I dropped and bent a barbell today. It’s not very badly bent and sort of even. Can I still use it?
Has anyone used bent barbells here. I don’t really want to risk a good bar on my squat rack.
I dropped only about 140kg from shoulder height to the lowish (for full squat ) spotter bars. The cage held up well it bounced up in the air.
It’s the first bar I have broken.
Use it for rack pulls. Place it with the bend up and pull away.
Thanks I want to use it for front squats.
Front squats - why? Did this become an Olympic Lifting forum ? LOL
I thought you were serious for second . It fell off my shoulder doing front squats during the second rep. It’s was a bit heavy to save it by lowering with my arms. I done this (stupidly) on a few lighter ones. I was using the bodybuilder double crossover method. Time to change things up a bit (that’s by the bye though).
are you being serious?
it probably doesn’t make a huge difference if the bar is a little bent… as long as the structural integrity isn’t compromised and you’re not putting a ton of weight on it, I’d probably still use it.
What kind of bar is it? And can you post a picture of it? The ONLY concern I would have is if you really did some severe damage to it, and made it brittle enough that it could snap. If you’re front squatting with a bar that snaps in the middle while you’re lifting, you could be in for a world of hurt.
I’ll try and get a picture of it when it’s light .
Half serious.
If his legs are weaker than his back then sure, front squat away. Most people though have legs that are stronger than their backs, so I’m still not convinced on the value of the front squat for improving the power squat.
I do see value in it for improving the push off the floor in the conventional deadlift, not only by strengthening the legs but also the upper back. You could do them Anderson style or off a box. If you really like pain and want to look manly do heavy Zerchers off the pins.
Peace.
If you squat high bar, they are damn near identical. Not to mention, everything else pales in comparison to a front squat for quad development except for maybe a ssb
Like I said - half serious.
They would be valuable for guys like the late Doug Furnas who had 32" plus thighs and squatted upright. Depends on your stance.
Personally my heels are set 22" apart, feet 45deg, with shins vertical when viewed from the front. At the bottom, my knees move less than inch to the front. I use very little quad so I occasionally do front squats and leg extensions for quad conditioning. I do a fair amount of hi bar to a low box with forward lean to work the deadlift start - complements block pulls nicely (conjugate)
Why not do low bar with this to mimick the start position of a deadlift? Not being a dick, just curious. That’s how I have done them in the past and see no point in doing them high bar for me anyway.
so then you do see a reason to front squat.
This is largely how I use front squats. I think they are a great assistance lift for the deadlift.
More importantly though, I think A LOT of powerlifters limit themselves too much in terms of which lifts they perform in training. My own experience has taught me that when you take away variety too much, you end up with a lot of joint problems, chronic pain, etc. You can get away with this, don’t get me wrong. You can cripple yourself in powerlifting and still be capable of moving big weights. I did when my focus was powerlifting. But since I switched to strongman, I’ve continued to get stronger in all my lifts, AND I’m much healthier because I’m incorporating more variety of movement in my lifts. My mobility and athleticism are much better, chronic pain is down, joints are healthier.
Good question. I squat wide and deadlift conventional. I used to sumo wide but they started to beat up my hips plus once I learned to conventional deadlift correctly I eded up stronger that way. I have a short spine and a deep pelvis with hardly any waist. And slight scoliosis to boot.
I have started practicing the moderate sumo and will be attending an Ed Coan seminar in November to learn it from the GOAT.
Looks like I may need a new cheap bar for squats.
I do have weak legs but the front squats are for OL. Well that’s the plan anyway. I cannot back squat worth anything too inflexible in the shoulders to be able to dump it safely. I am hoping also that the front squats will improve my deadlift. I can probably still deep zercher about 180kg (but the muscles used are totally different all glutes and lower back) .
Zercher works a ton of upper back and midsection. I forbid the use of the word “core”. LOL
Upperback and midsection are strong points
Are you cycling a ton of different movements then? I started cycling exercises a lot once I started getting tendinitis and shit in multiple places. Same situation as what ou described: injuries from repetitive movement patterns for years with little variation mixed with labor jobs set me back MULTIPLE times.
I’m with jbackos on this one, front squats are limited by back strength more than anything. Some people claim to get a lot out of them (Dan Green for example) but they are far from necessary. If they were the greatest thing for building quads then why do most bodybuilders (ones who actually know what they are doing) do high bar squats rather than front squats? SSB squats are good though.
This is one of the strong points of Westside style programming. Constant variation. I am able to recover better from conjugate than 531 or other programs at my age and I’m done with a workout in under an hour.