low bar squats

Hmm. narrow grip and obsess about the elbows. Got it. Will report back on Wednesday if I remember.

I'm personally a fan of rippetoe's lb squats. Like everyone else said, the main cue you seem to have a problem with are elbows. Keep them up and make sure you also keep your upper back as tight as possible.

I can sympathize with the OP on this as I had the same problem before I got injured. Getting comfortable with the low bar position just wasn't achievable as I could never get a narrow enough grip to gird my back for the weight of the bar. The wider grip just ended up putting stress on my wrists so I knew I was doing something wrong. I think it's partly due to a lack of shoulder flexibility, for which Stronglifts recommend doing shoulder dislocations. Does anybody here do this exercise, or would they suggest an alternative?

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

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lol

It's lifting weights on a bar.

Up to a point, then it becomes much more. If your mind isn't challenged to push your body through the urge to give up during squats, you might have some room to grow.

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

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You have never done 20 rep squats. I would bet the farm on it.

1+++

Stop the posturing. Squats aren't that hard and I definitely would not call them 'psychologically demanding'. Endurance sports require a lot more mental focus.

Originally Posted by Viktri

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1+++

You're both right. You internet powerlifters can outsquat me any day of the week. But it's not due to psychological weakness.

Originally Posted by LS7

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I think it's partly due to a lack of shoulder flexibility, for which Stronglifts recommend doing shoulder dislocations. Does anybody here do this exercise, or would they suggest an alternative?

I still am not entirely comprehending how low bar is so completely different than high or mid that you are going from able to squat high / mid to losing the bar at low. You should be able to just roll the bar down a centimeter, down a centimeter, until arm flexibility prevents going further.

Are you imagining yourself pinching your shoulder blades together? Try to imagine someone touching your spine with their index finger and you want to crush his finger with your shoulder blades.

But to answer the quote... I do shoulder dislocations and I always start with two sets of five with an empty bar just to begin getting my shoulders stretched. I do additional warm up sets with increasing weight.

Considering it's September now, I've probably been doing Stronglifts for 5-6 months and only really felt I nailed the low bar position across a nice, stable shoulder platform about two weeks ago. It wasn't until the bar hit about 140 lbs that the bar settled in. I did 5x5 135 today due to a tweak in my upper back bothering me and I only really nailed the position on my second set.

Even after all these months, I still find it IMPOSSIBLE to keep my wrists straight. Authors writing about squatting always say to keep your wrists straight but nearly every vid I watch has bent wrists. The vids I have watched with straight wrists are guys who have clearly been squatting for 2+ years, which leads me to believe squatting just takes a goddamn long time to do correctly.

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

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You're both right. You internet powerlifters can outsquat me any day of the week. But it's not due to psychological weakness.

Please don't resort to the hackneyed "internet badass" insult instead of being mature about the subject. I don't squat a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if you outsquatted me despite never being psychologically challenged by the exercise.

The point - and moreso for squats than any other exercise - is that it is a psychologically difficult exercise if you push yourself. Let me make it plain. For most exercises, such as benching, bicep curls, and overhead presses to name a few, your muscle fatigue dictates when you stop (or your self, if you do not train to failure). With squats, it is different. You can always do another squat. If you quit after 10, feeling exhausted, and someone put a gun to your head and told you to do another, you know you would be able to do another if your life depended on it. This is not true for the bench press - when you can't bench anymore, you just can't bench anymore. It's pretty simple.

This is because squatting engages nearly all the muscles in your body. Exhausted muscles can be supported by others to complete the squat. It is obviously not an isolation exercise. This is why squats are psychologically challenging. If you are doing a simple 3x8 of squats with a weight you are comfortable with, then yes they are not challenging. If you take your 10 rep max, and do 20 of them using rest pause, believe me, you will be psychologically challenged. I don't give a **** if your max is 105 lbs or 635 lbs. It makes no difference. It is just the nature of any CNS-exhausting exercise.

I don't get pissed off about much on the Body Consciousness board, but saying squats are not psychologically challenging is an opinion borne of inexperience or simply not giving lifting 100% effort. No other reason.

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

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Please don't resort to the hackneyed "internet badass" insult instead of being mature about the subject. I don't squat a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if you outsquatted me despite never being psychologically challenged by the exercise.

