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How To Fix An Uneven Bar Position On Squat

How To Fix An Uneven Bar Position On Squat – CLICK HERE

In the low bar squat specifically, an issue that is common in powerlifting is an uneven bar. Whether that be one side sitting lower, the bar being off center, or twisting, it is common to see asymmetry in someone’s low bar rack position. As humans, we are asymmetrical, and likely in the squat, bench, and deadlift will never look perfectly even. So for some this may not be an issue at all, but for others, it may be limiting their strength potential or causing other downfalls. In my latest YouTube video, I cover the 3 fairly simple reasons why the bar might be uneven for someone, how to fix that, and what to look for in regards to identifying if this is a potential issue or not for you. What you will find is this issue isn’t really that complex, and typically stems from just an accumulation of bad habits over time. Hopefully for those who may be limiting their potential due to an uneven bar position can find the fix they’ve been looking for in this video, and feel free to ask any questions if needed! Click the link above to view!

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Head Position In The Conventional Deadlift

Head Position In The Conventional Deadlift

Where the head leads, the body will follow, and a simple head position change can dictate a lot of what goes on with the deadlift in particular. I have written a lot about head position in the sumo deadlift. In general, most people are going to want to bias to a more straight forward head position to create rigidity in the upper back and more uprightness, as the leverages of sumo require a more upright torso in comparison to conventional. But just like any lift, there is a general bell curve where it is optimal for people might be looking more down and some even more up. Within the conventional deadlift though, a slight downward gaze usually is going to be the norm. I liken it to looking at a spot on the floor about 10 feet in front of you as the average head position for a conventional deadlifter. And here (CLICK HERE) is a good example of what trying to look too high up on the conventional deadlift can do.

Factoring in the gravitational forces of the deadlift, it is going to be much easier to bias into end ranges of low back flexion than it is extension. This is a bit hard to describe within a caption, so see the final 2 slides for a video of me demonstrating what I mean. With Nicolas though, you can see on the left how when he tries to look more straight forward, it pulls his torso too upright, which in return lowers the hips and drives the knees and shins into the bar. We had been working to fix this issue with some other cueing, but finally what clicked is I told him to just look a bit more down. And you can see it was an almost instantaneous fix. By just managing his head position, we were able to reduce his desire for excessive uprightness, which then created a chain reaction to the hip, knee, and shin position, creating a much more efficient pull. Now before everyone just starts looking more down in the conventional deadlift though, note that the opposite could be true too. Maybe a lifter is looking so straight down that they are actually starting with their hips too high, and cueing a slightly more forward head position could be the fix. But in the situation of a conventional puller struggling with being too upright and having their hips too low, there is a good chance the fix is as simple as a head position change.

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Deadlift Cue: Bias To The Heel During The Slack Pull

Deadlift Cue: Bias To The Heel During The Slack Pull

In our deadlift setup, we need to hinge, we need to drive through our midfoot, and we need to keep our shoulders over the bar. But that is a lot easier said than done. I’ve started noticing though a trend that specifically I find many efficient sumo pullers are doing, whether they realized it or not, to accomplish all 3 tasks at once. Above I have 4 of my lifters with a full speed and slo-motion breakdown of their pulls (CLICK HERE). Sean is the most obvious, but what you can see is all 4 lifters in their setup, specifically during the slack pull, bias their center of mass back initially over their heels to a degree. This helps them to accomplish the task of keeping their hips back, aka the hinge. It gives them room to keep their shoulders over the bar versus biasing out in front. And then from there, you can see in the slo-motion video that it all compounds into their initial starting position being directly stacked over their midfoot. Especially in the sumo deadlift, as you wedge it tends to create forward momentum. So the cueing of slightly over biasing onto the heels initially allows their center of mass to shift to their midfoot as they go through the wedging process. In the case of these 4 lifters, all 4 have had issues at times of over wedging and shifting their center of gravity too far forward over their toes. And the correlating issue for each of them was actually starting too much over their midfoot during the initial slack pull. Because then once they wedge, the forward momentum carried their center of mass forward of their midfoot. Now does this mean everyone should do this, no, and I specifically have sumo pullers highlighted here as I see it is  less common with conventional lifters. But what I do believe is if the common thoughts of hinge, drive through the midfoot, and keeping the shoulders over the bar are just not clicking, then simplifying your thought process to an initial bias to heels prior to wedging could be a helpful tool. 

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Powerlifting Coaching: The Business Side – Part 2

Powerlifting Coaching: The Business Side – Part 2 – CLICK HERE

It is time for part 2 of the Powerlifting Coaching: Business Side series, and honestly this is the one I was really excited for. Part 1 touched on setting up a general business and service structure, but part 2 really dives into what I’d consider the meat and potatoes…..marketing. In my latest Youtube video, I cover the aspects of marketing, business expansion, and accounting that will be vitally important to helping powerlifting coaches grow their business from the ground up. Marketing in particular is where I believe even some experienced coaches have room to learn, as it is a very misunderstood topic. At a very basic level, most think of advertising and marketing as the direct promotion of your business with ads, giveaways, “3 spots open” story promotions, and more. But really that is the least effective form of marketing, and the bread and butter is what is unseen. The marketing that works helps guide the consumer’s thoughts and behavior and presents them with something of value. Whether that be in knowledge, entertainment, emotion, or something of tangible worth, rather than constantly asking the consumer to give you something. Within marketing in particular I look at how to establish a niche and target audience, how to find your position with that niche, how to market to your target audience, how to leverage your strengths, and the tools to use to accomplish these tasks. I tie that all in with how to get a foothold within your local and state powerlifting community and expand that nationally in a strategic way. I also briefly touch on some accounting principles, and then tie that all together with a case study of how I progressed from coaching a couple friends for free 6 years ago to where I am now. Click the link above to view!

 

 

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1 Drill To Know Your Optimal Wrist Extension

1 Drill To Know Your Optimal Wrist Extension

A foundation of bench press technique is to keep the bar centered over your wrist joint and elbow as much as possible, just like in the squat and deadlift you are trying to maintain your center of gravity over your mid-foot. In the bench press, that center of gravity is creating a stacking position of the barbell over the wrist joint, elbow, and shoulder in the starting position. The degree of wrist extension that is optimal though depends much on your grip width, anthropometry, and the degree to which you are needing to internally rotate the hand. In general, the narrower the grip you have, the less you will bias in IR, and the wider the grip in relation to your body, the more you will bias into IR. In the videos above (CLICK HERE), you will find a drill I use often with my athletes to help them find what is their optimal wrist extension. Maybe from here we make slight adjustments, but for most this will give a really good baseline of where you should start. Also, for a more detailed explanation of grip setup in the bench press, make sure to check out my YouTube video on In-Depth Bench Technique. Lastly, as a small side note, notice how my grip internal rotation and wrist extension affect range of motion. This is something that would be much better talked about by Sean Noriega who is the bench grip master, but there is a reason you see a lot of high arch/max grip benchers using very internally rotated hand positions with large amounts of wrist extension (IE the Japanese grip)…it cuts range of motion. Now that is not optimal for everyone, but something that is worth understanding in the nuances of bench technique.