My gym has a cambered bar (i has a slight camber). Would this be quite a bit easier on my shoulders, or likely to have only a small impact because it isn’t a large camber? Also, am I likely to have to adjust my squat numbers by quite a bit? I already squat with a pretty high bar (having difficultly lowering it much).
Thanks
[quote]mrodock wrote:
My gym has a cambered bar (i has a slight camber). Would this be quite a bit easier on my shoulders, or likely to have only a small impact because it isn’t a large camber? Also, am I likely to have to adjust my squat numbers by quite a bit? I already squat with a pretty high bar (having difficultly lowering it much).
Thanks[/quote]
I really can’t see using it being a good idea. You’d have to use a lot more arm in order to keep the bar stable on your traps during the squat. Just learn how to place a straight bar correctly. Are you having much difficulty on your shoulders when perfroming the squat.
And I can’t see the change of bar affecting your numbers all that much. When you say you’re having difficulty lowering it, do you mean the bar? And why do you want to lower it?
[quote]rock27 wrote:
I really can’t see using it being a good idea. You’d have to use a lot more arm in order to keep the bar stable on your traps during the squat. Just learn how to place a straight bar correctly. Are you having much difficulty on your shoulders when perfroming the squat.
And I can’t see the change of bar affecting your numbers all that much. When you say you’re having difficulty lowering it, do you mean the bar? And why do you want to lower it?[/quote]
My left shoulder feels a little tight after a lot of squatting. Probably just a flexibility issue. Is it likely tightness in the external rotators, pec minor, something else? So it really isn’t an issue at this point, but I want to make sure it doesn’t become an issue.
I’m having difficulty positioning the bar as low as many powerlifters. I have a high bar position for a (wannabe) powerlifter. I have heard lowering the bar position helps you increase the weight. For now, it feels really unstable and actually decreases the amount of weight I can do. I might need more muscle mass in my back before I can use a lower bar position.
Thanks a lot for the reply!
[quote]rock27 wrote:
mrodock wrote:
My gym has a cambered bar (i has a slight camber). Would this be quite a bit easier on my shoulders, or likely to have only a small impact because it isn’t a large camber? Also, am I likely to have to adjust my squat numbers by quite a bit? I already squat with a pretty high bar (having difficultly lowering it much).
Thanks
I really can’t see using it being a good idea. You’d have to use a lot more arm in order to keep the bar stable on your traps during the squat. Just learn how to place a straight bar correctly. Are you having much difficulty on your shoulders when perfroming the squat.
And I can’t see the change of bar affecting your numbers all that much. When you say you’re having difficulty lowering it, do you mean the bar? And why do you want to lower it?[/quote]
He means moving the bar to a low bar position.
As for it not being a good idea, I dont see why not if it keeps his shoulders healthy. A larger camber bar is going to force him to arch harder and stay tighter under the bar…so thats not a bad thing either. It sounds like, though, that he is talking about something with a much smaller amount of bend to it…more like a buffalo bar than the big camber bars that people tend to think of. I use our buffalo bar a good bit in training because its easier on the shoulders. We change some detail of our box squatting each week though to stay fresh and bar type is just one of the variables that we play with.
Stronghold,
How much do your numbers change with the buffalo bar on the box squat? Are you forced to use a higher bar position than with a straight bar?
The buffalo bar has an extremely mild camber so I dont see much difference at all in my numbers. It doesnt force me to use a different bar position than usual (I squat with a fairly moderate position, not high, but not low).
[quote]Stronghold wrote:
The buffalo bar has an extremely mild camber so I dont see much difference at all in my numbers. It doesnt force me to use a different bar position than usual (I squat with a fairly moderate position, not high, but not low).[/quote]
Thanks man, I really appreciate it