Bar Rolling Up or Down Your Back in the Squat?

/
The correct bar position

The correct bar position

A bar that moves up or down on your back during the squat is - to put it mildly - not a good thing. Squatting is a challenging endeavor. It’s supposed to be challenging, and the fact that it is challenging - the fact that it stresses your body - is what makes you stronger for having done it. But don’t make it more challenging than it needs to be by tolerating a barbell that rolls up your back or slides down your back. That is plain silliness.

An issue that often causes unnecessary bar movement is the bar’s position on your back. The bar should rest “on a ‘shelf’ under the traps and on top of the posterior deltoids” (Rippetoe 24). In short, the bar will be below the traps and above the delts.

For a video demonstration with explanation, see the short video at the end of this article.

Here, the bar is too high on the back.

Here, the bar is too high on the back.

If the bar sits too high on your back - on the traps or even above them - the bar will tend to roll up the back toward your neck. This wreaks havoc on your balance, on your ability to create the proper back angle, and thus it also wreaks havoc on your ability to drive your hips up out of the bottom.

Here, the bar is too low on the back.

Here, the bar is too low on the back.

On the other hand, if the bar sits too low on your back - below the top of your delts - the bar will tend to roll or slide down your back. The delts provide the shelf for the bar, so if the bar is not above your delts, you have no shelf left to support the bar. Now, your hands and wrists are left with the task of supporting a heavy bar, and as these relatively flimsy appendages are not well suited to this task, the bar starts moving further down your back as the set progresses. In addition, this “too-low” position tends to aggravate either your wrists, elbows, or shoulders over time.

To sum up, if the bar moves up your back, it might be too high on your back to begin with, and if the bar moves down your back, it might be too low on your back to begin with. Get a coach, a friend, or even an enemy to take a closer look at your bar position if you struggle with this issue, and let’s put this obstacle in your rearview.

Rippetoe, Mark. Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, 3rd edition. The Aasgaard Company, 2017.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

If you found this helpful, you’ll love our weekly email. It’s got useful videos, articles, and training tips just like the one in this article. Sign up below, and of course, if you don’t love it, you can unsubscribe at any time.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?

Click here to start today

Week 2020.11.02

/

The 2020 Testify Fall Classic is in the books, and it was a great day (and even better since it was our first strengthlifting meet at our new location)! Lots of PRs were set, and many congratulations go out to everyone who stepped onto the platform to compete this past Saturday. Thank you to those of you who helped out at the meet – setup, teardown, judging, spotting, loading, scoring, announcing – without you, this meet wouldn’t be possible. Also, thank you to those who came out to support and cheer on the lifters – you all made it a fun day for the lifters on the platform.

This Week’s Conditioning

Option 1
“Prowler Base”
1. Load up a manageable weight.
2. Sprint 40m at 85% intensity.
3. Rest until breathing and heart rate slow down. (45 sec – 2 min)
4. Repeat 5-15 times.

Courtesy of “Death by Prowler” (on Starting Strength).

Compare to 2020.09.21.

Option 2
Bike/Row for 9 rounds:
1 min on
1 min off

Record distance for each round.

Compare to 2020.09.07.

Option 3
1st: 5 x 50 ft seated sled pull. Add weight each round. Rest as needed.
2nd: 5 x 100 ft duck walk. Add weight each round. Rest as needed.

Compare to 2020.08.10.

Option 4
For time:
500m row
5 x 80m sled push (200 ft if indoors)
500m row

Rest 1 minute after the first row and after each sled push.

Compare to 2020.08.03.

The Bench Press: Lead with Your Elbows

/
IMG_5104.jpg

The bench press is unique in that it is the only major barbell lift wherein we do not aim for a vertical bar path. Because the locked-out position of the bench press is directly over the shoulder joint and the touch point on the chest is a few inches lower than that (i.e., further “down the bench” or toward your feet), the bar path on the bench press is somewhat slanted or diagonal.

In light of this, we aim “up-and-back” during the ascent of the bench press - “up” because we’re working against gravity and “back” because the bar needs to finish over our shoulders and not over our touch point. This type of bar path can be somewhat difficult to attain as we often see people “mis-groove” their bench presses by pressing straight up off the chest or - even worse - pressing the bar further down the bench, which then requires a herculean effort to bring the bar back into the proper path (this error will trace out a looped path if viewed from the side).

IMG_5108.JPG

If you have this problem occasionally, and if we assume that your touch point is both correct and consistent (a discussion for another day), the problem may lie with your elbow position at the bottom of the bench press. Viewed from the side, the tip of your elbow should be slightly in front of the bar, and if this is the case, it will facilitate that efficient up-and-back bar path we’re aiming for.

IMG_5109.JPG

To achieve this elbow position, try cueing yourself, “Lead with the elbows.” Your mental picture is now one of the elbows leading the way - slightly in front of the bar - during the descent of the bench press, almost as if they were clearing a path for the bar to follow. Executed correctly, the tip of the elbow will be slightly - slightly - in front of the bar when the bar touches the chest, and you’ll be in a great position to drive the bar up-and-back toward its locked-out position over your shoulder joint.

