Upper Back Position In The Back Squat

Holy shit people mess this up. 

Upper back position in the squat is pretty important. Ideally, we are as upright as possible to 1) prevent our bodies from collapsing under the barbell and fucking dying 2) maximise force applied onto and by the quads.

There are 2 common incorrect elbow/forearm positions I see often in the back squat:

Observe lifter A, the one on the left hand side. This lifter as overemphised the cue of "set up your forearms like you're about to do a behind-the-neck press". What this means is there forearms are far too vertical. What this does is elongate the traps and upper back muscles, making them more prone to rounding as the lifter comes out of the hull. This is an even bigger problem if lifters do not have good isometric upper back strength.

Now observe lifter B, the one on the right, who is arguable more stupid than lifter A. Lifter B set up the back squat like it's a front squat; but with the bar one their back. Lifter B has far too horizontal of a forearm angle, which provides a terrible shelf for the barbell to rest on. This also makes it harder to maintain extension of the upper back throughout the squat.

This is what a good upper back position looks like:

The angle between the torso and the forearms should be 45 degrees more-or-less. This makes maintaining upper back extension the easiest, and thus is the best upper back position for the squat. This position makes it much easier to squeeze the traps inwards whilst also keeping them depressing and resting the barbell on a good (and slightly lower) upper-back shelf. 

Finally, a note on wrist extension. Wrist extension should be avoided. When your wrists are holding the bar, they should be as straight as possible. This means your palms should be pressing forwards and down. This is an easy issue to fix.