Bar rolling up

[rift]

As I’ve been adding weight to the bar (around the 225 lbs mark) on squats I’ve noticed something that is throwing me off a little bit: That is on my drive up, the bar seems to roll up my back. Nearest I can tell, on the decent the plates start a-spinning and somehow that carries over to the ascent. It’s not the hugest thing in the world, but it does take my concentration away. My bar is close to ten years old and I’ve never oiled it at all, I wonder if that’s a problem. Anyone deal with this?

[GianMilano]

Man, I'm having a hard time picturing a bar with 225 pounds on it rolling up your back, towards your neck. I have no idea on that one, but I'm not exactly calling on a deep wisdom of weight training. Maybe someone else can help you with that.

What I do know is that you could have some problems if the outer ends of the barbell don't spin. I started benching (of all lifts) and heard some sqeaking at about the same time my wrist started to hurt. Switched barbells, no squeak, no wrist pain. My deductive reasoning my not be sound, but I think it's safe to say that you should oil your barbell. Why not?

[Sami]

You're pushing the bar up with your hands/wrists. This happens in the hole when the angle of your back at it's lowest and your shoulders/arms are tighter, pushing the bar up.

[rift]

I guess it stands to reason that as I get heavier on my squats I naturally try to employ any muscles I can to lift the weight. I guess also as it gets heavier I pay more attention to “chest up” and get paranoid about the bar falling off of my back so I over compensate. I’ll try and fix this and I might as well oil the bar up. Thanks guys, and if anyone else has thoughts I’d like to hear them.

[Sami]

Even if you aren't pushing it up, if you've got thumbs over the bar and your wrists are resting on the bar, when you get to the bottom the arms tend to go up and forward slightly and this will roll the bar forward a little. At least this has been my experience.

[banthafodder]

The root cause is obviously a technique deficiency as discussed above, but for what it's worth, bear in mind that your equipment does play a role in this. I started with a 300 pound el cheapo Craiglist weight set with a super cheap bar, and I upgraded to a B&R bar a couple of weeks back. Between the super awesome knurling and extra stiffness of the B&R bar, and "real" chalk (I'd been using my toddler's sidewalk chalk ), I instantly found my squats much more stable. Everything was so solid that it actually made me feel stronger.