Lead with the elbows, and the bar path will follow. Give it a shot.

Week 2020.10.26

/

Reminder: The gym will be closed on Saturday, 10/31/20, since we are hosting the annual Testify Fall Classic strengthlifting meet.

This Week’s Conditioning

Option 1
“Prowler Sprint Test”
1. Load up a heavier weight.
2. Time a 15 yards sprint at 100% intensity.
3. Rest 30 seconds.
4. Repeat sprint until times slows down 10%.
5. Goal is to increase # of sprints under the time standard.

Courtesy of “Prowler Sprint Test” (on JTS) as well as “Death by Prowler” (on Starting Strength).

Compare to 2020.09.14.

Option 2
Bike/row:
3 rounds of:
8 x 20 sec on/40 sec off
Rest 3 min between rounds
Score = lowest distance

Compare to 2020.08.31.

Option 3
1. Work up to a heavy single on the axle clean-and-press (i.e., ground to overhead).
2. 5 x 100 ft Zercher carry (50 ft down-back). Add weight each round. Rest as needed.

Compare to 2020.08.03.

Option 4
Row 10 x 100m
Rest 1 min between sprints. Your score is your slowest time.

Compare to 2020.07.27.

Training is a Highway

/
IMG_4703.jpg

Thanks to Tom Cochrane, we all know that life is a highway. But did you know that training is also a highway? In last week’s article, we discussed the three phases of training - novice, intermediate, and advanced - as well as the rates of progress that we see in each phase. This new analogy - that of training as a highway - is closely related to that discussion.

Training - or getting stronger - is the act of driving down a highway that you are simultaneously constructing. You go into the gym on Monday, you warm up, and you do the hard work of completing your work sets. You then repeat this process on Wednesday, then Friday, and then you begin it anew the following week. This is you - driving down that highway. The more weight you add to the bar over time, the farther down that road you get. If you add weight faster - adding 10 or 15 lbs between workouts instead of 5 lbs - you are driving faster.

IMG_4698.JPG

Now, to ensure that you don’t run out of road (going off-road is not cool in this analogy), you are also continuously constructing new highway in front of you - this is the process of recovery. If you want to travel a long way down that road, you need to keep driving, and you also need to keep building highway. If you want to keep getting stronger, you need the stress of regular training, you need the recovery of food and sleep, and if you get both stress and recovery - if you both drive and build - you get the adaptation of strength.

There is, however, a catch. This highway is going up a slowly steepening mountain. When you’re brand new to training, you are far from the top of the mountain, and the road is going up so slowly that you almost don’t even notice it. When you’re on pretty level ground, you can construct new road pretty quickly, and you can drive pretty quickly, too. At this stage, the weight on the bar goes up fast. This is the novice phase of training where the weight on the bar goes up every time you enter the weight room. You’re cruising down that road, and life is glorious.

Then the road starts getting steeper. Construction on a steeper grade takes more time, and driving uphill is more taxing as well, so things slow down somewhat. The weight on the bar is still going up, but slower now. This is the intermediate phase of training - now, you are making progress and setting PRs on a weekly basis.

IMG_4956.jpg

If you continue building and driving, you reach truly steep regions of the mountain. Construction here is very slow indeed, and your car has to work extremely hard to keep creeping up the mountain. This is the advanced phase of training where you are trying to make progress and set PRs on a monthly, quarterly, or even yearly basis.

Looking at the process of getting stronger in this way allows us to see why we can add weight quickly to the bar at the beginning of our training careers, and it also allows us to understand that this type of progress will slow over time, and our programming will change to reflect this. So, keep driving up that mountain, and put some Tom Cochrane on while you’re at it.

Week 2020.10.19

/

This Week’s Conditioning

Option 1
Sled
Outdoors:
10-20 x 25 yds EMOM at a weight of your choice

Every minute, push the sled 25 yards, i.e., if pushing the sled takes 20 seconds, then you have 40 seconds to rest. Perform 10-20 rounds.

Indoors:
10-20 x 100 ft EMOM at a weight of your choice

Every minute, push the sled 100 feet, i.e., if pushing the sled takes 20 seconds, then you have 40 seconds to rest. Perform 10-20 rounds.

Compare to 2020.09.07.

Option 2
Bike/row:
12 min TT
Score = distance

Compare to 2020.08.24.

Option 3
Outdoors:
8 rounds:
4 tire flips
50 yd sled push (25 yd down-back)
Rest 1 minute

Indoors:
8 rounds:
4 tire flips
100 ft sled push (50 ft down-back)
Rest 1 minute

Compare to 2020.07.27.

Option 4
Outdoors
4 rounds:
50 yd farmer carry
80 m sled drag
Rest 2 min

Indoors
4 rounds:
100 ft farmer carry
100 ft sled drag
Rest 2 min

Compare to 2020.07.20.