Friday, March 11, 2016

Too short for squat rack: shallow "squat" safely or squat properly outside rack?

Hello!!

Thank you in advance for helping me with this :)

About: So first, I'm 161cm/52kg/F, new to lifting, but not new to exercising or bodyweight squats. I'm in Korea, barely speak Korean, but have started to go to a new gym with some Korean girlfriends who are always willing to translate.

Problem: The squat rack's safety bar is too tall for me and is it not adjustable. If I squat below parallel (aka if I squat properly), I will hit the bar almost every time. In addition to being annoying, I'm afraid that it will lead to bad form and injury. My form has gotten the stamp of approval from a couple personal trainers who work at the gym, so for this question let's just assume I'm fine there. However, given that my interest is lifting progressively heavier weights and I have a history of knee injuries, I want to be extremely careful about my form to prevent any back issues etc.

So my options are

  1. Squat without safety with spotter

  2. Find something to stand on

  3. Squat improperly inside the rack

  4. Don't squat (or just goblet squat etc)

  5. Squat without safety

  6. ??

1 is not an option. The girls I go with cannot spot, and no one else speaks English, nor does it seem to be appropriate to ask. Additionally, I've read that squat spotting properly is difficult so I'm not sure I want to trust a random. Let's just say for now that this is not an option and try to find a different one please!

2 is not an option. I'm looking into this, but given that it needs to be a very solid object at least (or stacks to) 10cm thick it will be difficult. Unless you have easy suggestions let'd also leave this aside for now.

3: The trainers at the gym believe that, even though I can't go down all the way, I should squat inside the rack for anything above 30kg ish (20kg bar + 10kg). As I progress in weight should I choose this option?

4: Or, should I be content with just the bar / goblet squats, and realize that this is currently not an option. I mean, squatting is only the single most useful exercise...?

5: YOLO? Is this an option if I progress carefully and slowly?

OR 6: Magic other answer that I have not considered??

Please let me know what you think!! THANK YOU :)

Note: The way this gym works is there are a bunch of personal trainers around... that I've made friends with and help out. But due to somewhat of a language barrier and that I am not inclined towards blind faith of certifications, I'm not sure how much I trust their advice. Which.. of course.... is why I turned to the internet?? Lol

PS I already searched the wiki for similar questions and didn't find the answer I was looking for (http://ift.tt/1P379VY , http://ift.tt/1WdRits etc)

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