Put the Pad Down and Squat

Happy Spring everyone! Yes today is about, and I'll say it again, PUT THE PAD DOWN AND SQUAT. We had someone come up and complain about the fact that we were missing a certain piece of foam and they couldn't possibly squat without it because it hurt. I really had to try to find words to say to this person that didn't make me sound like a complete ass. Trouble was the words I kept coming back to were suck it up buttercup. That really would not have gone well so I had to just zip it. Seriously though folks there are few pieces of fabric that I would much prefer to use for kindling than the squat bar pad.

BURN THIS ON SITE

I'll tell you first that I used it very early when I first started lifting, but I was also making 2 mistakes at that point, at least 2 I can remember. I was putting the bar way too high, up on the base of my cervical spine. The other thing was I had this piece of crap wrapped around the bar. It doesn't do anyone any favors folks so just don't even bother getting one if you can help it.

Why am I telling you this? Well there's a couple reason, let me lay them out for you. Center of gravity plays a huge part in doing weight lifting, and you wanna keep that weight as near that spot as possible. Otherwise you're changing the leverage on your squat. It may not mess with you at lower weights, but it will when you start piling on the big wheels.

I know your back is a little sore from the bar being where is should be, your body will adapt, just like it did the first time you did deadlifts or chin-ups. Your hands built a callas and then it didn't hurt as bad, same rule applies. While you are at it you can get off the bench press and do some heavy rows (pulls) to build some muscle in that upper back for the bar to sit on. You will only hate life more if you continue to do heavy squats with this pad.

The only reason I can actually think of that's good to have one of these is when doing barbell hip bridges to keep the weight from absolutely crushing your hips (or other things). I found a way around that with an airex pad, which works better and won't thin out under the heavy weight. Yeah it's about 65-75 bucks but it's worth it because I found way more uses for that than I can a squat pad. At the end of the day, just start without a pad, keep the bar fairly low and squat until you walk funny.

That's all I got for today folks, go out there and get after it!