Split Jerk vs Squat Jerk

Did you know that split clean and split snatch used to be common? I had never even seen either one performed before until I started doing some research on the squat jerk. But that’s a topic for another day.

So what is the squat jerk? According to Jim Schmitz:

Done after a full squat clean, you dip and drive the barbell up and instead of splitting your legs fore and aft, you drop into a full squat with the barbell directly over your head and your feet widen just a little.

Here’s an example of 77kg world record holder Lu Xiaojun performing a 205kg squat jerk at the 2011 World Weightlifting Championships:

Here’s another example of the squat jerk, this time American Olympic athlete Kendrick Farris with a 215kg squat jerk in training:

So why choose the squat jerk over the more traditional split?

Well… I can’t find a good answer. Plenty of articles discuss the two. All make the standard acknowledgment that some world record holders squat jerk so it must work for them. But there doesn’t seem to be a clear and concise answer.

For example, Schmitz says: “I have asked the coaches of these squat jerkers why their lifters do it and they say that they have tried the traditional split jerk, but the squat jerk works best for them.”

Farris himself comments on his Facebook page that he squat jerks because 1) “How many exercises are we doing Splitting with a heavy load?” and 2) “How many times have you had a weight locked in (made) but lost it because of footwork?”

In a TechniqueWOD video, Doug Larson says that in order to squat jerk you need to have “very, very good mobility” and “a body type that will benefit from that jerk”, specially one with a “long back, short torso”.

In a forum post on Catalyst athletics, Josh Everett says the only advantage of the squat jerk is that “you do not need to lift the bar as high as you would for a split”.

Reading Greg Everett’s Olympic Weightlifting, he mentions nothing but disadvantages.

Finally, Kelly Starrett has an old video on MobilityWOD about the squat jerk and “identify[ing] where in the bottom position you feel restricted in your back” and how to fix it.

So bottom line, is the squat jerk for you? Probably not. If you’re a beginner lifter it probably can’t hurt to try both methods and see what feels more natural for you, but given the vast majority of lifters using the split jerk, that’s probably the way to go.