Long Forearms in the Squat | Andrew Lewis

[stef]

The best grip in the squat is going to have the lifter's hands grabbing the bar with as narrow a grip as the shoulders can tolerate. This will produce uncomfortable (but not painful) tightness in the shoulders. This will also produce a stable, unmoving bar position. This is critical because the bar should be pinned against the posterior deltoids by the hands with the bar just under the spine of the scapulas.

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[CommanderFun]

I thought I was the only weirdo who seems to run into this issue.

[John Watson]

I thought I was the only weirdo who seems to run into this issue.

You're not.
I've had coaches try to get my hands as close as possible. I have no shoulder flexibility issues, so I was able to get my hands in pretty tight and close to my shoulders.
All good until I get to the bottom of the squat and one or both of my hands pops off the bar, and the bar is now at my wrist.
Not to mention the elbow tendonitis from all that weight on my hands/elbows. It took me quite a while to figure out the actual cause.
I finally learned to move my hands to a place just wide enough that I'm not loading the elbows, but that my back is still tight. (Middle fingers on the barbell's powerlifting marks in my case).

Edit: BTW the coaches mentioned were not SSC to be clear.

[CommanderFun]

Yeah, I've found myself with my pinkies on the outer ring marks, but with my arms pulled in tight behind my back anyway. I can get my hands in nice and tight and get under the bar, but it causes weird issues. The wrists want to either flex or extend to kind of artificially make up for the forearm segment being too long.

[John Watson]

How are your chin-ups? I've been accused of cheating them slightly by tilting my head up at the top, but I'm pretty sure my elbows are all the way down.

[Chiaki Nitya]

This is super helpful. I have long forearms and tight shoulders and am currently squatting with a buffalo bar. These tips should help me transition back to a straight bar.

[AndrewLewis]

This is super helpful. I have long forearms and tight shoulders and am currently squatting with a buffalo bar. These tips should help me transition back to a straight bar.

Excellent. I'm glad to hear it. Make sure that you're also not actively pushing up the on the bar. You need to pull it down.

[GioFerrante]

Excellent. I'm glad to hear it. Make sure that you're also not actively pushing up the on the bar. You need to pull it down.

Andrew - would you say that for folks that have something funky going on with wrists/forearms, a good cue is to remember to pull the bar into to your body using your lats?

[AndrewLewis]

That can help all types of people, but it can also be misunderstood and produce shoulder extension, which in turn, will produce some bad tendinitis.

Personally, I like the cue "get your elbows under the bar", but the grip also has to be right. If the wrists are excessively extended, you'll have problems too.

[rero360]

When I started the program in 2020 I transitioned to the low bar squat as I had been performing high bar prior due to ignorance. I watched Rip's video on the squat and started bringing my grip in closer to my shoulders, the bar I have has only one mark in the knurling, not two (Rogue Ohio bar) I would start out with my index finger on the knurl mark for the first warm-up set, then middle finger on the mark for the next set, and so on. If memory serves me right, I was able to get the pinky to the mark but then I started experiencing elbow tendonitis, to the point that I had to rehab it using Rip's prescription of 5x20 chin-ups/pull-ups (forget which). I took a break from lifting due to surgery and once I was cleared to lift again life threw a lot of hurdles in my path keeping me out of the gym with any regularity. I have recently gotten back into the habit and I have found that if I have my grip any tighter than my index finger on the mark my elbows instantly start to hurt once I rerack the bar after a set.