We’re focusing on the back squat over the next month or two at CrossFit Goose Creek. Today I wanted to talk about the two main styles of back squatting; high bar and low bar back squat. With the high bar back squat the barbell typically rests higher on the traps or upper back, the feet are generally just outside of hip width, our torso is going to be close to vertical, and our hips are descending down rather than being sent backwards.
In the low bar back squat, our feet are typically going to be closer to that shoulder width, or outside of shoulder width, and the barbell is going to be sitting lower on the back. With the rear delt, you need to make sure you have decent shoulder mobility to rack the bar appropriately there. Also, you are going to be sending the hips back further in that low bar back squat with the torso being a little bit flatter angle.
When comparing the two back squats, your torso angle is going to be flatter in the low bar back squat than in the high bar back squat. Generally, you’re going to be able to lift more weight with the low bar style back squat because you have less range of motion, and you can engage the glutes and the hamstrings more to lift more weight. With the high bar back squat it’s much closer to an athletic type stance with those feet just outside of the hips. It’s going to be closer to the type of squatting that you would perhaps see in everyday life.
The reason we choose high bar back squat to coach to our athletes at CrossFit Goose Creek, is simply for carryover. High bar back squat for us carries over much closer to the lifts that we do in CrossFit. So, catching a bar in an overhead squat position for the snatch or catching a barbell in that front squat position for a clean, it’s going to be much closer to that high bar back squat, and we get much more carry over from focusing on that position. Other movements, thrusters, wall balls, air squats, you name it, if we’re squatting in CrossFit, it’s a lot closer to the high bar. So, that’s why we choose to focus on high bar back squats even though we won’t necessarily be building as much absolute strength in the lift.
Good luck to everyone working on their back squat! Hopefully, everyone is able to hit some PR’s this cycle!
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