The point - and moreso for squats than any other exercise - is that it is a psychologically difficult exercise if you push yourself. Let me make it plain. For most exercises, such as benching, bicep curls, and overhead presses to name a few, your muscle fatigue dictates when you stop (or your self, if you do not train to failure). With squats, it is different. You can always do another squat. If you quit after 10, feeling exhausted, and someone put a gun to your head and told you to do another, you know you would be able to do another if your life depended on it. This is not true for the bench press - when you can't bench anymore, you just can't bench anymore. It's pretty simple.

This is because squatting engages nearly all the muscles in your body. Exhausted muscles can be supported by others to complete the squat. It is obviously not an isolation exercise. This is why squats are psychologically challenging. If you are doing a simple 3x8 of squats with a weight you are comfortable with, then yes they are not challenging. If you take your 10 rep max, and do 20 of them using rest pause, believe me, you will be psychologically challenged. I don't give a **** if your max is 105 lbs or 635 lbs. It makes no difference. It is just the nature of any CNS-exhausting exercise.

I don't get pissed off about much on the Body Consciousness board, but saying squats are not psychologically challenging is an opinion borne of inexperience or simply not giving lifting 100% effort. No other reason.
Sorry for not giving a more thoughtful response to the psychologically complex comment "1++++". Because clearly there's no room for simple disagreement . . .

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

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Sorry for not giving a more thoughtful response to the psychologically complex comment "1++++".

Because clearly there's no room for simple disagreement . . .

Anyway not to turn this into a ****-slinging fest. Try 20 rep squats sometime and tell me that it was a mental cakewalk. That's all I ask.

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

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Sorry for not giving a more thoughtful response to the psychologically complex comment "1++++".

Because clearly there's no room for simple disagreement . . .
For many people, squating with a bar (45 lbs) 2x25 is pretty tough as it is. (and reps =/= power, your comment was pretty far off the mark - something like "internet tough guy" would be many times more appropriate) For someone who's never attempted a 20 squat routine to say it isn't psychologically demanding is demeaning to people who struggle with it. I struggle with it. My max is 95 lbs for a 25x2 (25lbs on each side) which is a dinky amount of weight but it is what it is. There isn't much to debate about this point; there isn't much analytics. I thought my comment was appropriate given the context. There is some knowledge best gained through experience and others through analytics.

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

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Sorry for not giving a more thoughtful response to the psychologically complex comment "1++++".

Because clearly there's no room for simple disagreement . . .

People can disagree, but until you provide as good explanation as he did, you're just being obstinate and trying not to lose an e-fight. News for you: with 'comebacks' like this post, you've already lost. Appreciate the tidbit of information he gave you.

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

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If you quit after 10, feeling exhausted, and someone put a gun to your head and told you to do another, you know you would be able to do another if your life depended on it. This is not true for the bench press - when you can't bench anymore, you just can't bench anymore. It's pretty simple.

LOLWUT

How do you train? This doesn't make any sense. You're saying a 1RM isn't a 1RM because it's actually a 2RM which is really a 100RM...it's inherently silly and wrong.

This is because squatting engages nearly all the muscles in your body. Exhausted muscles can be supported by others to complete the squat. It is obviously not an isolation exercise. This is why squats are psychologically challenging. If you are doing a simple 3x8 of squats with a weight you are comfortable with, then yes they are not challenging. If you take your 10 rep max, and do 20 of them using rest pause, believe me, you will be psychologically challenged. I don't give a **** if your max is 105 lbs or 635 lbs. It makes no difference. It is just the nature of any CNS-exhausting exercise.

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That's a quick way to get injured.

I don't get pissed off about much on the Body Consciousness board, but saying squats are not psychologically challenging is an opinion borne of inexperience or simply not giving lifting 100% effort. No other reason.

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Or it's just lame posturing by people who think they're better than others because they do a basic exercise.

Originally Posted by turbozed

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People can disagree, but until you provide as good explanation as he did, you're just being obstinate and trying not to lose an e-fight. News for you: with 'comebacks' like this post, you've already lost. Appreciate the tidbit of information he gave you.

Ok: 1+++.