Thanks man that means alot!
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One of the great things about the Starting Strength book is that it teaches the importance of bar positioning and how it influences your squat movement. Iâd encourage you to read the book just for that alone.
Simply put- pay attention to bar positioning relative to your feet and how the weight is distributed over your feet. Virtually everything else depends on this. Folks who do real low-bar squatting tend to have a heavy lean. Conversely, virtually no lean with front squats cause the weight is pretty much parallel to your body, and so you move in the same way.
Try lots of things out. Iâm currently going from doing almost low-bar and am progressively working my way up my scapula right now as the months and years go on. One of the bad aspects of my squat right now is that Iâm pretty much always tweaking my bar positioning slightly every squat session. Heck, Iâm pretty sure my bar positioning differs for my heavy squats and my lighter squats.
As such, there are certain seemingly universal advice that I pay attention to-
-Try to get my elbow underneath the bar (almost impossible with heavy weights for me, but I try anyways). This is basically a part of the chest high advice.
-Always drive your knees out, both during the descent and ascent. If you do it correctly while body squatting youâll pretty much jump without even trying to jump.
The rest seem to be dependent on bar positioning and your personal body quirks.
Regarding bracing- hereâs a simple way to find out if youâre bracing hard enough, I think. I just did a couple bracing breathes while typing this. Now my stomach hurts a bit.
If your stomach doesnât hurt after bracing, Iâd say youâre doing it wrong.
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Despite popular bro myth that bodybuilders are weak rob definitely debunks this.
Definitely has the strength to back his mass up.
315 for 12 damn!
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Im still trying to find my perfect feet stance and where my hands are on the bar. Im about 5ft8 , i have dwarf arms and my legs are longer then upper body.
A good rule of thumb I read on this one powerlifting site (cannot remember the name of it), is to sit in a chair (preferably 90 degrees), and stand up, keep widening your stance until you can stand up out of the chair without your body coming forward.
After doing that play around with high and low bar. @magick pretty much gave you all youâre good points.
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From what I understand, thereâs really no reason to get your stance any wider than âslightly wider than shoulder at mostâ (whatever that means!) unless youâre squatting with a suit on or using something similar.
Point being- youâre probably better off squatting narrower than wider.
I donât think where you grip matters that much. It apparently doesnât have much impact on back tightness. Just grip where itâs comfortable and not hindering you from getting your chest up?
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Hmm i just tried this and it seems a shoulder width stance was the least forward lean, il just keep experimenting with the bar in my warmup sets to see which stance feels best.
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Yea like itâs not written in stone or anything, I just thought it might help.
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First i was using a widish stance ,then a bit narrower so il see how an in between stance feels.
Thankyou
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Youâre heavier than me currently, hah. Maybe⊠Thatâs why we Asians donât age that much, weâre built 8 years younger, if that makes sense.
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How tall are you ?
Tbh i think youâre slightly leaner then me since youâve dieted down.
Edit :youâre alot leaner , i went to take a pic of me but im definitely not heavier because of muscle thats for sure haha.
175cm haha. I donât consider myself lean in any sense of the word.
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Oh cool well weâre pretty much the same height, pretty tall for an asia hahaâ:wink:
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I have been reading alot of stuff, it seems i have been doing an inbetween a high and low bar squat . Iâve been sitting back whilst high bar squatting and apparently youâre supposed to sit down instead of back, im confused. I need to squat correctly because squatting =leg gains but if i squat incorrect then that Equals no gains and wrecking the joints.
Haha I think you a being a bit dramatic. Form check video?
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Just a tad dramatic , but i am bloody confused on squatting for highbar and nah got no videos atm.
This may just be my misguided opinion, but low bar squatting is good for powerlifters who are trying to maximise the weight on the bar. High bar squats are better IMO for developing leg muscle as is puts (most peopleâs) body in a mechanical disadvantage by having the weight further away from your bodies natural centre of gravity.
That said everyone is different,and unless you are after maximum numbers, than squat however is the most comfortable. Low bar, high bar, narrow stance or wide, atg, parallel or on a bosu ball. Give them all a go than work on getting stronger at the ones that work for you.
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Thanks man , to me squatting is probably the most technically advanced lift. it will take a while to find my optimal stance and variation whether its low bar , high bar etc .