Bar crooked on back

[Good Squire]

My wife noticed this the other day on volume day for squat, the bar was tilted pretty severely to the right on my back. I have no idea that I am doing this, the bar feels perfectly fine. I have also been getting some SAVAGE pain in my left arm in the brachial region, so bad to the point of where I have trouble finishing my pressing movement. The squat aggravates it pretty bad, I think this bar tilt is the source. Do I need to lean forward more? Is it not exactly in the shelf?

Link of video.
crooked bar - YouTube

Side view of last week's intensity day
Intensity day - YouTube

[Adam Franklin]

You are not centered on the bar; we need to fix this first. Look at the spacing between your shoulders and your hands. Using the chain link fence in the background, I can tell your right hand is farther out than the left. Take an even grip (check the knurling), and aligned yourself to the center of the bar, then duck under. You may need someone to help center you on the bar once you duck under the bar. Let's see if that fixes things.

[Good Squire]

Adam, I PM'ed you.

[Polishdude20]

I had this exact same problem a few weeks ago. Adam is right, you need to be centered. I have a somewhat tighter left shoulder so I had to actually consciously move the bar off center the other way to get it on center. It feels awkward at first but looking at my videos, it helped. Also, I think I've read either on the forums or in Rip's books that if one of your shoulders is tight and preventing you from getting the bar down low enough on your shoulders, you can widen your grip for that arm to slacken it a bit and help get the bar a bit lower. After a few weeks of bringing it in closer and closer, it should stretch like your other shoulder.
Also, I found that I was taking the weight up on my wrists before. This really hurt my elbows after. I had to focus on actually laying my palms on top of the bar, bringing in my elbows closer to my sides and raising my chest.

[Good Squire]

Well gents, after a few weeks of no form issues and no pain in the arm, it happened again. What has been going on with me is that I will ensure that my grip is the same, duck under and set the bar in place, only for it to be ALWAYS slightly to the right on my back. This causes me to do a little shuffle over to the right to get center. On this set, it looked and felt like I was center, however as soon as I walked it out and began to squat, as you can see the bar starts to sag again to the right. This set felt awful, with the weight knocking me off balance to the right on my first rep and caused me to pitch forward on the second rep. What do you all think?

trim 0E903833 A342 4017 9145 1D9A5D4A8F01 - YouTube

[Scott Hanson]

I agree that the bar is about 1" right of center. I also noticed your balance issue on the first rep. You may need to have someone check your bar centeredness (is that a word?) until it feels correct to you, especially if you've been squatting with it off center for a long time. If you don't have anyone to coach you, you could try setting your hands 1" to the right from their normal position (or whatever distance you determine to result in a correct placement on your back), basically set up so that you shift your body to the right 1". Once the bar is in the correct position centered on your back but still in the rack, you could move your hands back to the correct position (1" to the left, or whatever distance you shifted them). Sounds more complicated than it would be in practice. Again, this would only be necessary until you get the feel of the correct bar position.

[Good Squire]

I agree that the bar is about 1" right of center. I also noticed your balance issue on the first rep. You may need to have someone check your bar centeredness (is that a word?) until it feels correct to you, especially if you've been squatting with it off center for a long time. If you don't have anyone to coach you, you could try setting your hands 1" to the right from their normal position (or whatever distance you determine to result in a correct placement on your back), basically set up so that you shift your body to the right 1". Once the bar is in the correct position centered on your back but still in the rack, you could move your hands back to the correct position (1" to the left, or whatever distance you shifted them). Sounds more complicated than it would be in practice. Again, this would only be necessary until you get the feel of the correct bar position.

I like this. I will give this a try and let you know. Thank you!

[Christopher Button]

Good Squire,

How have you gotten on so far with this? I am suffering from the same debilitating arm pain, which as of tonight, completely rendered me useless on the presses. From having occasionally squatted in front of a mirror, I know I tend to squat slightly off-center also, though I have thus far ignored it. If you have managed to correct this somehow, I would love to know how!

[Good Squire]

Good Squire,

How have you gotten on so far with this? I am suffering from the same debilitating arm pain, which as of tonight, completely rendered me useless on the presses. From having occasionally squatted in front of a mirror, I know I tend to squat slightly off-center also, though I have thus far ignored it. If you have managed to correct this somehow, I would love to know how!

BuckFifty,

What I began to do is exactly what Scott recommended in off-setting myself to the bar when I grip it. Since the bar is always uneven on my right side, I grip the bar with my hands slightly shifted to the right and pretty much shift my entire body over to the right. For example, since I normally grip the bar with my middle finger on the rings, I shift everything over to where my right hand has my index finger on the ring, and my left hand has my pinky on the ring. As soon as I duck under and place the bar on the shelf, I bring my hands back in to middle fingers on the rings while I am underneath, and before I unrack. Been moving along on 5/3/1 for the past 2 months with no pain(although I have been inconsistent.)