What are some?
For those that squat this way, what kind of things do you think help with this.
Things like:
-muscle groups used relatively
-form ques
-footwear
-stance
-favorite assistance exercises
-whatever any of ya’ll can think of
For the sake of my shoulder, I finally decided to bite the bullet and start squatting this way.
-Closer stance than your typical PL squat
-Sit down instead of back
-Go all the way down
Most people find shoes with an elevated heel useful for reaching a deeper bottom position. I, however, prefer to do them without shoes as Im very flexible.
Prepare to be humbled at first if your used to low bar PL squatting. You will find that high bar carries over to low bar, whereas the opposite is not true.
Fred Hatfield actually recommended training exclusively with high bar OL squats, only switching to low bar PL squats as a meet approaches.
Also, your quads will grow like a motherfucker.
Favorite assistance exercises are more squats.
I’m not going ATG with these, just PL depth.
You could invest in a more shoulder-friendly barbell.
[quote]NoAir_DontCare wrote:
You could invest in a more shoulder-friendly barbell.[/quote]
That’s going to be out of the cards for quite some time, but when/if I can I will.
This is the only way squat I never like the super wide stance for some reason just doesn’t carry over well for me in Strongman.
Foot wear- I wear vibrams so basically bare foot but I am very flexible if you have problem hitting depth try some Oly shoes, or work boots. Worse case put a small plate under your feet.
Form que- Oviously bar high on traps, feet just at shoulder width I go slightly closer and turn my toes out slightly. Drop down not back other wise your going to be in all kinds of funny positions and doings lots of good mornings.
Assistance work- Number one exercise to. bring up my close squat is Front Squats I. alternate Front and Back every workout. If your shoulder gives problems in Front Squat trying using straps around the bar to help get a secure rack position. I have a right shoulder issue. and its the only thing that helps me.
Number 2- etc exercises only con to High Bar Squatting is that neglects your posterior chain, not. completely but no where close to Low Bar Squatting. So lots Hip Thrusts partial and full range, Hypers, Glute-Hams, RDLs the list goes on and on I am sure your familiar with posterior chain training if your on this site.
Yeah, to build off of what reed said - High bar definitely uses more quads than low bar, but using your ass and hamstrings are still very important. Don’t let yourself get away with being quad dominant if you decide to squat this way. make sure you are jacking your knees out HARD to engage your hips, and especially when you’re first starting, think about driving the weight up with your butt and squeezing it at the top. This is where the oly shoes come in - a lot of people aren’t flexible enough to keep their weight on their heels with the sort of depth that comes along with high bar, and oly shoes help you to always be driving through your heels so that you are properly engaging your posterior chain. Don’t know if this will be a problem for you cause you said you might only go to parallel, but if you feel like you’re having trouble keeping your weight back and driving up with your butt and hamstrings as well as your quads, the shoes might be a good investment.
sit down between your legs, and REALLY shove your knees out
Hatfield and Coan both advocated these squats for all training. High bar squats work well for me and I use a medium stance, just wider than shoulder width. The deeper I go the more muscle recruitment occurs from the hams to my traps. I believe the entire posterior chain is involved but depth at least breaking parallel is required. Even my abs get work from high bar squats. I also have a safety squat bar, which sits very high on the shoulders, that I would recommend for shoulder comfort when squatting. If you want to fry your glutes and hams even more while torching the back as well try some high bar pause squats. Sink that squat ass to the ground for a 3-5 second count at the bottom and I bet you won’t find a more challenging lift.
I wear chuck taylors or flat board skating shoes, only use a belt with more than 400 lbs, and work, work, work.
[quote]gorillavanilla wrote:
Hatfield and Coan both advocated these squats for all training. High bar squats work well for me and I use a medium stance, just wider than shoulder width. The deeper I go the more muscle recruitment occurs from the hams to my traps. I believe the entire posterior chain is involved but depth at least breaking parallel is required. Even my abs get work from high bar squats. I also have a safety squat bar, which sits very high on the shoulders, that I would recommend for shoulder comfort when squatting. If you want to fry your glutes and hams even more while torching the back as well try some high bar pause squats. Sink that squat ass to the ground for a 3-5 second count at the bottom and I bet you won’t find a more challenging lift.[/quote]
Interesting that Coan did them. I guess that’s part of how he survived his brutally simply workout plans. That and being a beast.
I think the oly squat is more natural and quad focused than other squat variations, which I think carries over better to other things.
I wear converse for everything, unless I need a cleat or something for pulling shit.
Stance is right at my shoulders, maybe an inch in. Pretty much where I would squat if I had to squat for a long period of time.
I think the biggest thing with an oly squat is to focus on poking your butt out, having the knees point slightly out, going low enough to where you feel the pressure shift from your knees to your hips, and then explode up using your hips. These cues are often assossiated with powerlifting low bar squatting, but I find that using these cues with oly squatting give you the best of both worlds. Because it seems that many people who oly squat just go straight up and straight down bending mainly at the knee.
[quote]@JC_Tree_Trunks wrote:
I think the biggest thing with an oly squat is to focus on poking your butt out, having the knees point slightly out, going low enough to where you feel the pressure shift from your knees to your hips, and then explode up using your hips. These cues are often assossiated with powerlifting low bar squatting, but I find that using these cues with oly squatting give you the best of both worlds. Because it seems that many people who oly squat just go straight up and straight down bending mainly at the knee.[/quote]
I was thinking of going this direction. Instead of pushing my hips ‘back, back, back’, I was thinking back and down. And driving my head and neck at the bottom back and up instead of just back into the bar. I was noticing I was getting much better form looking up rather than straight forward.
I’m really going to have work on forcing my knees out too.