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makedah
New member
I squatted today for the first time in weeks. Broke my toe, then prepping for and teaching the first two weeks of a summer class gobbled up all of my time. But now, I'm back...
Coming back to the cage with fresh eyes made me notice something -- those cages are really narrow! I don't know the correct terms for some of this stuff, but there's a larger part of a barbell near the ends that keeps plates from sliding to the center. The posts on the back of the cage are about 4 inches narrower than that to make it easy to load and unload weight. But the bottom of that cage is also only that wide - with big supporting rails along either side.
At any rate, I couldn't get a decent stance in the cage. After doing a few reps with my feet slightly wider than shoulder width (the widest I could get in the cage) I tried to see if there was a way I could get my feet wider. (I'm not strong enough to put the bar on my back without the cage.) So I stepped over one of the rails at the bottom (so that one leg was outside of the cage) and slid the barbell over enough so that it would still be equally balanced on my shoulders.
The wider stance was easier and free of the main problem that I had before - feeling that the barbell was going to either slip down my back or pitch me forward onto my face. Even though I've probably lost a little conditioning after being AWOL for a while, the weight (I was still only using a bare bar) just flew up. I don't know the physics of it, or even if it's safe to be half in and half out of the cage like that. But it worked.
BTW - I'm 5'8" with long legs.
Has anyone else had to modify in this way, or are the cages at my gym unusual in how narrow they are at the bottom?
Coming back to the cage with fresh eyes made me notice something -- those cages are really narrow! I don't know the correct terms for some of this stuff, but there's a larger part of a barbell near the ends that keeps plates from sliding to the center. The posts on the back of the cage are about 4 inches narrower than that to make it easy to load and unload weight. But the bottom of that cage is also only that wide - with big supporting rails along either side.
At any rate, I couldn't get a decent stance in the cage. After doing a few reps with my feet slightly wider than shoulder width (the widest I could get in the cage) I tried to see if there was a way I could get my feet wider. (I'm not strong enough to put the bar on my back without the cage.) So I stepped over one of the rails at the bottom (so that one leg was outside of the cage) and slid the barbell over enough so that it would still be equally balanced on my shoulders.
The wider stance was easier and free of the main problem that I had before - feeling that the barbell was going to either slip down my back or pitch me forward onto my face. Even though I've probably lost a little conditioning after being AWOL for a while, the weight (I was still only using a bare bar) just flew up. I don't know the physics of it, or even if it's safe to be half in and half out of the cage like that. But it worked.
BTW - I'm 5'8" with long legs.
Has anyone else had to modify in this way, or are the cages at my gym unusual in how narrow they are at the bottom?
