shackleford
Banned
ok, thank you. It seems i've been neglecting proper warmup and stretching. I'll be incorporating your suggestions as well as @Eman's, and do some reading to develop a routine that works for me.
MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
Squats are making my arms feel numb ??
- Thread starter BigKevo
- Start date
That's a good point and as I have long arms I can't keep my arms close in but hands almost all the way out to the collars.
Keep them touching the wall. The back of your hands should be against the wall. Then, when you retract your scapula, you almost want to feel like your arms are pushing your upper body away from the wall.
I can probably dig up a YouTube video of it if that's not clear. I have no idea what that drill is called, but I think once you try it you'll know you got it because you can feel it... Similar feeling to your arms getting into position for a squat but it's your own mobility that's causing the stretch.
shackleford
Banned
awesome, that clears it up, thank you.
shackleford
Banned
same, my hands are always as wide as possible. I'm going to play with the hand position though, see if it makes a difference.
I should try that too as sometimes my shoulders get killed. Will take some time to find the sweet spot with the least discomfort. I've nearly got some fingers pinched in the j-hooks when racking...ouch.
shackleford
Banned
If I find a solution, i'll let you know. I've gotten alot of suggestions to try already. Many thanks to all of you.
Honestly, I often still go wide with my hands... I have a broad back and it's pretty easy for me to flex and stay tight without getting hands closer to lock in. It's not really necessary to get them that close if you can do that, and I feel it's worth trying to do it because it teaches you to get tight without pushing everything together.
With that said, that approach is better when the session is more volume focused and not so much on intensity or true technique. When you're getting in the 90ish% territory it's probably better all around to bring the hands in as much as mobility allows... (Always keeping the elbows inside the hands, probably something that both of us will never have to worry about)
shackleford
Banned
Did some squats today. I tried bringing my hands in alot closer than usual. I made sure my elbows were still inside my hands, and tried to keep them under the bar, per @Eman's instruction. I did a set of 20 reps and while my arms started to get the tired feeling toward the end, the werent screaming at me halfway through like usual. Also, with my hands in closer, I did feel like i was able to be tighter.
I did the wall stretch also, before squatting and between sets. It seems to force my chest up, I didnt realize how slouched I was. The more I did it, the more natural it felt to have my chest up.
@Type-IIx, I looked up the front squat. And it seems to be basically same position I catch the bar when doing power cleans. I did some light front squats today. It seems like the biggest struggle for me is getting and keeping my elbows up high. I think maybe the wall stretch helped with that too.
I did the wall stretch also, before squatting and between sets. It seems to force my chest up, I didnt realize how slouched I was. The more I did it, the more natural it felt to have my chest up.
@Type-IIx, I looked up the front squat. And it seems to be basically same position I catch the bar when doing power cleans. I did some light front squats today. It seems like the biggest struggle for me is getting and keeping my elbows up high. I think maybe the wall stretch helped with that too.
Test_Subject
New Member
The biggest thing to remember with front squats is that you aren’t holding the bar up with your arms and elbows — you’re just raising them up to create a shelf across your delts for the bar to rest on. All of the weight should rest across your delts and upper chest. If you start to get elbow pain, that’s a sure sign that you don’t have the bar in a proper front rack position.
I’m a pretty decent front squatter, and I find that pressing your elbows together helps a lot with keeping them up. If you’re pitching forward and losing your shelf, you need to back off the weight a bit.
They’re a tough exercise to get good at, but the looks you get when front squatting big weight are worth it alone. Also quad gains.
shackleford
Banned
I think I'll start incorporating front squats now.
Test_Subject
New Member
Stick with them man. They’re a fantastic quad exercise and they help build really good core strength which of course carries over to other lifts.
Anyway, enough about my love of front squats, I’m glad that the tweaks you made to your back squat seem to have helped. Mobility cannot be emphasized enough.
shackleford
Banned
i'm all about that core strength. Its of course a weak point of mine, but i'm working on it. I think it has real value for everyday life too. Thanks for your input in this thread.
Type-IIx
Member
@shackleford OK, good information. I was intending the front squat to be a diagnostic tool here - but if you want to incorporate them into your training, great.
You should do the band and wall stretches mentioned. With the difficulty keeping your elbows up and your symptoms with the back squat, try to first unload your elbows some with training, ie, if you're doing a lot of curls (a huge stressor being barbell curls) those will really strain the tendons of your elbow joint. You want to especially stretch the musculature surrounding the elbow joint including your forearm/wrist, triceps also, and unload the elbow joint itself. For curls, either take a break, or do hammer variations or turn your grip sideways for them. Doing skull crushers kills the elbow and the flexibility around the joint, so drop them for a while. I believe if you do these things for a short while you should get some feeling back in your arms on the back squat. The ulnar nerve may be a bit compressed.
You should do the band and wall stretches mentioned. With the difficulty keeping your elbows up and your symptoms with the back squat, try to first unload your elbows some with training, ie, if you're doing a lot of curls (a huge stressor being barbell curls) those will really strain the tendons of your elbow joint. You want to especially stretch the musculature surrounding the elbow joint including your forearm/wrist, triceps also, and unload the elbow joint itself. For curls, either take a break, or do hammer variations or turn your grip sideways for them. Doing skull crushers kills the elbow and the flexibility around the joint, so drop them for a while. I believe if you do these things for a short while you should get some feeling back in your arms on the back squat. The ulnar nerve may be a bit compressed.
shackleford
Banned
Great, thank you for your advice. I was doing BB curls and skull crushers. I'll give them a break and focus on stretching. I did start noticing some forearm pain, near the elbow, while doing the bb curls. I thought it might be due to the thick bar i was using.
