Bar positioning for squats, pain.

[Phedder]

Hi all, I'm reasonably new to barbell squats, had always used squat machines or leg presses etc, whenever I did squats it used to be low weight high reps.

My problem is once the weight gets over 70-80kg or so, the barbell causes a lot of pain where it sits on my shoulders, I've tried re-positioning it every way I can and nothing really solves the problem, I find having it across the posterior deltoid and scapula the best, which seems quite far back but it's still uncomfortable. Gets to the point where I know I could do another 2 reps or so, but I just want to get the damn bar off my back. I know I can do much more weight, and want to start doing some 5x5 but I hate to think of how uncomfortable it'll be upping the weight more. I also get a slight pain under my scapula from rotating my arm back to grip the bar, but i'm sure that's just a flexibility issue and i'm working on that, it's been improving.

[Mrbig]

yea stretch your pecs and delts more for flexibility and get bigger traps to sit the bar on helps heaps

[cantygirl]

Hi, I use to have the same trouble but now its my legs that give out first. If you can locate a rubber bar cover thingy or one of those velcro spongy things, that might fix the problem, otherwise a towel placed over your upper back doubled up might sort things. Also even though you experience tightness across the pecs/shoulders, try to lift your chest up and squeeze your shoulder blades to help support the bar.

[jimjim83]

Harden up :grin:

[vinnie700]

yeah squats used to be a problem for me because of that and INSANE head aches, but eventually i got used to it. when it hurts to the point where its a "bad pain" then you just have to stop and take a break, or even just finish up squats for the day and move on to the next exercise.

but yeah it took me about 5 weeks to get used to it, i kept progressively putting up the weight, as you do, and yeah, the pain just went away over time.

try building up your traps a bit more for some extra meat up there. and you can wrap a small hand towel around the bar before you put it on your shoulders so you got a couple extra layers on there.

just stick with it and it will go away.

[TonganTerror]

better yet learn to love the pain on your shoulders :nod: love coming away from a squat session and having a knurling bruise over your shoulders :pfft:

[nate225]

Phedder - In reality it shouldn't hurt in a bad way (at least with my experience of having up to 300kg on my back - better ask Tonka what its like with 380kg! :grin: ).

CG - Don't get a rubber thingy!!! It's just masking the problem!

Mr Big - Big traps aren't needed - traps are not for sitting bars on!!

Vinnie - Headaches? WTF. Hopefully you're not placing that bar on that one vertebrae that seems to stick out on most people?

Bar placement is important if you want to avoid this one. Aim for posterior delts and retract forming a shelf for the bar to sit on. It shouldn't feel like its going to slip if you get it right. There's an article about building a good 'yoke' (the upper back 'shelf' I refered to) for squatting on elitefts.com, might be worth looking this up?

[Phedder]

I wouldn't say I have tightness across my pecs and delts, it's just under my right scapula feels odd while holding the bar, it's hard to describe but it's not normal. I have been pulling my shoulders back and bringing my scapula together to form the support, and placing the bar across the posterior deltoids. It definitely feels stable and i'm confident I can take the weight, it's just that irritating pain. Thanks for the tips Nate, I'll go check out that article.

[Carlos Insane]

Have a look at getstrenght.com they are a NZ company that make strenght/strong man gear they have some harnesses that you can put over your shoulders that spread the weight evenly.

[vinnie700]

Vinnie - Headaches? WTF. Hopefully you're not placing that bar on that one vertebrae that seems to stick out on most people?

yeah i did some research on it and apparently its pretty common. i also asked a doc and everyone seemed to agree it was due to the increase of blood pressure during the exercise and just not having experienced that load/pressure before took some getting used to. i trained on asprin for a couple weeks and eventually it went away. also if the bar is placed on a torn muscle (even slightly torn) it can cause this. i think it also had a lot to do with my breathing at the start. they call it exertional headaches.

and yeah, the actual bar pain that phedder is describing was just something i wasnt used to either and went away, theres no bad pains during squats now. i really think when your starting out with a full body load bearing compound exercise, even with perfect technique, chances are that your body isnt going to like it straight away, its just something you gotta ease into a get used to for some people.