Long Torso, Low Bar...Short Torso, High Bar

Gary's Note: Instead of letting my pressure blood pressure take a beating from idiots cheering for the existence and continued upping of the minimum wage, I thought I'd use this space to celebrate my return to training. My enthusiasm is for the ideas behind training to be a physically superior version of myself. Right now I'd rather talk body proportions and their effect on squatting than take apart liberal flat earth economics.

Long Torso, Low Bar...Short Torso, High Bar

I have long limbs and a tiny little torso. If I let the barbell ride low on my back, then in order to keep the bar in the balanced position over the middle of my foot I have to bend over into a good morning. So these days I keep the bar high on my traps so that my torso needn't go flatter than 45 degrees at any point in the squat. 

I was training up my "it's complicated" friend, Michelle, on the squat. Michelle is a short white woman with a thunder booty, extremely long torso and stubby femurs. She is a natural bencher and squatter. As I watched her squat it was so obvious: her long torso made a low bar squat a much better idea for her than it would be for me. My short back means I got to push the bar up higher; her long back means that she gets to push the bar down.

This low bar/high bar war has always annoyed the piss out of me. You would have thought that somebody would have noticed by now that the length of the torso relative to the femurs would dictate where on the back the bar could be placed to allow the lifter to maintain a good back angle. 

Short-backed (relative to femur length) lifers need a higher bar or they will be doing a good morning when they squat. Longer-backed (relative to femur length) lifters can get away with higher bar, but would would get a better balance of hamstring and quadriceps involvement with a lower bar. 

Michelle's lower bar will keep her back at the same angle as my higher bar keeps my back. Too high a bar on her and she has to fight harder to stay in balance. The higher bar position on her longer torso means the bar gets forward as she descends. 

Long torso/short femurs: you have the option, but should probably lower the bar down your back.

Short torso/long femurs: stick with high bar. Your "low bar squat" is a good morning. 

In fact, a good guideline is to do what it takes to get the squat to look like a squat. If it looks like a good morning, you're doing it wrong. Sooooo...put the bar on your back in a place that allows you to hold a good back angle even when it gets heavy. That place will depend on how long your torso is compared to your thighs.

Squatting in High, High Heels

And speaking of making the squat look good, please wear appropriate shoes with the appropriate heel height for your proportions. Don't limit your ability to squat nice because you refuse to squat in heels and want to squat barefoot.

Some people can squat barefoot and look just fine. I'm talking here of Asians from Asian country and people with relatively long lower legs. All heels really do is essentially lengthen the lower leg. So if you have relatively long lower legs and can squat deep without your heels leaving the floor...great! 

Otherwise get shoes with a heel that lets you do that. 

I have Risto shoes and I added a 3/4" heel block to them to make the overall heel even higher. My squats have never felt better. My knees DON'T extend way over my toes when I wear these heels. I feel nice, solid and secure in my squat with my high heels. 

A lower heel just means my heels will come up slightly when I go deep in the squat. How much depends on how low the heel is. 

I don't get why people recommend a heel but stop short of recommending enough heel. How much heel is going to vary with the lifter. It's definitely a one-size-fits-all deal. I'm not built to squat. I can't low bar and I need a lot of heel. If you're reading this, you probably are better proportioned to squat, can let the bar ride low and need little or no heel. I'm just asking you to give it some thought.