03 September, 2007

Ask the coach: Should I use a towel on the bar for my back squats?

Question

In the weights room recently, I saw some rugby players performing a back squat with a towel wrapped around the bar as it lay on their shoulders? Is it ok to do this? Sometimes, I find back squats painful.

Answer

The answer is NO. I have often witnessed males wrapping the contents of their hot press around the bar. The reason they use the towels is to relieve the pressure of the bar on their shoulders. But the problem with these towels is that it increases the distance between the centre of mass and L4/L5 vertebrae, which will increase the likelihood of a disc injury.

Another reason the bar could be causing pressure on your shoulders is tightness across the chest in the pectoral muscles. This will force you to put your elbows out the back and increase the pressure on your shoulder region.

Tightness in the hip flexor muscles on the front of your body will also lead to rounding of the body during the descent of the squat and put more pressure on the neck and shoulders.

The solution is to stretch your chest, and hip flexors and to keep your elbows directly under the bar with your chest bone lifted as you lower into the squat. The squat is a great exercise to have as a staple of your training programme. There is a product called the manta ray, which may reduce the pressure on your shoulders. The other options are a front squat where the bar rests on your clavicle, or holding dumbbells in your hands as you drop into a squat.