High bar and Low bar squats

[Brian Lawyer]

Just came across this thread. Lot's of good info. I wanted to add my two cents and experience.

I basically had been doing High Bar squats my whole life and never really knew there was a difference until I started frequenting the crossfit forum. For me Hig bar was just a natural place to hold the bar on top of my traps. I could walk around all day with 300lbs sitting across the top of my traps. Torso lean and all that just came natural as a result of simply keeping the weight over the balls of my feet as i squatted.

After learning about a SS low bar squat I started trying low bar just for kicks. It took a little practice getting used to the different bar position and working on some of the other mechanics. In the end, I definitly felt my hammies and glutes tightening up like a spring out of the bottom. The other thing I noticed is you can actually go too low with the low bar squat. At least for me, if I went too deep and missed that sweet spot where the top of my patella is in line with the crease of my hip (i.e. just below parallel) , I lose that spring out of the bottom. This is not necessarily the case with a HBBS because you just kind of hit bottom and come back up on a HBBS or FBS.

[Kevin Perry]

I went back to HBBS today. It just felt more natural. With the LBS there is more pain in positioning my arms correctly and more hip pain.

[Howard Wilcox]

Ok, I have a follow-up question for the panel.

With the LBBS, I go back and then down with the hips. It seems to work well since the torso has an angle on it.

But, with the HBBS, I need to keep an upright torso. So, do I still go back and down or will that lead to too much lean? Should I just go straight down or what?

What coaching cues should I say to myself (and ultimately others)?

Thanks,

howard

[Donald Lee]

Originally Posted by Howard Wilcox

Ok, I have a follow-up question for the panel.

With the LBBS, I go back and then down with the hips. It seems to work well since the torso has an angle on it.

But, with the HBBS, I need to keep an upright torso. So, do I still go back and down or will that lead to too much lean? Should I just go straight down or what?

What coaching cues should I say to myself (and ultimately others)?

Thanks,

howard

Straight down. Try to sit on your ankles. If sitting straight down doesn't work well, you probably need to angle your feet out more or play around with your stance or stretch.

[Howard Wilcox]

Ok, thanks. Tilting the feet out might help a little...mainly I have to ensure I keep a back arch. With the low-bar this is easy since it is somewhat built-in to the initial movement.


howard

[Jason Lin]

I just switched from LB to HB a few days ago and am having trouble with the "standing up" part. It feels like I am using way too much "hip drive" on the way up and consequently losing the upright torso.

Anyone else have this problem?

[Howard Wilcox]

Yep, a little.

That said, most of the videos on this site show that to some degree when weight gets heavy. I don't know if that is good or bad or if it is somewhat inevitable.

howard

[Kevin Perry]

maybe it has to do with the idea that in the low bar position, an active hip is always cued so your mind tends to focus on getting the hip up as a means to drive the weight where as in the high bar position the weight is supposed to be driven from an upright position that is quad dominant so the focus has to shift.

That just how i've noticed it though

[Garrett Smith]

Jason,
Your body will revert to its old neuromuscular squatting patterns when the weight gets too heavy for your "new" form.

You likely will need to drop your weight for a while and get the new groove down before squatting your old (heavier) weights.

[John Filippini]

Two cues for former LBBS people that lose the upright torso coming out of a HBBS:

1 - Keep your chest up - think of reaching or leading with your chest out of the squat.

2 - Lean Back into it. Careful with this one, as it's easy to imagine someone screwing this up - though it works for me and none of my friends I've said it to have had problems. By thinking about leaning back into it, you may keep from letting your hips come out (leaning your torso forward).

I've been waging my own war with this. My oly lifting team is actually going into a heavy squat cycle and my back squats are priority alpha for me. My BS is actually higher than some of the (much) better lifters in the team, because when I get fatigued I still go back to kicking my hips out. So the goal this cycle is to work on correcting my BS form as much as it is to get the weight higher - hopefully with the result of better transfer to my other lifts.