First things first – everybody needs to squat. There’s simply no
substitute for it, and for the vast majority of people, there’s no
excuse not to. The reasons have been beaten to death by Rip and every
other SSC for years, and they still hold true today: squatting is
non-negotiable. It’s the most effective way to train the most
muscle mass, over the longest effective range of motion, allowing you
to lift the most weight safely. That’s the formula for getting
stronger, and the low-bar squat does this better than anything else.
By placing the bar just
below the spine of the scapula, and establishing the more horizontal
back angle, we’re able to load the posterior chain more effectively
– the glutes, hamstrings, adductors and spinal erectors – which
are the big movers that keep us strong, mobile, and harder to kill as
we age. This isn’t just about the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and
connective tissues adapting, as they always do, it’s about force
production, because that’s what strength is. The low-bar squat
allows us to produce more force with more muscle mass, making it the
most effective variation for driving the strength adaptation we’re
after.
It also happens to be
how human hips and knees evolved to work, meaning together and in
sync, moving through a normal human movement pattern. Sit down and
stand back up. Off the toilet, out of the car, out of the chair at
work, whatever. These are squats, whether you think of them that way
or not and if we keep our hips strong, we’re stacking the deck in
our favor for a higher quality of life as we age. It’s not just
about barbells or new PRs, though they matter; it’s about not needing
help getting off the couch when you’re 75.
Now let me make something else very clear: some folks are physically
unable to get the bar into a textbook low-bar position on day one,
and for some, it’s never going to happen. This isn’t about refusing
to do a proper squat because it’s uncomfortable, and it’s not about
laziness. This is simply the reality of some people’s shoulders,
elbows, or thoracic spine mobility being too limited for that
position – especially when they’re new to training, are 50+ years
old, and haven’t had their arms over their head or done anything
physically hard since hockey fights were still allowed on CBC without
a public apology.
The solution? You
adjust, adapt, and figure it out. As a coach, this is your job, and
if you’re a lifter you need to know the adjustments you can make,
without panicking and deeming yourself unable to squat, while
resorting to the leg press, walking lunges, and hip-thrust fuckery.
And no, we’re not talking about folks who are so detrained they can’t
even do a bodyweight squat the first day. This article is for the
vast majority of people who can squat, but can’t yet get the bar
where it needs to be.
Here’s how we
typically troubleshoot this, in order, at our gym.
1. Slide the bar up
a bit. This isn’t rocket science. If you can’t get the damn
thing into the correct low bar position – below the spine of the
scapula – just slide it up a little until it’s tolerable. You’d
be amazed how many people completely melt down when the bar doesn’t
sit perfectly on their posterior delts. The reality is that an inch
or so up the back, just enough to stay in place but reduce joint
stress, isn’t going to make or break anything. It’s not ideal, but it
will keep you squatting just fine with the bar off of your neck, and
we can load it progressively like everything else.
Don’t overthink it.
Keep it simple and get under the bar.
2. High-bar squat.
If even a slightly adjusted low-bar position still feels like
someone’s wrenching your arms out of their sockets, then high-bar
is your next stop.
Yes, the mechanics
change, as the back angle is more vertical, and there is a longer
moment arm on the knees and a shorter one on the hips, but it’s still
a squat. You’re unlocking the hips and knees, riding it down and
standing it back up. We can teach it, load it, progress it, and reap
the benefits. High-bar still builds strength and drives the
stress/recovery/adaptation cycle just fine. Again, it’s not ideal and
it’s not going to let you handle the same kind of weight, or get your
back quite as strong as a low-bar squat, but you will still be
squatting and that, at the end of the day, is what matters.
3. Buffalo Bar.
If your gym is properly equipped (like ours), the Buffalo Bar is a
beautiful compromise that often flies under the radar. It has a
gentle camber – a slight bend along the bar’s shaft – that
allows the lifter to get the bar into the correct position while
carrying the hands a bit lower relative to the bar’s position on your
back. What this does is reduce the stress on the shoulders, elbows,
and wrists, and is often enough to let the borderline cases squat
pain-free. And best of all, the mechanics of the lift do not change.
This setup can be a game-changer for people who are close to a proper
low-bar position but just can’t quite manage the final few degrees
of mobility without pain, even after some weeks of honest effort to
do so. The Buffalo Bar bridges that gap, and it also stays locked in
position very effectively because it’s already bent over the
back, meaning it cannot roll up or down.
In terms of the
mid-foot balance point, the Buffalo Bar behaves almost identically to
a standard barbell. We have two (one is 20kg, 220cm long with a 30mm
shaft, and the other is 23.2kg, 230cm long with a 35mm shaft), and
the heavier one is significantly more stable. There’s negligible
sway if the bar is controlled well, and we haven’t seen any
meaningful deviation in balance when using it. For most lifters, it’s
effectively the same as squatting with a straight bar in terms of how
the load interacts with the system.
You can use it for a
correct low-bar squat, a slightly higher variant, or even high-bar if
needed, and in all cases you’ll still be training the movement
pattern correctly, with a heavy, loaded barbell in a safe and
effective position. It’s a smart tool, and if your gym has one and
you need one, you should be using it.
4. Safety Squat Bar
(SSB). Everyone should be familiar with this bar. For folks who
can’t even high bar due to all the above mentioned issues of age,
injury, mobility restrictions, or some other flavor of
musculoskeletal chaos, the SSB is a godsend. Your hands are out in
front of you in a very stable and comfortable position and the bar
will not roll anywhere up or down your back. It removes the need for
external shoulder rotation entirely and gives us a clean, stable bar
path with excellent carryover.
