Back to the Rack

Elbows up!  [Sigh.]  Roll the bar back and let it roll back on your fingertips!  [Yawn.]  Stretch out those wrists so you can balance that weight on the front of your deltoids!  [Snooze.]

Sometimes we lose the purpose of a move and get stuck on the details – the pull up in the kip – the forest in the trees.  So it is with rack position (the placement of your hands, shoulders and elbows in a front squat) that we get hung up on the details and forget that the whole purpose of it is so we can drive from the legs and not the back.

Lose your rack position a bit, the bar slides forward, your back rounds and pow suddenly you’re lifting out of your low back instead of your legs.  Of course you’ll still be using your legs but why mess around with the low back at all?

Here’s a clever rhyme to sum it up: keep the rack to save the back.