Get Under the Bar to Unrack

So Stick Man has been working with me on the BFS Book of Techniques

We were talking about unracking the bar…

I’ve found that the sweet spot to unrack powerfully is with the knees in front of the bar and the hips behind the bar in relative balance. If your knees are under or behind the bar it pushes your hips back, eliminates any help from the quads, and turns the unrack into a heavy good morning.

With your hips too far forward, directly under the bar you have less stability.

By tightening your upper back, and breathing and bracing you turn your entire back into a rigid lever which effectively transfers power from your quads and glutes directly to the bar.

A common mistake to avoid is flexing the lumbar to push your hips forward. The entire back should rotate like a lever.

For a full review of squat technique, check out my squat article in the BFS Book of Techniques.