, like this:

Hope this was helpful and if you have any questions or comments feel free leave it below or contact us.

Train smart,

Team Fusion Weightlifting