The Ups and Downs of high-bar squatting

Much appreciated Freefaller! 140kgs for 18 reps.... :eek: I seem to have a much narrower stance during high bar, just outside shoulder width - am I right in thinking that stance width is purely whatever is comfortable or does it also affect leverages?
 
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Standing wider puts your legs at a more diagonal angle which has the effect of shortening the horizontal distance between your hips and knees. A wider stance will also allow you to be more upright when squatting.

Explanation: By decreasing the distance between your hips and the bar, you don’t have to lean over (as you do with low bar) as far forwards to get the bar over the middle of your foot (the bar being over the middle of the foot is the idea position). You've probably seen this pic before:

MW2eXuo.jpg

Wider stances changes the moments (remember physics and moments? http://physicsnet.co.uk/a-level-physics-as-a2/mechanics/moments/) involved in squatting to your advantage. However, it also mitigates the disadvantage of the low bar position. When you squat with a wider stance you kinda get a bit of all the win, a more upright hip dominant squat with small moment arms.

That said, low bar squat will be more powerful/stronger generally, as you will be using more posterior chain when low bar squatting and less quad, and your PC is MUCH stronger than your quad. High bar is less PC dominant and more quad dominant.

Irrespective of low or high bar though standing wider will also reduces your ROM - which helps. IF you think about it, your wider position of the legs is going to reduce the vertical distance between the hips and the knees.

Remember for a proper squat ROM you have to bring the crease of the hip below the knee.

It is also down to physiology, short limb length vs long torso and vice versa. I have quite long legs, and fairly equal torso so for me wider stance gives me a better chance of getting to depth.

IF you're long torso short femur - then you have the best physique for squatting. You'll have such short range of motion even with a medium width stance that you should be able to squat a huge amount.

To work out if you are long or short femur lengthed, measure from your hip to the outside of your knee joint. Divide that number by your height in inches or centimetres.

If you get .26 on the dot, then you're average joe bloggs.
>.26, you're trending towards being long femured
<.26, you're trending towards long torsoed
 
.277 recurring. I might give a wider stance a go and see what its like, though I cant say I've ever had much issue hitting depth beyond the infamous butt-wink - the lower ROM is tempting. Would the butt-wink issue (which is being fixed) affect a wider stance due to the great hip activation?

(Sorry Dreamforger, completely running your log off topic).
 
16/3/15 - Monday

After such a long week, travelling and poor sleep, it's no wonder why I was exhausted half way through this training session.

Squats

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
60kg x 3x8 - Practically cardio
65kg x 5
70kg x 2x2
75kg x 1

Well that was easy, yet tiring.

Last technique for a short while. I'll review it again in a few weeks time. But it's looking and feeling better, to me anyway.


Bench

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
50kg x 2
55kg x 6x6

Awesomes :cool:

BOR

Bar x some
40kg x some - feeling iffy
50kg x some - no power or energy left

Just gave up and called it a day with those.

Face Pulls

16.25kg x 4x12

Easy enough once I got back into the flow. The pully system is different to what I'm used to so a much lighter weight feels ridiculous heavy due to the way he cables are connected.

Tricep Pushdowns

18.somethingkg x 5x20

Same thing again, I'm used to doing 32kg+ but system is silly so a much lighter weight felt like I was doing a lot more.

Calling it there. Shattered. The sets and reps on Squats and Bench were nice and easy but as soon as I stopped to doing the BOR's I had all the energy sapped out of me. Lots of food and rest incoming.
 
Two interesting exercises to see how wide your foot stance should be based on hip socket 'design' are the horizontal squat, and the acetabulum scour (hip scour test)...

You can basically see where your femoral head starts bumping into your hip socket and determine how wide you have to go to achieve depth on a squat. For me, that is just outside my hips (hence a very narrow squat compared to FreeFaller's).

Mercifully, I have spectacular ankle and hip mobility to go with this to make up for my femurs having to go somewhere.
 
18/03/15 - Wednesday

The flu hit me mid deadlifts but overall energy is miles better than it was on Monday.

Squats

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
60kg x 3x8
70kg x 2x2
75kg x 1

Obliterated this rep scheme this time, solid form and decent speed and power too in comparison to what I have been producing lately.

Bench

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 7x5

Felt epic. Hopefully the rest of the week should feel the same.

