high bar/low bar confusion--a story of squatting memory loss

[Jeff Yan]

For the past 1.75 years, I've been a low bar back squatter. Recently, for a while I hadn't done any back squatting for several weeks/months. In the interim , I'd been doing lots of deep air squats, some O-lifting practice, and occasional sitting-in-the-bottom-of-my-third-world-squat stretchings--you know, mostly stuff where I'm squatting in an upright posture.

Then not long ago when I tried to do some low-bar back squats, I realized that I'd "forgotten" how to do them. My posture wanted to be upright like I was doing a front squat or high-bar back squat. My squats were completely inconsistent--each rep would have little resemblance to the preceding one.

On some of the reps that felt more like proper low bar squats, I wasn't hitting below-parallel depth. On other reps, it felt like I was doing a high bar squat, except that the barbell was still sitting in the low position against my back.

Has anybody else had the problem where they lost the "feel" for low bar squats?

[Arden Cogar Jr.]

For me to transition back to low bar "power squats" I have to remember the following:
1) feet wider
2) toes pointed out a bit more
3) hips back first
4) keep my shins as perpendicular as possible
5) let the toes come up a bit when I'm pushing my hips back first.

Beyond those five things, I also have to remind myself "Big chest" but then be okay with the fact that I'm bending at the torso a bit more.

In the past I've always had a big poundage difference between the low bar versus high bar squats. I've been almost exclusively doing as you have, olympic training with high bar fashion, and I think that gap has lessened.

Good luck and go heavy.

All the best,
Arden