As I referred to earlier, the high bar refers to the bar position on the shoulders, so the question stands out what is the correct High Bar
Squat bar placement?
To achieve correct High Bar
Squat bar placement, you just need to know a few key points, which makes the learning process fairly simple and you will achieve a great High Bar Back Squat technique.
The correct High Bar
Squat bar placement needs a little bit of practice and feels uncomfortable on the neck or trapezius muscle when you start out learning the correct High Bar Back Squat form.
To learn the correct High Bar
Squat bar placement might feel uncomfortable in the beginning and requires some practice.
Not exact matches
So even though theoretically the high
bar squat hits your quads better, the low
bar position allows for a greater load
placement on the quad muscles and therefore results with more overall quad muscle recruitment than the high
bar position.
Sometimes lifters just lack proprioception and muscle memory when performing snatches and overhead
squats, ultimately resulting in inconsistent
bar placement (which then leads to a slew of other issues... keep reading).
That being said, because of the
bar placement (anterior on the shoulders) and because one is able to maintain a more upright torso during its execution, most people will be able to achieve a much deeper depth with a front
squat.
Due to the
placement of the
bar on your back, this version of the
squat will require you to keep your torso more upright, so if you really struggled with this on your bodyweight
squat, you will probably struggle keeping your chest up here.
Indeed, in modelling the Smith Machine
squat, Abelbeck (2002) found that foot
placements further from the
bar path produced greater hip extension torque than foot
placements closer to the
bar path.