High Bar Squats or Low Bar Squats For Squat Training

As a weightlifter, I always used the high bar squat. Its more comfortable for me personally to use, and I would have my clients using that technique myself. It to me forces the core to stay tighter on the squat, which is the right way and the only way to perform that movement with a load on the client. It targets the quadricep muscles more with the bar placement on the shoulders. The only way to perform a snatch and the clean is to be upright on the squat. If the body isn’t upright, the client performing the Olympic lifts will just collapse, fall over, and really hurt themselves. Powerlifters, on the other hand, like to use the low bar squat. The bar is placed on the upper part of the back. It targets the hamstrings more with the load there. That forces the powerlifter to lean more forward. I see a lot of back injuries potentially happening with that bar on the back like that. Heres why. When the bar is loaded with massive loads. I’m talking 300 plus pounds, the weight load, because of gravity will make the lifter lean even more forward. That puts a massive strain on the lower back. I’m not a fan of the low bar squat for this reason. I went into constant resistance and linear resistance training in a previous post and you can read that yourself. It is also on our Instagram page if you can’t somehow find it on here. This is an example of constant resistance. On any part of this movement with a loaded barbell, the client can get stuck on the lift. It happened to me many times myself when I trained it as a weightlifter. Some gyms won’t allow members to just dump the load, which can hurt the lifter. Sometimes, even a coach can’t help. It depends on where the load is and where that lifter is when doing the squat. So if you train squats by yourself, use the high bar squat. Better on your back.

From HPLL Fitness