Sumo Deadlifts

60kg x 5
80kg x 5
95kg x 5
107.5kg x 5 - Horrid (I went full Flu)
120kg(B) x 1 - Felt amazing

All sets up until the single were horrid due to the flu kicking in. I was constantly coughing and trying to breath through a blocked nose. After about 10 mins, my training partner convinced me to pull a single, so I did and it was brilliant.

Left it there, that was more than enough considering I was splattering guts everywhere. Couldn't breathe properly so I thought it was best to leave. Still quite happy with everything. Form and technique is coming along nicely in all lifts.
 
20/3/15 - Friday

Squats and bench.

Squats

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
60kg x 1
65kg x 4x5
70kg x 3
75kg x 2x2
82.5kg x 1

Form and power are feeling miles better. I hope I keep this up and get back to where I was (again).

Bench

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 1
62.5kg x 8x4

Bench was feeling off to begin with because I had to alter my setup since it was a different style of bench to what I had been using the past week.

Finished off the session with some mobility and stretching.

More bench tomorrow with some speed sumo deadlifts.
 
21/3/15 - Saturday

Lots of bench, lots and lots of deadlifts.

Bench

Bar x many
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 2
65kg x 10x3

Rather tired towards the end of that but for the most part it was solid.

Deadlifts (Sumo)

60kg x 5
80kg x 3
100kg x 1,1,1
100kg x 1 - conv.
110kg x 1
110kg x 1 - conv.
120kg x 1
120kg x 1 - conv.
130kg x 1
130kg x 1 - conv.
60kg x some
100kg x 2
110kg x 1,1
120kg x 1
130kg x 1

And that's me done. Hip was tight so the sumo pulls weren't amazing to start with. The got better as the session went on but by the end my back was really tired and I was fatigued to do much more.

Chest supported Rows

Bar + 10kg x 8
Bar + 15kg x 8
Bar + 20kg x 8
Bar + 25kg x 6
Bar + 30kg x 6
Bar + 20kg x 4x12

I prefer these a lot more to Pendlay's atm since they save my lower back and put a greater emphasise on my upper back too.

Not a bad session but I really need to work on my mobility to pull sumo more efficiently.
 
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23/3/15 - Monday

Not bad, not bad at all.

Squats

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
60kg x 3
70kg x 2
75kg x 5

Easy enough but feeling a bit tired and hips weren't engaging properly. Still solid form so all is good.

Bench

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
50kg x 4
60kg x 6x6

Noticeably tired but still decent. The rest of the week will be tough unless Wednesday goes well.

Chest Supported Rows

Bar + 10kg x 8
Bar + 15kg x 8
Bar + 20kg x 6
Bar + 25kg x 6
Bar + 30kg x 4
Bar + 25kg x 4x12
Bar + 15kg x 18
Bar + 10kg x 2x18

That should counter my pressing volume...

Tricep Pushdowns

35kg x 5x20

Pump.


And that's that done! Squats, Bench and Deadlift on Wednesday. Squat volume and intensity is being heavily reduced to focus on Bench and Deadlifts for the competition in 2 weeks. I'll be back on proper squat volume the week after the comp.
 
25/3/15 - Wednesday

Well that was a brilliant session! Confidence is where it should be for the competition next weekend!

Squats

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
60kg x 3
70kg x 2
75kg x 5

Easy enough. If it wasn't for the competition I'd run work on increasing the weight properly but I'll wait until after the competition.

Bench

Bar x lots
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 2
65kg x 7x5

First set or two felt a tad meh but I was amazed I managed to power through and get all the sets and reps with decent form.

Sumo Deadlifts

70kg x 5
90kg x 3
100kg x 5 - Ugggh
107kg x 3 - Oooh, that's better
120kg(B) x 1 - Got it
130kg(B) x 1 - Yeah!
140kg(B) x 1 - Boom, confidence restored :cool:
60kg x 5
80kg x 2
100kg x 2
120kg(B) x 6

I had 1 or 2 left in me on the 120kg for reps but I wanted to be sensible and save the energy for sumo block pulls on Saturday and then completely rest and deload for a week with a light session or two next week.

Face Pulls

23kg x 4x12

Kneeling cable crunches

55kg x 3x20

Ran out of time for the 5x20

Really happy with that session. It has given me confidence for the rest of my bench sessions this week. If I could do this, the other two should be possible due to a volume decrease. My form and technique has improved on sumo deadlifts too so that has given me a lot of hope for pulling the numbers I wanted in the competition next weekend. Bring it on :cool:
 
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