Today’s guest is Manuel Buitrago. Manuel is a PhD, along with being the founder and director of MaStrength, a global education brand dedicated to authentic Chinese weightlifting. Since launching MaStrength in 2014, he’s taught 100+ seminars worldwide, authored Chinese Weightlifting: A Visual Guide to Technique and Chinese Weightlifting: Technical Mastery & Training
There are many misconceptions in the world of strength training, especially as the lens of a skeletal pressure-based view is not included in modern training systems. When skeletal pressure dynamics are understood, it allows us to see why athletes prefer particular variations of lifts, how and why they fail lifts, and what aspects of the lifts themselves lead to better athletic outcomes.
On today’s episode, Manuel speaks on the practicalities of weightlifting and how it carries over to sport. He compares powerlifting and Olympic lifting from a technique and transfer standpoint, and gets into how body shapes, breathing, and set-ups affect a lift. Manuel also touches on connective tissue and why it matters for performance and durability. From this episode, you’ll learn concepts about the Olympic and powerlifts that can not only improve lifting performance but also facilitate a better transfer to athleticism and movement ability.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Hammer Strength.
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Timestamps
0:00 – From gymnastics and powerlifting to Chinese weightlifting
3:34 – First Olympic lifting exposure via IronMind footage and Pyrs Dimas
5:40 – The Chinese team’s systematic approach that sparked the study abroad
9:30 – Breathing, shapes, and the funnel concept for lifting
26:15 – Bottom-up squats: why weightlifting squats differ from powerlifting squats
30:45 – Training near the hip and block work to bias upward, explosive shapes
41:08 – Squat jerk versus split jerk – body shape, femur length, and selection
54:34 – Box squats, touch-and-go versus deloading – individualize by athlete shape
58:29 – Practical breathing cues to create and switch the funnel shape
1:07:24 – Applying shapes to sport – who benefits from which strategies
Actionable Takeaways
0:00 – From gymnastics and powerlifting to Chinese weightlifting
Manuel’s early background (gymnastics then powerlifting) led him to seek a more athletic, attainable physique via Olympic lifting.
- Use cross-sport curiosity: explore other lifting cultures to discover training cues that fit your athlete.
- Test new lifts with low ego loads to learn the feeling before programming heavy progressions.
- When an approach resonates (Manuel saw this in video footage), lean into learning it systematically rather than chasing trends.
3:34 – First Olympic lifting exposure via IronMind footage and Pyrs Dimas
Seeing training hall footage made manual learning possible; video can reveal consistent patterns across a team.
- Use curated training footage to spot systematic cues you can trial in the gym.
- Compare multiple athletes in the same system to find the shared principles, not the outlier quirks.
- Trial small protocol elements from footage (timing, shapes, sequencing) on yourself or a pilot athlete before scaling.
5:40 – The Chinese team’s systematic approach that sparked the study abroad
Manuel noticed consistent shapes and timing in the Chinese footage that contrasted with other teams’ variety.
- When observing multiple athletes, note common positions and tempo as signals of a system you can emulate.
- If a system looks consistent and repeatable, consider immersive study (courses, short placements) to learn its language.
- Use language and cultural learning to communicate directly with athletes and coaches when studying foreign systems.
9:30 – Breathing, shapes, and the funnel concept for lifting
Manuel stresses creating a funnel-shaped torso from the start position – compressed lower torso plus expanded upper torso – to bias upward movement.
- Teach athletes to compress the abs first, then allocate air to the upper torso so chest and mid-back expand; this creates an upward gradient.
- Practice the shape unloaded: stand, exhale to compress lower abs, then fill front and back of upper torso so the mid-back expands. Repeat until the cue is reliable.
- Avoid powerlifting-style breathing in the start position (squeezing top while pushing belly against the belt) when the goal is quick upward reversal.
26:15 – Bottom-up squats: why weightlifting squats differ from powerlifting squats
Weightlifting squats are usually “bottom-up” because the lift catches are unweighted while the bar rises; powerlifting squats tend to be “top-down”.
- Program bottom-up variations (Andersons, pin squats, bottom-position work) to train the specific rebound and reversal qualities used after a catch.
- If the athlete struggles to rebound from deep positions, include drills that train storing and releasing connective tissue energy (controlled depth with quick rebound).
- Remember the context: heavy front squats from the rack are a different stimulus than the unweighted catch followed by a bottom-up squat in competition.
