ExRx.net

Hand placement on the bar and bar placement on the back:

A person’s structure, limb lengths and size have a lot to do with hand placement on the bar. The main rule of thumb is the closer the better. It will keep the bar tighter on your back, and no chance for the bar to roll. The lighter lifter usually has no problem with this, but the bigger and heavier lifter, usually through inflexibility, wants put his hands out wide. Thus, he decreases his leverage by the fact the bar will have to be placed higher on the neck to keep it from falling. "I will say this once, and I am sure I will take some hits on it, but it is the absolute truth. The vast majority of bigger/heavier lifters have very poor form, for many reasons, but inflexibility and the refusal to practice good form is the main reason. They pretty much try to rely on their size to muscle up a lot of weight. That is one reason why the smaller lifter is so much superior pound for pound at all the lifts." The weight should be supported by not only the back of the deltoids where the bar sits, but some should be supported by the arms, forearms, elbows, wrists, hands. This dictates as narrow a hand placement as possible. Smaller frame people will have narrower grips than bigger frame people, i.e. My grip is considerably narrower than Bill Kazmaier's. Grip the bar tight. The tighter the grip, the less pressure will be on the wrists and elbows and shoulders, and the bar will have less of a chance or almost no chance of moving or rolling.

John, you probably should get a safety squat bar. A lot of powerlifters use a wide grip on their squats. I think a better approach is to fix your shoulders so you can take a narrower grip.

The inventor of the safet squat bar:
http://www.samson-power.com/ASL/hatfield.html
Notice the hand placement.

For further reading:

http://www.crainsmuscleworld.com/advanc ... iques.html


BTW, I got those from this thread. http://drsquat.com/content/main/trainin ... squat-grip

John, I find that when you use a narrow grip and hold your elbows in, your upper back tighens up and your chest naturally pops out. That helps keep your back in alignment. I remember when I was recovering from my shoulder injury, it hurt to hold it in position so I used other squat variations. I never could get comfortable with a wide grip. My shoulder's healed enough now so the position isn't painful anymore.