ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN MYSELF II: LOW BAR SQUAT PLACEMENT

In a continuation of this series, I’m going to address ANOTHER topic I frequently get asked about: my squat.  I’m not going to address the typical question of “why does it look like hot garbage”…at least, not TOO much, but more the common question of: 

“Why do you have the bar so low on your back?”

As seen here doing OTHER things that people question me on...

The answer?  BECAUSE I CAN.  Folks: you would too if you could.  Having the bar that low is awesome because it makes the weight is CLOSER to your own center of gravity and base of power.  The higher up your back it goes, the further away it gets, and that requires you to squat with a more upright torso and call in a bunch of quads to get the job done, whereas I can lean way the f**k forward and posterior chain the whole thing.

I realize I sound like the biggest Mark Rippetoe fanboy when I say that, but folks: “allow me to explain myself”.  Take a look at my body.

Here in my natural habitat: deadlifting

If you were to genetically construct someone to be a conventional deadlift puller in some sort of mad scientist lab: I’d be the outcome.  I have pretty much NO upper torso.  I legit do NOT have a solar-plexus.  My top abs run into my sternum, which makes having a six pack difficult, as my first two abs start straight below my sternum and my bottom two finish above my belly button.  And though 5’9 isn’t a towering height, to ACHIEVE that height when I have the torso of someone that is 5’2, my body had to compensate by giving my STUPIDLY long femurs and matching forearms.  This means, when I lockout a conventional deadlift, it’s just a hair above my knees, and it also means I never understood you dudes that complained about the bar running into your junk when you do shrugs.  It ALSO means that, outside of deadlifts and atlas stones, pretty much all lifting sucks for me, because I have to bench a mile to get to lockout and any attempt at weightlifting movements is going to require some sort of Cotton Hill-esque surgery, because I can’t even get into the correct starting position.

…which brings us to the squat.  In mentioning my issue with weightlifting, you can foresee the difficulties that would come with attempting an upright style squat.  I have no torso to support the load AND I have a VERY long way to travel to reach the bottom of the squat.  However, if I LOW BAR squat instead of high bar, I can reduce the ROM by sitting BACK as far as possible along with down.  Thanks Westside barbell!  BUT, let’s ALSO consider the perks that came with me being built to deadlift: it means I’ve spent a LOT of time building posterior chain/hinging strength.  What better way to make use of it than to turn the squat into more of a bent knee good morning?

See this guy gets it!

But let’s go even further: I CAN lean so far forward in a squat BECAUSE I have no upper torso to speak of.  If I had the torso that belonged to an actual 5’9 person and leaned as far forward as I did, I’m SURE I’d strain something in my back, because it’d put a fair among of torque on it.  BUT, when your torso is so short, you really don’t a lot of strain on the back when you lean so far forward.  There just isn’t enough distance to create stress.  

Let me take this moment to state, once again, I am a political science and philosophy student, and that I got a D in high school, so I’m sure I’m butchering every term here, but I’ve also been writing in a blog for almost a decade now, so I’m SURE you understand what I mean even if I’m saying it “wrong”.

Physics is no match for Solipsism!

But anyway, forward lean: there you go.  And in something of a “chicken and egg” thing, BECAUSE my torso is so short, I can put the bar further down my back…which results in more forward lean.  And it’s worth appreciating that I’ve NEVER experienced a back injury from forward lean, in the squat OR the deadlift.  I’ve hurt all sorts of stuff, sure, but not the back…despite what the internet would have you believe. 

BUT, there are a few more x-factors at play here.  I’ve dislocated my right shoulder 6 times and subluxed it a few dozen times, after also tearing the labrum.  Once again: that makes pressing suck, but it also means I can make my shoulder conform to IMPOSSIBLE angles: thing that would make M.C. Escher scratch his head.  I also, apparently, have some sort of wrist mutation where I can make them fold into angles that simply should not be, much to the frustration of every martial arts instructor I’ve ever had that tried to do a wrist lock on me.  THIS combines to allow for an even LOWER bar placement.

And I don't even have to do yoga!

But the final contributing factor, when I JUST had an “ah hah” moment about when I heard Matt Wenning talk about it: I’ve been doing band pull aparts since 2008, and have built THE most ideal shelf for a stupidly low low bar squat

Less than ideal for fitting into a suit jacket

The bar is STABLE in this position when I do this.  There’s no circus balancing act required, it’s not sliding down my back, it’s LOCKED IN.  I actually PREFER having it there because of that. 

Now, hear me out: the reason I do the majority of my squatting with a buffalo bar vs a power bar is BECAUSE the buffalo bar actually forces me to use a slightly higher bar height.  If you’ve watched any of my “monument to non-existence” videos, you’ve seen how, when I get under a barbell, the bar is silly low.  This IS awesome when I want to move as much weight as possible OR when I want to do as many reps as possible, because it puts me in the strongest position I can be in.  It’s also the bar height I use in competition, for that very reason.  But BECAUSE the Ironmind Buffalo Bar has terrible knurling and is slightly cambered, if I try to keep it that low, it WILL slide off my back.  In turn, I have to elevate it just a touch, which forces me to train just a LITTLE bit harder than if I use a barbell.  COULD I just be better disciplined with a barbell?  Yeah…but I could also not be.  The Buffalo Bar removes that choice.  Funny enough, though, the Safety Squat bar, though it forces an even HIGHER bar position, allows me to REALLY fall back on the posterior chain to move the weight, simply because you can good morning the F**K out of your squats if you’re so inclined.  So, without you even asking me: that’s why I use a buffalo bar.

Bent bars have a solid history too

But, ultimately, the answer I love to give of “why do you squat that way” is: I get bigger and stronger when I do.   Folks: I’ve played the game where I try to make my form look like someone else's…and I got REAL hurt doing so.  At one point, you find YOUR way, and it’s just your way.  But it might also benefit you to find folks BUILT like you and see how they do it too.  There HAVE been strong dudes who squat similar to me too, 

like Layne Norton

Steve Goggins

And Mark Felix

If you note: they’re built VERY similar to me.  Short torso, long limbs, great pullers, not great squatters…at least, not great the way YOU want them to squat.  But we find a way to get to yes, and it means having that bar low, leaning far forward, and laughing all the way to the bank.