First, apologies if this is not the correct forum for this post, please move it if necessary.
My question is regarding my Low Bar Squat form, specifically to how I grip the bar.
Even though I have watched Austin´s video talking about the common squat errors, I have always squatted with a thumb over the bar grip since it just was the most comfortable and allowed me to keep my upper back tight.
However, since last week, I have been experiencing some sharp pain in my clavicle, specifically in the acromion area. This makes low bar squatting with my setup kind of painful so I ended up opening a bit more the grip but keeping the same thumb over the bar setup. I tried grabbing the bar with the thumb under it but my wrists come into flexion and then they start complaining as well (I also tried the pinky under the bar as Jordan does but with the same result).
So, my questions is:
Do you think it would be a good idea to give it a chance to the thumb under the bar position and try to just get used to it or is it not worth the hassle and there is nothing “explicitly wrong” with my setup? I will be low bar squatting now twice per week (a lighter day without belt), so could try to get more and more comfortable with it on the low-intensity days
I have uploaded some videos so that you can see what I am referring to:
Thanks for the post and I’m sorry to hear about your AC joint. While I’m not sure this is directly tied to your squat grip, based on these videos I’d try and get more of your hand down on the barbell and your elbow lower/more tucked into your sides. I’d cue you to “pick the bar up with your back” rather than your arms.
If non of that works, I’d use a thumbs around grip, lighten the load, and work back up while you build tolerance. I’d probably reduce the weight by 10-20% anyway, as these reps appear to be a bit high. No problem though, we can fix it!
I’m not sure either that this is also a consequence of mysquat grip. I will give some time and work around the pain, it should be fine.
Regarding the grip, I just tried to get the elbows to that lower/more tucked position and works quite well (still hurts a bit but it´s what it is). I only tried it with low weights though.
I’ll follow your advice. I´d rather use the thumbs around grip, so I’ll practice it together with the tucking the elbows cue reducing the load as you mention while focusing on improving my depth as well.,
Any specific advice on how to make sure that I´m hitting depth? I assume it´s only a matter of recording my warm-up and work sets and making sure that is consistently below parallel, but please let me know if I´m missing anything here.
Periodically checking via video review to make sure you’re hitting depth would be a good way to do this. Ideally, you get to associate a feeling of the proper depth so you can tell while you’re doing the training
