[quote]hastalles wrote:
[quote]XArena wrote:
Get to it then yah slacker! ;)[/quote]
Ha I’m workin on it. You too! we’re racing to 1000, remember! haha[/quote]
Oh I’m on it, I’m @ 340lb so far, just 660lbs to go 
An old training partner of mine was 6’1" but very long legs (and a disproportionately short upper body). He always struggled with squats. The long legs put his butt way back behind him and his short upper body had to lean way forward to “make up the distance” and balance himself. He could never squat with an even somewhat upright torso.
He was pretty strong and could leg press and deadlift a lot, but squats were not his thing. I think regardless of height, you want to have a longer upper body in comparison to your femurs to be good at squatting.
[quote]XArena wrote:
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
ok so how does one measure a femur?[/quote]
measure your femur by putting a tape measure right up in between yer nuts and yer thigh, and measure it down to the middle of your knee cap [/quote]
This method can’t be right, hip socket would be accessed from the outside of you leg surely?
Yeah tht’s wrong, read the original post, fletch got the real way and i put it in the OP
[quote]Jab1 wrote:
Yeah I have pretty long legs so I wasn’t surprised. My torso is really short. [/quote]
[quote]Jab1 wrote:
I guess this explains why I’ve struggled with back squat form so much yet front squats are easy. [/quote]
And BOOOOOOM!!! there it is… You back squat prolly sucks as you say, because you are trying to squat with muscles you don’t have- posterior chain… stop blaming shit on your fucking bone length!
years ago when I first started squatting properly ie actually hitting depth and not half squatting like the rest of the gym rats, I could do about 295 once now I can do 495 3 or 4 times… did my bone magically shorten allowing me awesome mechanical leverages?? NO I built / am building, up the muscles that make my squat suck… sure some guys have different levers but I hate it when people blame shit on stupid shit like bone lengths. Unless you are the “tall guy” in the local carnival you probably don’t have long limbs…
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
[quote]Jab1 wrote:
Yeah I have pretty long legs so I wasn’t surprised. My torso is really short. [/quote]
[quote]Jab1 wrote:
I guess this explains why I’ve struggled with back squat form so much yet front squats are easy. [/quote]
And BOOOOOOM!!! there it is… You back squat prolly sucks as you say, because you are trying to squat with muscles you don’t have- posterior chain… stop blaming shit on your fucking bone length!
years ago when I first started squatting properly ie actually hitting depth and not half squatting like the rest of the gym rats, I could do about 295 once now I can do 495 3 or 4 times… did my bone magically shorten allowing me awesome mechanical leverages?? NO I built / am building, up the muscles that make my squat suck… sure some guys have different levers but I hate it when people blame shit on stupid shit like bone lengths. Unless you are the “tall guy” in the local carnival you probably don’t have long limbs…[/quote]
I guess your strength hasn’t helped your reading comprehension.
If you actually take a minute to read what I wrote properly you’ll notice that nowhere was I blaming my levers for a lack of strength. I was talking about my FORM using the complicated phrase “I guess this explains why I’ve struggled with back squat FORM” (emphasis added for the reading impaired).
My back squat is in proportion to my other lifts and while it’s not as strong as yours it doesn’t suck (and no where did I say that it sucked either). I was simply saying in other words that the form came much less naturally to me than my front squat form did.
Furthermore, this thread is about RELATIVE length of limbs (specifically the femur) to height, not absolute length. When people are talking about “long femurs” in this thread it is in that RELATIVE context apropos; the thread.
Next time you should probably read what was written not what you wanted to see. We all just got stupider for me having to point this out to you.
Form on back squat comes much less naturally to everyone than a front squat. Front squat is relatively retarded-proof providing you can get your hands under it or balance it on your shoulders using cross grip.
That also makes sense.
I think I remember in starting strength, Ripptoes says people with longer femurs tend to squat wider and flare there feet more (still, don’t go crazy with the foot flare).
Not a rule set in stone, just an observation.
Let’s not turn this thread into a fight… let’s also not turn it into a pissing contest on who can squat more because everyone is different and has been training for different lengths of time under different circumstances.
And I understand what rippetoe is saying about the longer the femur, wider the stance, because if your stance is wider, then your torso doesn’t have to lean as far forward to get the bar in line with mid-foot
Bringing back an old thread cause what the heck, sure as hell beats starting a new one. I measured my femur length using the way StrengthDawg described.
[quote]XArena wrote:
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
ok so how does one measure a femur?[/quote]
measure your femur by putting a tape measure right up in between yer nuts and yer thigh, and measure it down to the middle of your knee cap [/quote]
My femurs measured 37cm am I’m 175cm. My femurs measure around 21% of my height and from what I’ve read 26% is the norm. Would this explain why squats come naturally to me and I tend to struggle more with my deadlifts and how can I capitalize on this, make the most out of it. Is there an optimal way to make the most out of my short(?) femurs.
Aw, c’mon man! Read the thread! You measured wrong! Lol.
There’s a lot more to it than just relative bone lengths, but short femurs are a definite advantage when squatting. Long arms are a huge advantage when deadlifting, but suck for pressing. I’m 5’9" with a span of 6’3". Best DL was 495, with a bench of only 285, even though I worked twice as hard on benching to try and bring it up.
Huh, I have a 5’8" wingspan at 5’9" height, and 17 inch femurs. I feel most comfortable squatting about 4 inches total outside of shoulder width and I push it about an inch wider for maxes. I can’t squat with a shoulder width stance (as in I can’t hit parallel) unless I do a very high bar squat or have a box to squat onto. The deadlift style I feel strongest in is a less than shoulder width conventional deadlift with a rounded upper back, I can pull sumo (semi and wide) but I am weak at it. I hit 355X5 sumo about five weeks ago, and I hit 385X8 two weeks after and expect to hit around 485 in training soon. My best gym lifts are 415/315/445 with a belt at 17 year old while hovering around 185-190 body weight.
I’ve always felt that I had above average length limbs, but going off of this information I guess I have normal length arms and slightly above length average legs. I am curious on how people here have had their proportions affect their form. In my opinion it is a mixture of what is mechanically advantageous and what your muscular strengths are. My hips are weak, my hamstrings and back are strong, and my quads are okay so I am obviously going to be a lot better at conventional than sumo even though I can pull both styles comfortably and I am more than likely built decently for both.