By Dr. Rob Wagner
In 1987 I set my first
national record in the squat in the ADFPA (now USAPL). I was competing as a 165 lbs. lifter and
needed a 690 lbs. squat to break the old standard. I had planned to take a shot at this record
on my third attempt. I had opened around
the 630 lbs. mark, took a second around the 70's and then proceeded to the
record. Everything seemed fine during
the set up. I brought the bar out,
steadied myself and waited for the signal.
The judge verbalized the signal and dropped his hand and I went into my
descent. As I came out of the hole my
subconscious suddenly decided that my body was going to attempt a different
feat of strength. Much to my surprise I
found myself suddenly attempting a world record 690 lbs. good morning. The disappointing part was not only did I
miss the Squat but my Good Morning was red lighted as well. The good news was that you could take a
fourth attempt on National Records in the ADFPA
in 1987. During the brief
interlude between attempts, my handlers were able to watch the lift on a camcorder. In reviewing the lift they noticed a flaw in
my bar positioning. The bar was
resting in its normal spot but with the heavier weight I was getting pulled
forward. The adjustment recommended was
to place the bar just slightly lower on my upper back. This change resulted in my first National
Record.
As
I became more active in coaching I discovered how important the interaction of
bar position, stance and foot placement.
In both the competitive arena and in gyms I have seen many heavy lifts
missed due the inability to properly orient the factors just mentioned. Most lifters assume that missing a lift is
always a strength problem. They will
attempt to remedy the problem by doing more sets and reps or by adding
additional exercises. Gradually the
technique problem manifests itself into an overtraining problem. At this point the lifter not only has a
technique problem but has also encountered a loss of strength due to too much
work on the movement. In the first
article of this series I proposed some technical advice on how to set up the
squat. In this article the technical
focus will be on positioning of your stance and foot placement and their
involvement with bar placement.
First
allow me to define our terminology. I
believe the stance and foot placement is an integral factor in performing the
squat movement in accordance with the rules of the sport. More specifically your ability to break
parallel (the rule in most of the rule books) can be greatly affected by your
stance and foot placement. If you look
at the squat motion it involves movement in several joints simultaneously. The hip, knee and ankle all move to decrease
the joint angle at the knee. The
movement of these three joints allows the bar to stay over the foot while
performing the lift. Impede the range of
motion or flexibility of any of these joints and the ability to reach proper
depth or develop maximum force is negated.
Stance and foot placement greatly affect several anatomical elements
which will allow the muscles involved to exert their greatest forces relative
to the squat.
Before
discussing the determination of your stance I need to point out some rules you
should always follow. The first is to
keep the shin as vertical as possible throughout the entire squat movement. The
knee should never travel past the toe.
If it does you are placing yourself at an injury risk. The second rule
is that you always will keep the knee pointed in the same direction as the
foot. Don't allow your knees to pinch in
during your ascent. The information
provided in this article presents general guidelines to better your performance
of the lift. These are not the laws of
squatting. Take the information provided
here and use what works for you.
Stance
is the width or distance apart you space your feet. Foot placement is the angular positioning of
your feet. Stance and foot placement
will effect a couple of important anatomical considerations related to squat
performance. The first of these relates
to your center of gravity (COG). This is
a point at which the mass of the body can be considered to act. It can almost be thought of as a balance
point. Action on the COG occurs in a
vertical line due to the force of gravity.
The barbell also has a center of gravity bCOG and due to its rigid
nature the bCOG is fixed and does not move as long as plates are of equal
weight and are loaded evenly. The bCOG
is always at the center of the barbell.
The COG of the human body is different however. It will change as the position of the body
changes. When standing with no weight it
is usually located internally in the vicinity of the spine and at around waist
level. When your body position changes
it can move up or down and even outside the body. When a lifter lifts or places a loaded bar on
his body you create a combined cCOG.
This cCOG will lie along the line that joins the two COG and bCOG. The important point is that the location of
the cCOG lies closer to the heavier object (the body and the bar). As the object (bar) increases in weight so
does the movement of the cCOG towards the heavier object. The positing of the cCOG will play a role in
your balance and force production. The
cCOG will need to be in close proximity (vertically) of the foot to help with
this. A simple way to look at it is to keep the bar over the foot during the
squat because it is almost certain that the cCOG will be in close proximity to
the bar (see figure 1).
Your stance will greatly affect the positioning of the cCOG and its positioning over your foot during the
squat.
