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How To Improve Your Rack Position – Coach Laura Gibbs

By Scott Waugh | In Blog Articles | on July 25, 2016

Ever looked at the guy next to you and thought, “Hey, nice rack, I wish mine looked that good”?  And no, I don’t mean the pushed up meaty bits oogled over by young teenage boys.  I’m talking about that sweet pushed up, shoulders puffed, elbows high position that keeps the barbell from falling forward in that heavy max clean or front squat.

I’m here to tell you there is a way to attain such a beautiful rack but it’s going to take some time and commitment. Not everyone is gifted with great mobility; some of us desk-folk have to work really hard to stop ourselves from slouching and rolling our shoulders forward. But this is where it all begins – posture. Sit up tall, roll your shoulders back and down, think about squeezing your shoulder blades together and keeping your torso tall. The more you improve your initial posture position the better your rack will improve.

Next up – mobility testing. There are a lot of factors that can limit one’s front rack position and without proper testing of these limitations we can do some serious damage to our wrists, elbows and shoulders over time.

1. Check your wrist mobility: if you experience pain when pushing your wrist back past 90 degrees, then there may be something going on further down the arm. Assessing for wrist mobility allows us to determine if we have a solid platform for the barbell to sit on. You can test this by bringing your hands together in a prayer position and attempt to push your wrists downwards past 90 degrees. We are looking for any gaps between the palms of the hands or any pain experienced before the wrist passes 90 degrees. Other ways of testing include placing your hands down on the floor and gently rocking forward over the finger tips. We are looking for the hand making an angle with the floor without the palm releasing off the ground. Once we have assessed the wrists we can begin to mobilise by rolling the forearm out with a trigger point ball or a barbell. This will help release any fascia tension placed on the forearm over chronic use.

2. Elbows: now this isn’t the “lick your elbow” test, we want to see how close your knuckles can get to your shoulder without raising your elbow past 90 degrees. Try having a friend push your fist down to your shoulders while holding your elbow in place to see if there is any improvement with resistance. Often times there won’t be, and you may feel the tension in your elbow. If this is the case, take your trigger point ball and begin to roll it up and down your tricep. You can also flex and relax from your elbow to improve that trigger point release.

3. Front rack position: you can help improve the soft tissue mobility by testing your front rack position. Place your arms in the front rack position and attempt to raise the elbows up without bending/rotating through your lumbar spine. If you need to move through the lumbar then you are most likely lacking in mobility in the lower lat area. This can be adjusted by the prayer stretch position. Holding a PVC pipe with a supine grip, kneeling on the ground with your elbows up on a box and hands in the prayer position, curve through your upper back and gently rock yourself back onto your heels. Be careful not to feel a pinch through your shoulders, you should feel this stretch in your lats.

These are just some of the ways one can test front rack mobility and some tools to help improve your position in a front squat or heavy squat clean. Try implementing these movements into your daily mobility routine, or in between your working sets to see if there is any increased range of motion. Over time and with consistent practice, your front rack position should improve and any small niggles that got in the way of those PB’s should subside. Just think, in no time you could be the guy (or girl) with the great rack.

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