I’m having a hard time find a painless low bar squat position for my shoulders.
I’m having an epic amount of difficulty getting into a comfortable low bar squat stance regarding my shoulders. Ive played around with grip width a bit, but can’t find the right zone where discomfort is minimized and the bar feels secure.
After I rack the bar and come out of the position, i feel extremely tight, and hurt in the front of my shoulders going down into my arms.
Ive included a video for reference. I’m doing the starting strength approach to an LB squat.
You can see in the video that the bar placement is, from my knowledge, correct. I can also see my right wrists breaking, which causes some discomfort in my wrist. Feels like carpel tunnel? I use a computer mouse all day so i suspect this is it.
I’m looking for some ideas to try out to relieve the discomfort and still be able to get into the low bar position.
Thanks all.
From the video, I didn’t notice anything remarkably wrong. I have the impression that I put the bar a bit lower, where there is actually a small “meat shelf”. Almost like the bar would stay there without hands, if light enough.
That said, if you can’t find a combo of bar height and grip width that suits you, you can always try high bar. Check “Bar Placement” section here: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/how-to-squat/
Thanks for the feedback. I am open to high bar squatting, albeit as a last resort. I want to explore more mobility work options before writing off the LB Squat, but it’s honestly discouraging seeing that the docs often have the take that stetching is a useless exercise.
Before resorting to HB, is there any more mobility to be gained? Or am I essentially stuck in the box that I’m in?
@Tigif158 I had this EXACT same pain while learning the low bar squat. It happened when my LP was stalling but I was trying to over-milk the training procedure around 250lbs. The pain would carry on and RUIN my bench. I recall that I filmed my depth and realized I was going too low, relaxing my back, and the bar was being directly supported by my arms. Once I corrected my depth and made sure my arms were not carrying the load, I have not experienced any pain during the squat.
If you could provide us a better video in which the shot is taken directly from the side and shows the entire lifter, I could provide more help. My only guess is that you are holding all the weight in your arms instead of your back