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Topic starter
10/04/2020 9:16 pm
I have been reading an argument about bar positioning while doing squats. It seems I have always kept the bar fairly high (Olympic style?) forcing a more upright posture to stay centered. My understanding is that strength/ power training squats should be preformed with the bar deeper. I am looking to maximize my gains with this lift and wonder if a combo across workouts is the way to go or if one lift style will produce superior results.
10/04/2020 9:44 pm
by deeper do you mean lower on back?
10/04/2020 10:10 pm
You should rest the bar a bit lower so that it's rests on the mid portion of your traps, not on the top thoracic vertebrate.
liftsiron is a fictional character and should be taken as such.
10/04/2020 10:29 pm
I agree with Lifts.
"The medals don't mean anything and the glory doesn't last. It's all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing" ~ Jackie Joyner Kersee.
Topic starter
10/04/2020 10:54 pm
By deeper I do mean lower on the back. It seems so natural to rest it in the upper position and I don't understand the reason that this is considered olympic style when squat is not an oly lift. Is there some benefit that I am missing that cannot be hit with a good combo of back and front squats? I tried the deeper method during today's workout with good success. Still, with my background as a cyclist, I have next to no traps. My max squat is a fairly untrained 165kg/ 365lbs -- with no traps, I need a pus pad even with proper form. I found the key was thumb position -- I had been griping the bar and if felt like my thumb would break if I took the bar deeper. I took my thumb around and whaala!
10/04/2020 11:11 pm
depending on how i squat is where bar position is... for exp if doing oly squats (narrow ass to ground) i will place bar higher around upper trap. i can maintain more vertical position with higher placement.
squat wider bar goes much lower, parallel or lower than rear delt, more emphasis on glutes and hams as opposed to quads, lower placement helps push ass back further and use lower back more
i dont think oly styles refers to bar placement but more on the form of squat itself.
if you need a pad is more likely you are not used to the weight, is true is very uncomfortable at first but will get better... also not keeping traps/back flexed, try to imagine crushing a grape between middle of back... also may need to spread hands further as will force shoulders back and back to flex
10/04/2020 11:35 pm
I don't think you're missing out on anything. Lowering the bar too far on your back forces the body more weight to hit your lower back when you're in the hole, which, obviously, can do more harm than good.
"In any contest between power and patience, bet on patience."
~W.B. Prescott
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Topic starter
11/04/2020 12:03 am
I think that I have found a happy medium. After sitting at the 365lb area for a little bit, I have started on a Smolov squat cycle. Everything is going well so far with a deeper (off the spine) bar position. My only issue now seems to be hip flexibility as I can only get down right to parallel/ perhaps hips ever so slightly under my knees.