The
other area affected by stance and foot placement is the flexibility of the
hips. Flexibility is defined as the
range of motion created around a joint.
The greater this range the greater your flexibility. Foot placement and stance individually and
combined also has an affect on the positioning of the head of the femur in the
acetabulum of the pelvis. By
positioning your feet at a certain angles and different widths you can create
different ranges of motion around the hip joint.
If
you recall in the first article I pointed out the concept of body lean and its
importance during the squat. Body lean
can be adjusted greatly by making changes in your stance. The farther the hips travel away from the
foot (backwards) the more you will have to lean to keep the bar itself and the
cCOG over the foot. Positioning the cCOG
and bar over the foot will be advantageous to the lifter. An extreme example of not doing this would be
the good morning type position I mentioned in the introduction. When you attain
this position the area of force production
(the hips) and the cCOG and bar are greatly displaced. This puts the load into the low back and
glutes and diminishes the force you can generate to move the weight. In the squat, body lean is required in
helping to position the bar over your feet.
If you can imagine a vertical line between the feet and the bar your
goal is to try keep your hips as close to this line as possible. The closer your hips are to this line the
greater force you will be able to produce because you will be keeping the bar
and the cCOG over the foot. The stance
plays a role here since moving the feet in or out can increase or decrease the
displacement between the hips and the bar foot line. When you descend into a full squat and your
hips are placed at an extreme position behind the bar and foot line you lose a
force advantage. Usually if you do
complete this lift you will feel it in the low back. In finding stance we should try to position
the hips closer to the bar and foot line in the bottom of the squat in order to
take advantage of our ability to produce force.
To
determine stance look at the proportionality between the upper and lower
leg. If your upper leg is shorter than
the lower leg your stance can stay on the narrow side (inside shoulder width to
3-5" outside shoulder width of each leg) . If your upper leg
is longer than the lower I suggest you assume a wider stance outside the
distances mentioned above.
Having a shorter upper leg will displace the hips (behind the bar and
foot) at a smaller distance relative to your body size even with a narrow
stance. On the other hand if you have a
longer upper leg a wider stance will decrease the displacement by decreasing
the vertical distance the bar and body will travel and this will help in
keeping the hips closer to the foot and bar line. The final step in finding your stance is
setting your foot placement. The
positioning of the feet affects the rotation of your legs. The rotation of the leg will determine the
position of the head of the femur (your upper leg bone) in the acetabulum (the
socket of the hip joint). The placement
you are striving for is the one that allows you the greatest range of motion
while you are in your stance. The
specific range of motion you are looking for is a legal squat depth. You should be able to break parallel without
having to force yourself down. The foot
positions can range from straight ahead to a more flared 10 of 2-clock
position.
Now
that you have read the guidelines of this approach we can know find your stance
and foot position. Determine you upper
leg : lower leg ratio and start narrow or wide which ever suits you best. If you have the shorter upper thighs start
narrow and work outward and for the opposite category start wide and work
in. Starting with a 5 to 1 (clock
position) foot placement try to squat down with your hands on your head. If you find that your hips bind, try rotating
the feet out slightly. If this doesn't
work you may need to work the stance out or in respectively. The goal is to achieve below parallel depth
and this should be done without having to force it. It may take a little tinkering to find the
optimal position. As you go through this
process be aware of the amount of body lean that you need to create to get to
parallel. In the last article I
mentioned torso length and bar positioning.
The torso length and body lean should still dictate where you place the
bar on your back. Remember to apply the
rules of the first article to help when the bar finally goes on your back. A lifter who has a shorter thigh and has the
flexibility to achieve depth in a wide stance is the best case scenario. This lifter is taking advantage of the
factors mentioned above and reduces the distance the bar will travel overall! The final issue in determining this stance is
comfort. Now I look at this in two
ways. The first way is to determine that
the new stance and foot placement doesn't cause bodily discomfort. This is taking into consideration that a
period of time of about four weeks would be allowed for adjustments of
flexibility and different anatomical positioning. The other way relates to the lifter’s ability
to produce effective drive or force in the new set up. Sometimes what may be a lifter’s best stance
may not always be the most effective from a leverage standpoint. This situation usually requires some minor
adjustments to stance and foot placement before the lifter feels that he or she
can move weight in this new position.
Remember
even a minor adjustments can have big impact.
The key is to put yourself in the best position possible. Then it is up to you to move the weight. You could be breaking some records of your
own if you give some of these guidelines a try.
In the next article I will discuss the squat descent and ascent and how
to control the body through the movement.