Due to the bar’s camber and where it sits – higher on the traps
and slightly forward – it aligns closely over the mid-foot,
allowing for the lifter to be completely upright at the start of the
the squat. This shift creates a longer moment arm on the knees and a
shorter one on the hips, resulting in a more vertical back angle, a
more open hip angle, and a more closed knee angle throughout the
squat to keep the system in balance. It changes the distribution of
the work, placing more demand on the quads and upper back.
You can (if you want)
either push the handles further away or pull them closer in to change
the mechanics as the plates will move forward or back some, but it
really doesn’t change that much. The SSB boils down to a
high-bar/low-bar hybrid that is just a very comfortable bar to use if
the circumstances call for it. For older folks with badly beaten-up
shoulders, this is their favorite thing.
While it is more
difficult to maintain a rigid thoracic spine because of the
positioning of your hands out in front, it’s a wonderful option if
you need it. Almost every proper gym has one these days and if you’re
training somewhere that doesn’t, invest in one yourself or find
another gym. The bottom line is you’re not off the hook – you’re
still getting under the bar.
5. Cambered Bar.
Now we’re getting niche here, and admittedly these things can be
hard to find, but for those committed to the idea of the low-bar
mechanics and unable to grip the bar conventionally even with a
Buffalo Bar, the cambered bar is a viable option. You keep your hands
low and this thing lets you get the bar into the low bar position
very easily. The reason is because gripping a cambered bar when
squatting puts your wrists in a slightly-supinated, more neutral
position, which is easier on the shoulders and elbows for many
lifters. The vertical handles can be gripped higher up for a tighter
upper back or slid down quite a ways if that’s the only way it’ll
work. It’s also very unlikely to roll anywhere out of place during a
squat.
There is, however, some important nuance here in terms of keeping the
barbell-lifter system in balance when using this bar. The cambered
bar displaces the center of mass of the load lower and either
slightly forward or backwards relative to the bar on your back due to
the natural swing of the bar and plates. That pendulum-like movement
means any deviation from the mid-foot gets exaggerated quickly, often
forcing changes in the lifter’s back, hip, and knee angles from rep
to rep. In short, unlike the other specialty bars, this thing can end
up being a different-looking squat each rep if you can’t handle the
extraneous motion. If the lifter isn’t adept at controlling the
inherent sway, the bar can become a pain in the ass and quite
difficult to deal with. It doesn’t take long to get used to, but
there is a definite learning curve at the start.
The most common issue
we see is the “Good Morning Squat” creeping in as thoracic
extension is lost on the ascent of the squat and on top of that, the
weight just feels heavier than a standard bar due to the leverage
changes and dynamic instability. A 405lb squat with this bar feels
vastly different than the same weight on a barbell. I’ve been messing
around with it a little bit over the last month and the difference in
how this bar feels when squatting is very noticeable, but you can
keep low-bar mechanics just fine after some practice.
That being said, of the
handful of people who do use this bar, most aren’t lifting weights
heavy enough to let the bar dominate their position anyway. They’re
in control, so we don’t see massive disruptions to the balance
point and they are basically squatting with low-bar mechanics without
feeling “left behind.” I suspect it would behave a little more
predictably if we high-barred it, but we don’t, so I can’t say
for sure. We have two in our gym (25kg and 40kg) and while the
heavier one is the much better bar, it is a gigantic pain to lug
around the gym,
6. Belt Squat.
If no bar is an option, and shoulder positioning is a total
dealbreaker, the belt squat is the fallback. Again, these can be hard
to find but if you have access to one, it’s a fantastic option. We
invested in one pretty early on and haven’t regretted it for a
second. I had a very, very good back tweak a couple years ago that I
was trying to navigate with Nick Delgadillo and Will Morris, and the
belt squat was the one thing I could train heavy without issue. Thank
goodness we had one because I used the absolute shit out of ours.
Sure, we’d still rather load the skeleton directly with a barbell,
but if we’re forced to choose between getting stronger or skipping
squats entirely, the belt squat wins. It allows us to go very heavy,
train the movement pattern, and load the hips and legs without
loading the spine or shoulders. And yes, you will get stronger. You
can play with different back and knee angles if you also need to work
around an injury (think cranky knees), and no matter how bad someone
feels, they can always belt squat. I think any gym that has some
extra space should get one.
I suppose I could have
added a goblet squat here but I don’t want to. Quite frankly, I’d
rather have someone on the belt squat loading up the plates instead
of holding a 12kg kettlebell under their chin. If that’s your only
option, however, roll with it. Additionally, the four kettlebells we
do have are always being used to keep our doors propped open for
fresh air. They work really, really well for this and any 8, 12, or
16kg kettlebell will hold your door open too.
Everyone in our gym
squats. Period. We’re lucky to have all of these tools available to
us, so nobody gets a free pass. The folks who are a little tight in
the shoulders on day one will eventually get into the low-bar squat
just fine, but until they do they’ll still get under load, every damn
time.
If you’re one of the
folks who will never get the bar where we’d like it to be, relax –
you’ll be fine. This doesn’t mean you’re going to die younger
because you’re not squatting low-bar. If that’s your concern, get
over it and get to work. You’re still pressing, benching, and pulling
heavy, which is way more than most people can say.
Keep in mind, that
these are workarounds, not replacements, because we don’t live in
some pristine, idealized fantasy. People sit in office chairs for 10
hours a day, can’t scratch their own backs without cramping, and
haven’t used their hips in any meaningful way since their
honeymoon. Shoulders are trashed, posture’s a dumpster fire, and
most folks move like their joints have been shrink-wrapped. So no,
these options aren’t perfect, but they get the job done of making
sure all our people are squatting.
You’re not broken and
you’re very, very unlikely to be a truly special case. This is why we
assess, adapt, and load what we can, because we don’t skip
squats. Ever.
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