Why Do You Put the Bar There When You Squat?
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 02/19/21)
Listen up, folks - we’re going to discuss something you’ve probably never thought about before - why we put the barbell in the low bar position when we squat. Specifically, we’re going to discuss an anatomical rationale for placing the bar in The Position, so for today, we’ll be skipping the mechanical discussions about moment arms, hip drive, etc. (but as I was a physics teacher in a past life, we can geek out on that some other time if you like).
If you take a person who has never squatted before, maybe even a person who has squatted before, and you say, “Hey, go over there and squat that bar down and up” - which is unfortunately a fairly common approach to coaching - pretty much everyone in the world will go over to the rack, get under the bar, and they will then place the bar in what is called the high bar position (only they don’t know it’s called that), and they’ll stand upright with the bar sitting up high on the shelf provided by your traps.
They will do this because it’s easy and it’s obvious. It’s easy because it doesn’t require much - if any - flexibility (although it actually can be tough for some people), and it’s obvious because it’s the first potential shelf that the bar runs into as you slide under the bar.
However, remember that this position - the position of standing upright - is the easiest position in the entire squat. You know this because you can stand there supporting a lot more weight than you can actually squat. As this is the easiest position to assume, we might be wise not to let this position dictate the location of the bar.
Instead, we’re going to slide just a bit further forward - further under the bar, if you will - until the bar slides past the traps and is now supported on the shelf provided by your delts. We choose this location for the bar - not because it’s the easiest position to achieve when standing up (because it is not) - but rather because it’s the most secure location for the bar when you’re actually squatting.
Picture yourself at the bottom of your squat - you’ve got a nice, leaned-over torso, and now, with the bar sitting in The Position, any downward motion of the bar (i.e., rolling or sliding down your back) is blocked by your delts, and any upward motion is blocked by your traps. The bar is pinned between these two muscle groups in a very secure manner, and a bar that doesn’t want to move up or down your back is a very good thing when squatting heavy weights.
Now that you’ve got something to think about as you rest between work sets, it’s time to get to squatting.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
-Phil
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