Starting Strength

Coaches dealing with lots of trainees may prefer to just let them carry the bar high, thus relegating the question of bar position to an insignificant issue in the grand scheme of things.
    The high-bar position is easier to get in for people with inflexible shoulders, and some older trainees with chronic shoulder problems have no choice but to squat this way; for them, it is obviously better than not squatting at all. Shoulder flexibility this bad sometimes improves, but sometimes, especially for older trainees, it doesn’t improve much at all, especially if it is due to bony changes within the joint capsule. We’ve already discussed the reasons for preferring the low-bar position, so here we’ll assume that the high-bar position is the alternate version and that there is a compelling reason for using it.
    The high-bar position requires that more attention be paid to keeping the chest up, which depends on upper back strength. The closer to vertical the back is, the smaller the effects of the longer back segment. This more upright position is also required if the squat is to stay in balance, since any squat is in balance only when the bar is over the middle of the feet. But the more upright the back and the more closed the knee angle, the less the hamstrings are involved in the movement, since the hips are already extended and the knees are more flexed. The farther forward the knees are, the less involved the hips are. All these position requirements and leverage disadvantages make it necessary to use lighter loads in the Olympic squat than in the low-bar version. If you decide that the high-bar version might be useful, then use it as your standard squat and focus on the upright chest position. Hip drive will be greatly diminished, so it will not be useful as a cue.
    Front squats
     
    The front squat is a completely separate exercise ( Figure 7-8 ), for a couple of very important reasons. It varies enough from the squat that it should not be used by novices still trying to learn that movement. The front squat uses a different movement model than the squat, in that the hips are not the emphasis when the lifter is thinking about how to do it – the knees and the chest are the keys to the front squat.

    Figure 7-8. Three views of the front squat. Note the very steep back angle and the position of the bar over the mid-foot.

The differences in the two movements are entirely due to the bar position ( Figure 7-9 ). Any squat that is in balance will keep the bar over the mid-foot, while it is in the resting position at the top and as it travels down and up through the whole range of motion of the exercise. The low-bar squat will thus be done with a back angle of somewhere between 30 and 50 degrees, depending on individual anthropometry, to permit the bar’s vertical position over the feet. But in the front squat, since the bar sits on the anterior deltoids, with the elbows up and the hands trapping the bar in place, the back angle must be nearly vertical to keep the bar over the mid-foot and prevent it from falling off the shoulders. Front squats are missed when the weight is too heavy to squat or too heavy for the back to stay upright enough for the lifter to hold the bar in place. In either instance, the bar falls away forward.
    And since the back must stay nearly vertical, the knees and hips must facilitate this: from the earliest part of the movement in a front squat, the knees track forward (and out) and the hips stay under the bar. This combination places the tibias in a much more horizontal position than in a squat, and this position significantly changes the mechanics around the knees and ankles, as well as the hips and lower back.

    Figure 7-9. The relationship between bar position for the two types of squats and the resulting back, knee, and hip angles.

    The position of the bar determines the best way to drive up out of the bottom. The low-bar squat uses a forceful, deliberate initial hip drive. The idea is to drive the butt straight up out of the bottom, which more effectively makes the glutes, hamstrings, and adductors contract. This hip drive is possible because the bar is low enough to place the lifter’s back at an angle which permits it; driving the butt up with the bar on the back just requires that the chest be maintained in position, preserving the back angle.
    Hip drive does not work for the front squat. When the back is at a more horizontal angle, the hips present a “surface” – the top of