Haha. He isnt. I never said he should move the bar higher to squat more weight.
If he wants to low bar for maxiumum weight, he needs to move the bar lower, and not just keep the bar where it is and pretend its low bar by sitting back further, which could just put him off low bar for good.
But if he wants to run a hypertrophy / volume mesocycle and is looking for a specific training effect, high bar or SSB squats could be useful.
Nuckols also says that the main factor that makes most people stronger in a low bar position is upper back strength. A different stance and more/less forward lean will change how much the quads, hips, and lower back have to work, someone with strong quads and a not so strong posterior chain might be better off squatting high bar, with a more vertical torso and narrow/moderate stance.
There are quite a few elite lifters who squat high bar. Bryce Lewis and Mike Hedlesky do so because they are stronger like that, there is also Kevin Oak who says he lacks the shoulder mobility to squat low bar but as you can see his squat hasn’t suffered at all from the change in bar position. A couple of the guys Chad Wesley Smith coaches, like Andy Huang and that Castro guy, also squat high bar. So low bar is definitely something worth experimenting with, but it’s not so straightforward. Some people are built better for high bar, you just need to get your upper back strong enough that it doesn’t become a limiting factor.
And I’m telling you that it isn’t that simple. I bought Sheiko’s book when it was still discounted, one thing he considers to be a technical error is holding the bar too high on your back. However, his definition of too high seems to be on top of the traps. There are examples of a few of his lifters’ techniques and a couple of them look kind of high bar-ish, but not quite that high. That’s what I’m leaning towards myself at the moment. There aren’t just two possible positions to hold the bar on your back, it’s a question of finding what works for yourself.
Right now you are Theoroizing and pontificating! I watched pigs squat video. I’m not talking about some general concept, or some kind of vague difference in training philosophies. I’m speaking SPECIFICALLY about My Opinion of what this PARTICULAR REAL PERSON LIFTER should do based on watching his video and reading his description of what happened when he squatted.
I saw where he held the bar, and where his back was, and where his feet were, and how he moved. What I’m telling you is This guy, with This bar position and This lean, that I saw him use in His video, should move his feet out.
Moving his feet out wider might help, it also might not. The way you keep talking about “low bar” makes it sound like you are saying something else.
All I can say based on his squat videos is that his squat looks fine the way it is. Some adjustments might improve it, but switching to a different style might be a complete waste of time when he could be getting stronger instead. The way to go is to try small changes and see how they feel, like move the feet out slightly and if that goes well then consider going a little wider again. The whole point of doing high bar squats would be to build up his quads, and that alone would increase his squat numbers without changing anything else.
What exactly do you guys all agree on? I haven’t seen anything of that sort yet. Nuckols is saying that most people squat more with a lower bar position, and that is true. But guineapig isn’t squatting high bar, he doesn’t appear to be limited by his thoracic spinal extensors, and Nuckols didn’t say anything in his high bar vs. low bar article regarding stance width.
Squatted high bar exclusively when I began lifting. Late transition into hybrid bar and been there ever since. Didn’t like feeling my back get loaded up with a more inclined torso so always erred on the side of as upright as possible.
I have slightly more torso lean nowadays which better keeps the bar over midfoot but still not comfy loading up my back. With time I’ve found leg/quad strength to be the limiting factor. Nice and simple I like that. Bigger stronger quads will up my squat.
My current stance is only a few months old having gone slightly narrower and turned my toes in from my previous stance. At that time I was just playing around to see if anything felt good because everything was all over the place
What I liked initially was that it restricted my depth vs previous. With my previous stance I needed to go deep to catch the nice bounce out the bottom. And now it’s just about at parallel
I dunno if it’s my current’s my best stance or not but: I’ve hit my best numbers with it.
Have tried slightly wider but it wasn’t as good. That’s no guarantee that nowadays armed with my new cues it wouldn’t be successful.
If there are technique changes to be made. The transition phase (volume but in the comp lifts) would be a good time to try, train and perfect stuff.
I used to do them because people said all kinds of good things about them but the clean grip killed my wrists, the “California grip” left bruises on shoulders and fucked up my bench, and it never seemed to help my squat at all.