High bar squat with strong forward lean?

[NoGainNoPainBro]

Currently I am doing high bar squats, because I slightly hurt my shoulder from the low bar position (due to poor shoulder mobility). I recorded my squats and noticed, that besides the higher bar position it looks pretty much like my low bar squats! I'm still "sitting back" and not down, my hips move far back, and my knees don't move forward a lot. However, at any given point of the movement the bar is over midfood.

Would that be considered bad form? I never saw people sitting back when doing high bar, always sitting down. I actually didn't experience much of a difference in strength, when I switched to high bar I could increase the weight like always (doing novice linear progression).

[CheekyKuntBrah]

would need to see the video, it sounds odd as the high bar position should have the bar pretty much over midfoot before the beginning of the rep and so therefore the need for a more vertical torso and sitting "straight down" into the squat position. There are some people who get into a bit of torso lean coming out of the high bar position though like pete rubish (think hes switch to highbar for injury too) and Kevin Oak


Edit - you need to cue breaking at the knees (knees and hips simultaneously) however I find literally thinking about breaking at the knees to initiate the movement will then allow the necessary forward knee travel / vertical torso. Do you have good ankle dorsiflexion? Have you got long femurs? Also to achieve what you mention depth must be super questionable or you must be extremely good morning positioned coming out the hole?

[Rags85]

Currently I am doing high bar squats, because I slightly hurt my shoulder from the low bar position (due to poor shoulder mobility). I recorded my squats and noticed, that besides the higher bar position it looks pretty much like my low bar squats! I'm still "sitting back" and not down, my hips move far back, and my knees don't move forward a lot. However, at any given point of the movement the bar is over midfood.

Would that be considered bad form? I never saw people sitting back when doing high bar, always sitting down. I actually didn't experience much of a difference in strength, when I switched to high bar I could increase the weight like always (doing novice linear progression).

Theres a reason for this. They are both just Squats. Don't get caught up with how its supposed to look. Your squat should look like your squat, not like somebody else. Theres also much more to it than just bar position. If you want a form check then post a video, but again, just because you dont look like what you think you are supposed to, doesn't mean you are doing it wrong.

Also, don't get caught up with different cues and whatnot. Everyone interprets cues differently. Develop and learn your own mental cues.

[NoGainNoPainBro]

would need to see the video, it sounds odd as the high bar position should have the bar pretty much over midfoot before the beginning of the rep and so therefore the need for a more vertical torso and sitting "straight down" into the squat position. There are some people who get into a bit of torso lean coming out of the high bar position though like pete rubish (think hes switch to highbar for injury too) and Kevin Oak


Edit - you need to cue breaking at the knees (knees and hips simultaneously) however I find literally thinking about breaking at the knees to initiate the movement will then allow the necessary forward knee travel / vertical torso. Do you have good ankle dorsiflexion? Have you got long femurs? Also to achieve what you mention depth must be super questionable or you must be extremely good morning positioned coming out the hole?

When I squat without bar in front of the mirror, I can actually do both - sitting back or sitting down. At the end of the day, bar position should not have that much influence on it, since that is just a matter of how how you adjust your knee- and hip angle (or am I seeing this wrong?). However, I was just wondering because for some reason it seems that high bar is asociated with sitting down, and low bar with sitting back. The depth was indeed questionable, it squatted until parallel or maybe a tiny bit below.

[NoGainNoPainBro]

Theres a reason for this. They are both just Squats. Don't get caught up with how its supposed to look. Your squat should look like your squat, not like somebody else. Theres also much more to it than just bar position. If you want a form check then post a video, but again, just because you dont look like what you think you are supposed to, doesn't mean you are doing it wrong.

Also, don't get caught up with different cues and whatnot. Everyone interprets cues differently. Develop and learn your own mental cues.

You are right. Right now I am just learning a lot about the lifts and I am just curious about the hows and whys.

For now the problem is fixed, since I managed to do painfree low bar squats today (after warming my shoulder up properly and paying attention to flexing my upper back while squatting). If I'll have to switch again, I'll upload a video. Thanks guys!

[FaIIen]

it seems that high bar is asociated with sitting down, and low bar with sitting back.

Well generally speaking high bar will punish you more for leaning forward, simply because the moment arm is longer when the bar is higher up your back. If your back is fairly upright with low bar, there probably wont be that much of a difference.

[CheekyKuntBrah]

Well generally speaking high bar will punish you more for leaning forward, simply because the moment arm is longer when the bar is higher up your back. If your back is fairly upright with low bar, there probably wont be that much of a difference.

This is spot on.