Public service announcement; the low bar squat.

Various media outlets have covered the tragic death of "fitness influencer" Justin Vicky, who apparently died of a broken neck after failing to come up in a high bar squat.  Unfortunately, the articles state that the squat is somehow uniquely dangerous, and reality is that it does not have to be.

You see, there are two main kinds of back squat; most novice lifters gravitate towards putting the bar on top of the trapezius/shoulders in a "high bar squat", and that's what Mr. Vicky did.  However, an awful lot of elite powerlifters favor what is called the "low bar squat", where the bar is actually placed on the back of the scapulae, just beneath a ridge of bone called the "spine".  In this article about championship powerlifting, notice that every.single.lifter is using the low bar squat.

There's a reason for that; if the bar is placed on the scapulae, instead of on top of the shoulders, there can be no major stress on the neck because the bar never goes on the neck in the first place.  That's what killed Mr. Vicky, who was clearly using a high bar technique.  Another thing that contributed to Mr. Vicky's death is that he had neither a cage nor adequate spotters to protect him.  Either one would have saved his life.

Side note; according to Mark Rippetoe, author of Starting Strength, the lift that is most likely to be injurious or lethal is actually the bench press, for the obvious reason that the bar can actually fall onto one's chest or neck.  Again, it won't kill you to use a bit of a "cage" that will catch the bar before your chest or neck is crushed, or to have good spotters to help you out of trouble.