Sunday, December 28, 2008

More back squat comparisons

In a previous post, I had linked a great video comparing the low-bar and high-bar back squats. The video has been removed from YouTube, so I figured I would make my own since that post gets a fair number of hits. Cobbled together from a couple of warm-up squats at 225#.



Image below is from the bottom position, where it's a bit more obvious that in the high-bar squat the torso is more upright, the knees travel further forward bringing the hips closer to the ankles. Note that my stance is a couple of inches narrower for the high-bar squat, and I could probably stand to get my torso more upright and get a bit more depth by letting my knees drift forward more (click image for a better view, the white line indicates my knee position relative to my toes). I have to be really careful doing that since it's easy for my hips to tuck under when I sit on my ankles (not sure this is true for everyone).

Another illustration from the Performance Menu:An Olympian's high-bar squat:That's Natalie Woolfolk (photo from mikesgym.org). Instructive photos of Aimee Anaya and Greg Everett high-bar squatting can be found here.

2 comments:

Melissa Urban said...

Brilliant, brilliant, love it, love it! This is some timely stuff, as I just switched over on a permanent basis from low bar to high bar. After playing with low bar for almost 6 months, I just could NOT get my knees to stop sliding forward, and my torso more upright. I was afraid of getting taco'd one of these days. I had forgotten about "The Other Back Squat", but Justin from CFBK reminded me, and I gave it a go. BINGO. My depth improved tremendously, I had no trouble getting my knees to track and stay pushed out and my torso was nice and upright with a "big chest" and much better lumbar curve. As such, I am sold.

Thanks for this comparison.

brian said...

lols at taco'd.