 Hi, I'm Lance Coyke and this is probably the most challenging video I've ever made So today we're gonna talk about just a normal squat Where you put the bar on the back of your body and you sit down and you bend your hips and your knees and you stand back up and it You know, it looks great. Everyone's seen it before The thing that makes it difficult is I don't have a barbell here in my apartment home So we're gonna add a little bit. We're gonna just kind of figure it out on the fly So I think it helps comparing the front squat and the back squat to understand the back squat All you need to do with the back squat is you step under the bar You put the weight on the top so your shoulders here wherever you got a meaty shelf that can support the the cold unforgiving steel You're gonna come up step out of the rack Set your feet and then you squat Okay, when you're done you walk all the way into the rack your little clink clink and then you come back down Okay, don't ever just reach the weight back in because that builds sloppy habits. You're going to drop the bar It's gonna fall on you or someone else heaven forbid Okay, so barbell back squat When I put the bar the bar is the weight right when I put the weight behind me If I just kept my position that weight would pull me backward and I would fall over So when I put the bar on my back, I have to kind of push myself forward I have to shift my my I have to kind of like smooth criminal lean everything forward like this, right? And that just counterbalances the the external load that's sitting on me Right if they if I have a front squat and I'm holding the bar in front of my body the opposite happens Right I shift backward and you can see my my back kind of sticks backward to You deal with the stresses there the forces So with the barbell back squat, this is actually a pretty challenging position Which is interesting because a lot of people will start there Let's let's talk top to bottom. So how is it easier than a front squat? It's easier in terms of the upper body, right? A lot of people find front squatting really Uncomfortable and a back squat gives you a nice place to put the bar and you can kind of bend over and it doesn't hurt so bad Right, it feels okay with the front squat I got this really uncomfortable like back position and I'm stretching my back out Which doesn't ever move because they sit at a computer all day and I try to just hold that elbow up while I Come back and then as I get tired I start to collapse and the bar starts to roll out Okay, so there's a lot going on with the upper body in the front squat the back squat It's pretty chill, right? I just have to have my arms back here and as long as I can get my Shoulders back or my my hands to rotate back like this as long as I have that shoulder motion It's pretty okay But how is it more challenging if we take this upper body part out of the equation and we look at more of The lower body part when I have the weight behind me It shifts my body weight forward that actually steals some of the mobility that I need for squatting It puts me into hip flexion and as I squat down I need more hip flexion So I can't squat as deep with a back squat as I can with a front squat, right if I'm here I can't go as low as if I'm here Okay There's a lot there now With the back squat I Can generally use more weight Okay, as long as I can get in the right positions and even if I can't get in the right positions I can usually use more weight This this back squat position lets me load some bigger muscles some hip muscles a little bit more and even though It's still a squatting pattern and I still really load my knee and my quads I get a lot more Glutes and hamstrings to help support me as I come back up whereas with a front squat I have some glutes and hamstrings, but the lever isn't quite as long So I don't get as much out of them as they do with the back squat If you're gonna do a powerlifting meet you gotta learn how to back squat that is one of the variations You can't come in and say Do you guys care of my front squat because they'll look at you like you're a joker? So consider that if you want to get into powerlifting you're gonna have to learn how to back squat How am I using it? Well, I don't really start many people out with it if they have a lot of trouble figuring out the front squat I Might switch them to a back squat But I only go there after they've demonstrated with lower loads and more remedial variations That they can squat in a really good way. So What are those remedial variations? I might ask you to do a body weight squat I'm probably gonna ask you to do a plate squat, but I'm definitely gonna ask you to do a goblet squat We're holding the weight in front of you and you squat down like this That's one of my key variations that you have to prove to me that you can get Usually I'm going to go to a front squat first After the goblet squat so we got goblet squat then front squat and if you have Demonstrated that you can front squat then we'll go to a back squat variation now just in between that step there If I have a safety squat bar, I like using that first because it it The jump isn't quite as big so with a back squat the bar sits way on my back But with a safety squat bar that the bar is kind of cambered and it's lower and it stays closer to my center of mass So it looks a little bit more like a front squat and it forces me to stay more upright rather than Bending over and relying on my back to lift up the weight so much Okay, so that's my general progression to get to the back squat goblet squat front squat safety squat bar back squat and then back squat Okay, hopefully you have an idea of what those look like not many gyms have a safety squat bar So if you don't have you don't have them Consider asking the gym owner. It's cool to buy new equipment, right as long as you're not the one buying it Consider it for your home gym. I really like it for even for awkward front squat variations. You can kind of figure it out But it's it's a nice way Especially if you have shoulder problems We talked about with the back squat holding the bar if you can't rotate your shoulders back to hold on to the bar There are handles on the safety squat bar to put you here You still get this back squat put the weight on my back Get extra load get extra force development strength Power all sorts of good training effects, but you don't stress the shoulders quite as much because you get to keep them right here Very challenging. I Hope you enjoy your back squats. If you have any more questions about them, just leave a comment below and we will discuss