30:45 – Training near the hip and block work to bias upward, explosive shapes
Work that starts closer to the hip trains a shape that favors upward, externally rotated positions and faster reversals.
- Use high-block or hip-near pulls and catches to bias external rotation and rapid upward dynamics.
- Pair hip-near training with short, explosive plyos so athletes learn to translate the stored elastic energy into vertical output.
- If an athlete spends too much time in internally rotated, compressive positions, schedule sessions that emphasize hip-centric and block-based lifts.
41:08 – Squat jerk versus split jerk – body shape, femur length, and athlete selection
Squat-jerkers typically have shorter femurs and longer torsos and thus can maintain upright balance in deep catches.
- Screen athletes for limb proportions and uprightness under load: prefer squat jerk coaching for those with short femurs and strong overhead squat resilience.
- For athletes who struggle to remain upright, consider split jerk pathways or strengthen the funnel shape and overhead squat tolerance first.
- Use repeated overhead squat tolerance under heavier cleaning loads as a practical selector for jerk style. Squat-jerkers often tolerate higher reps near max more easily.
54:34 – Box squats, touch-and-go versus deloading – individualize by athlete shape
Choose touch-and-go or paused/deloading box squats depending on whether the athlete needs to bias upward power or shape the ability to go down.
- If an athlete already rebounds well from depth, prefer touch-and-go or tempo box variations to maintain upward pressure.
- If an athlete needs to learn to release tension and sink into depth, use deloaded box squats with brief pauses to teach pressure release and shape change.
- Consider the athlete’s history: wide, compressed lifters often need deloading; narrow, rebound-prone athletes often need touch-and-go stimulus.
58:29 – Practical breathing cues to create and switch the funnel shape
Manuel gives a concrete cue sequence: compress the lower abs, maintain tension, then allow the air to expand the upper chest and mid-back.
- Drill the sequence unloaded: exhale and compress lower abs, hold tension, then breathe so the chest and mid-back expand. Repeat until automatic.
- Coach upper-back expansion explicitly; avoid cues that only push the chest forward because that creates a forward-leaning, non-funnel shape.
- Use the balloon analogy Manuel uses: avoid gulping air that forces awkward shape changes; teach controlled allocation of air so the athlete retains capacity to change shape.
1:07:24 – Applying shapes to sport – who benefits from which strategies
Manuel emphasizes matching shape and exercise selection to sport needs – a center (football) needs different shapes than a sprinter or jumper.
- Choose training goals by job description: low, rooted shapes for linemen; upward, externally rotated shapes and hip-near training for aerial or sprint positions.
- Don’t force every athlete into Olympic lifting; you only need the shape the sport requires. Use lifts and drills that produce the desired shape.
- Assess each athlete’s baseline shape, then pick exercises that move them toward the shape they need to express on the field.
Quotes
“People who just stay in one shape are not going to be as successful as people who can change their shapes.”
“So the squat for weightlifting always happens from after the catch. It happens from the bottom up.”
“A funnel has to be, you know, wide on both sides from front to back.”
“If your goal is to get really good at squatting from the bottom up, you need to make a shape that again helps you go up.”
“As you are reaching the hip, say for a snatch, you are reaching more of an externally rotated shape of the pelvis.”
“Upright rows are great if your goal is to try to go down faster.”
“When you go into that deep position you’re storing energy.”
“If you catch it in the middle and then ride it down, you have to come to a stop. So you have to put force into the ground to stop.”
“Squat jerkers… are going to have short femurs, they’re going to have a longer torso.”
“If you don’t breathe like this in weightlifting, you can’t create the shape that helps you rebound out of the bottom.”
About Manuel Buitrago
Manuel Buitrago, PhD, is a coach, author, and the founder/director of MaStrength, where he teaches the techniques, theory, and programming principles of Chinese weightlifting to athletes and coaches around the world. He launched MaStrength in 2014 and has since delivered more than a hundred seminars and training camps internationally while building a widely followed library of articles, videos, and social content on Chinese methods. Buitrago holds an honorary weightlifting coaching credential from Chengdu Sports University, reflecting years of study, mentorship, and translation work with Chinese sports scientists and coaches. He is also a certified USA Weightlifting coach and referee. His books—Chinese Weightlifting: A Visual Guide to Technique and Chinese Weightlifting: Technical Mastery & Training—distill the system’s technical model and practical programming into accessible resources that have been translated into multiple languages.
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