Starting Strength, 3rd Edition - Mark Rippetoe [159]
One of the problems associated with front squats is related to bar placement. If the throat is squeezed too hard by a bar racked too far back on the shoulders, the result can be a blackout. It is caused by the occlusion of the carotid arteries from the pressure of the bar. This is dangerous because of the fall that will occur if you allow yourself to pass completely out before doing something about it (the blackout itself is harmless). If you feel your perception start to change – and you’ll know it when it happens – either rack the bar while you can, or drop it safely on the platform and take a knee so that you don’t have as far to fall if the blackout continues to develop. An uncontrolled blackout can cause severe head injuries if you hit the racks, the bar, or the plates on the way down. To repeat: the blackout itself is harmless and is corrected by moving the bar away from the throat a little. Once the buzz diminishes, you can resume the set with no trouble as long as you have made the correction. But if you manage to black out once, you will find that you’re more prone to it for the rest of that workout, so be careful when correcting the rack position.
One more thing: There is a version of the front squat, referred to around here as the California front squat, in which the lifter’s arms are crossed in front, with the right hand on the left shoulder and vice versa. This form involves less upper body flexibility than does the standard hand position, and proportionately less security on the shoulders. It is not as safe at heavy weights, and since we train with heavy weights, we don’t use it.
Figure 7-16. The California front squat. This position is not advised.
The standard position is derived from the clean, the movement typically preceding the front squat in Olympic weightlifting, in which the bar is trapped against the shoulders by the upraised elbows jamming the hands and the bar back into the rack position. The crossed-arms position relies entirely on the elbow position and completely loses the stability provided by the hands. Doing front squats this way is tantamount to just holding your hands out in front of you with the bar balanced on the delts. And if you need to drop the bar in the event of a miss, the crossed-arms position makes the drop awkward and hard to control. There is an argument to be made for cleaning everything you’re going to front-squat, and California front squats contribute to the argument.
Bench Press Variations
The bench press is such a popular exercise that it’s no surprise there are lots of variations of the basic version. Selectorized bench press machines that control the bar path have long been a feature of multi-station machines; bars have been developed that allow the weight to travel past the top of the chest, down to where the elbows aren’t supposed to go; machines have been invented that allow each side to work independently of the other (like dumbbells, only much more expensive); the pec-deck takes the triceps out of the exercise. None of these variations are particularly helpful advances in exercise technology. The bench press is a valuable exercise because it couples heavy potential load with the motor-control aspects of barbell training, and these devices remove much of this benefit. The most valuable variations preserve the benefits while allowing different aspects of the movement that might need additional work to receive it. They are of two types: variations in the grip width and variations in the angle of the shoulder during the press.
Variations in grip width
The grip can be either wider or narrower than standard. The narrower the grip, the more inclined toward the middle the forearms are at