the barbell backstreet shuffle

[sfischer]

hi guys, 56yo SS novice here. (and one, apparently, who likes to post questions here.)

i am such a novice that it is just now, after a few months, that the weights are getting seriously heavy. I posted recently about getting the bar off the rack.

tonight's question is about the two or three steps backward to clear the rack.

i am finding i do it with trepidation, like, uh, i have a hugely heavy (for me) weight on my shoulders. i feel unstable doing it, wary with each step, barely raising my feet, and moving my foot just a few inches, like an old man's nursing home shuffle (no disrespect intended).

suggestions?

steve

[Adam Skillin]

hi guys, 56yo SS novice here. (and one, apparently, who likes to post questions here.)

i am such a novice that it is just now, after a few months, that the weights are getting seriously heavy. I posted recently about getting the bar off the rack.

tonight's question is about the two or three steps backward to clear the rack.

i am finding i do it with trepidation, like, uh, i have a hugely heavy (for me) weight on my shoulders. i feel unstable doing it, wary with each step, barely raising my feet, and each moving my foot just a few inches, like an old man's nursing home shuffle (no disrespect intended).

suggestions?

steve

You have to get tight and unrack the bar thinking that you're a made of I-beam. There's no fun way to walk it out. You try to minimize the # of steps, but you have to get your stance right, and practice is your friend. The tighter you are, the lighter it feels. But heavy is heavy.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I don't see that you are doing anything wrong. As you've said, you're new to this stuff, so you need to take care and move with thoughtful caution. I move the same way myself backing out of the rack. I never go back more than 2 steps and 1 1/2 is more like it so I can drop forward into the rack if I need to if I get the wobblies at the top.

Some good healthy fear for what you are doing with weight on your back is not a bad thing. Just so long as you don't let the prospect of doing it overwhelm you. I get the willies every time I squat. Deadlifts don't intimidate me at all, nor do bench presses.

[vatechmike]

Like Mark said, getting under that loaded barbell messes with you in ways that no other lift does, for obvious reasons. When you unrack that bar and start into the squat, you are committed.

I squat inside a power rack and even though that gives me some measure of safety, I still feel that mental pressure every time I unrack the bar.

[Larissa]

I was once reading an article by (I think) Jim Wendler that addressed clearing the rack. Basically, it said two steps back: one to set your distance, one to set your stance. Take those same two steps back every time you step out of the rack, no matter what weight is on your back, even if it's just the empty bar. Do that often enough and it will become rote muscle memory, like dance steps. On my warmup sets I can get under the bar, unrack it, and do the backward two-step in one semicircular movement, though I wouldn't care to try that with my 1RM.

Do the movement often enough for your body to take over and do it for you and it's one less thing you have to worry about under the bar.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Do that often enough and it will become rote muscle memory, like dance steps. Do the movement often enough for your body to take over and do it for you and it's one less thing you have to worry about under the bar.

What she said. Also what this guy said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdETAHImGW8

Too many minds. Mushin.

[Tennisgolfboll]

Yeah it is heavy and you feel it, as others said, stay tight and focused.

A cage is great insurance both if something goes wrong and for peace of mind.

[hbriem]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waNT8hCcjTk

Best squat of all time. Carl Yngvar is not walking fast there.

Don't worry.

[SteveL]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waNT8hCcjTk

Best squat of all time. Carl Yngvar is not walking fast there.

Don't worry.

That guys' legs are bigger than my waist!

[sfischer]

is he doing high or low bar?