Starting Strength, 3rd Edition - Mark Rippetoe [11]
If the adductors – the groin muscles – get their share of the load, too, that adds muscle mass to the exercise. When we use a moderate stance with shoulder-width heels, toes pointing out at about 30 degrees, and knees shoved out so that the thighs stay parallel to the feet, then the groin muscles stretch out as the hips are lowered. If the muscles are stretched out, they are in the position they must be in to contract and contribute force to the hip extension. The muscles that hold the knees out – the external rotators of the hip – are engaged as well, thus adding to the muscle mass involved in the squat.
The low-bar squat, or in this book, just the Squat, is not the same form used by suit-and-wraps-equipped powerlifters, who are trying to get the most out of their squat suit, an expensive, very tight singlet that is designed to resist hip flexion and store elastic energy in the eccentric phase, and therefore aid hip extension. To this end, some powerlifters use a very wide stance and as vertical a shin position as they can produce. Some lifters use a high-bar position with low elbows, a more vertical back angle, and an upward eye gaze (quite different from the squat style used in this book). A wide stance and vertical shins open the knee angle and close the hip angle, thus permitting the more effective use of the suit/hip extension. Knee wraps are used to resist knee flexion, and like the squat suit, they store elastic energy during the eccentric phase. Our stance, which is not nearly as wide, permits more forward travel of the knees and more use of the quadriceps. In fact, every aspect of the technique used in our version of the squat has been chosen specifically to maximize the amount of muscle mass and the range of motion used so that we can lift as much weight as possible through that range of motion and thus get stronger.
If the bar is placed high on the back – on top of the traps, where most people start off carrying it because it’s an easier and more obvious place for a bar – the back angle must accommodate the higher position by becoming more vertical to keep the bar over the mid-foot. If the back angle is more vertical, the knee angle must become more closed because the knees get shoved forward when the hips open up (Figure 2-8 again). In other words, the higher bar position makes the back squat more like the front squat, and we don’t want to front-squat for general strength development because it doesn’t effectively train the source of whole-body power: the posterior chain.
The high-bar, or “Olympic,” squat has been the preferred form of the exercise for Olympic weightlifters for decades. This seems to be largely a matter of tradition and inertia, since there are compelling reasons for weightlifters to use the low-bar position, too. Since the squat is not a contested lift in weightlifting, and since Olympic lifters front-squat to directly reinforce the squat clean anyway, the reasons for weightlifters to use the low-bar squat in training must involve other considerations. The squat makes you strong, and weightlifting is a strength sport; even if it is terribly dependent on technique, the winner is still the one who lifts the most weight. The high-bar position may be harder, but the low-bar position uses more muscle, allows more weight to be lifted, and consequently prepares the lifter for heavier weights.
If an argument on the basis of specificity is to be made, the low-bar squat is also more applicable to the mechanics of Olympic weightlifting than the high-bar squat. The low-bar position, with the weight sitting just below the spine of the scapula, much more closely approximates the mechanics of the position in which the bar is pulled off of the floor. As the discussions of pulling mechanics in the Deadlift