Front Squats ‘n Stuff

How to Build Muscle 26 Comments

“No, no, just squat straight down really fast and drop your ass all the way to the floor. Move your feet and hands a little wider. Now just rip the bar up off the floor and stand straight up.”

I cringed in pain as I watched two college aged kids deadlift a couple weeks ago at the gym I’ve been training at in Cali.

“Dude, it feels like my back is gonna break.”

And indeed it was coming close.

I continued writing in my training journal and prepared for my squat workout but I couldn’t look away from the car wreck happening just off to my left.

After a few more sets I snapped out of high intensity pre workout mode and got into coaching mode.

“Can I help you guys out here?”

“Yeah, man. Please do.”

I introduced myself to Luke and Billy and proceeded to explain what they were doing wrong and went on to coach them on deadlift technique for the next thirty minutes. I’m always hesitant to do this because I don’t want to come across as a douche or insult anyone. But I couldn’t stand by in all good conscience and let these poor guys destroy their spines. They were more than receptive and couldn’t be more excited with how much better they felt after I gave them a couple of pointers.

“Oh, man, that made a huge difference! My back feels way better.”

“Good, good. Now let’s just stick with 135 and have you do more five or six more sets of five. And for the next month or two I don’t want you going above five reps per set. Just add about five pounds per workout. Maybe ten if your form is improving rapidly.”

“Ok, cool.”

“Again, get the proper foot placement under the bar that I showed you, fill your belly with air, squat down and set your arch, load those hamstrings up with tension, squeeze the bar as tightly as you can and feel the tension radiating up through your arms and spreading throughout your entire upper body. Don’t start pulling until you maximize the tension. At that point, slowly grind the bar off the floor. When it clears your knees you can than forcefully drive your hips through. The deadlift is one of the only lifts that doesn’t start with an explosive contraction. If you do that you’ll get hurt. And you guys were well on your way there.”

“Got it. How’s that looking? Any better?”

“Much better. You got it now.”

After they finished up I finally got started on my squat workout. Unfortunately there was a mirror in front of the squat rack. Anyone who knows anything about training knows that’s a big no-no. And of course we don’t have any mirrors at Renegade, so I was a little thrown off. In fact, I was a lot thrown off. I just couldn’t get the groove right and didn’t know where to look. I kept falling forward and I could just see an injury coming at any second.

“Man, I really hope those kids aren’t still here witnessing this debacle,” I thought to myself. I coach them for thirty minutes and then can’t even squat right, myself. That would’ve been a bad look.

“Fuck it, I thought. I can’t squat til I get back to Renegade. Not worth the risk. Plus, even if I get used to squatting with a mirror I’ll be out of sorts when I get back to squatting without a mirror.”

So I decided to front squat. Why? Simple- because I never do. So I figured that I wouldn’t know the difference. I never front squat because I hate to front squat.

A lot of “functional” strength coaches prefer the front squat to the back squat but in my opinion they may be a bit misled.

One of the arguments for the front squat is that they are safer for the spine. Funny but I see just as many people, if not more, rounding forward on front squats as I do on back squats. Just as easily as you could argue that they are safer for the spine you could argue that they are more stressful to the knees just because the knees have to travel much further forward. Case in point- front squats with just 225 will bother my right knee. But I don’t feel a thing in my right knee until I hit a slightly bad rep with over 400 pounds on a back squat.

Front squats are also supposedly somehow more functional. I don’t see it.

I’m not saying the front squat’s a bad exercise, however. Not at all. In theory I like the exercise a lot. It’s just that I base my conclusions off real world observations. And most people find front squats tedious and uncomfortable. If you do them correctly the bar will be resting on your front delts and nearly crushing your throat. If you have little muscle mass this will not be fun. That means they will pretty much suck for skinny hardgainers and many females when the weights start getting somewhat heavy. They can also be stressful on the wrists and elbows as well, especially if you have big arms. Another problem is that with heavier weights form breaks down on front squats before it does on back squats and not due to the legs being fatigued.

Having said that, I still think the front squat is a good exercise in theory. One of the biggest problems, however, is that people use horrible form when performing front squats. If you want to front squat make sure you are doing so properly.

First thing is the bar placement. It should be high. Really high. Like almost crushing your throat and choking you. Like I said, it aint comf.

The next thing to cover is how to hold the bar properly. A lot of people hold the bar like they are doing a military press. That is completely wrong and will lead to a horrible performance on the exercise.

When you grab the bar do so with only the tips of your index and middle finger. Some people will be able to get a ring finger on it as well. If you have the bar down too low on your fingers buried down near the palm of your hand you’ll be in trouble. The wrist stress will be more than you need in your life and it will be difficult to hold the bar up throughout the set. So just the tips of two or three fingers.

When you set your fingertips on the bar elevate your elbows as high as you can, so that they are about parallel to the floor. If you have big arms you can expect this position to be pretty irritating. Another option is to use wrist straps attached to the bar and just hold onto those. That works for some but it aggravates the hell out of other people’s elbows and wrists.

So if your arms are over 16 or 17 inches this may not be the exercise for you.

If you have elbow issues this is definitely not the exercise for you.

If you have wrist issues this is definitely not the exercise for you.

If you play a sport such as baseball this is definitely not the exercise for you.

Since I fall into three out of four categories there it should be obvious why I don’t front squat and why after doing them last week my left elbow is still throbbing in pain.

The other option is the crossed arms style. This is more of a bodybuilder way of doing them versus the lifter way of doing them. Personally I’ve never felt right doing them like that so I’m not a big fan. If it works for you, so be it. Dave Draper did them like that so who am I to argue?

There’s also something called the Sting Ray which is a plastic device that goes over the bar to make the arms crossed version easier. That might be something you’d want to try if you were going to start front squatting.

Anyway, if you CAN front squat let’s move on to the next step. Now that you have the proper set up it’s time to unrack the bar and start the descent. Just like with back squats you want to take a huge breath and fill your belly with air before going down. You don’t sit as far back on the front squat; it’s more of just a quick break at the hips and down. Like I said, the knees will travel further forward than they do on a back squat which will target the quads more. This is a good thing if you lack quad size or just need to strengthen them.

A few years back it seemed like all performance based training was all about focusing on the posterior chain and people forgot about the quads. Since the quads are very important muscles for acceleration and deceleration this was a big mistake. You need strong quads to perform well and the front squat targets them very effectively. That’s why you will see bodybuilders doing them after back squats or leg extensions sometimes; albeit with lighter weights in the Smith machine with their arms crossed.

When you’re coming out of the hole it’s very important to keep your elbows high. If they start dropping down that will pull you forward and you will either dump the weight or make the rep significantly harder than it should be.

As much as I personally dislike front squats I still do think they are an effective exercise for some people. There are front squat harnesses which look pretty cool and although I haven’t tried one yet I would definitely like to. Obviously, enough people hate to or can’t front squat otherwise there would never have been a front squat harness invented. If you have any experience with the harness I’d like to hear your feedback.

For the most part I will stick with back squats. But if you want to play around with some front squats here and there make sure your technique is tight, as described above. Also be wary of the problems I mentioned.

As for when to do them goes you have a few options. You could just replace back squats for a few weeks and see how you like front squatting. If you like it, feel free to stick with it. If you are already someone who loves front squatting don’t let me talk you out of doing them, either. These are simply my opinions on the lift.

Another option for those new to front squats, and what I would probably do myself, is add them in during a hypertrophy phase as a second or third exercise. Maybe start with backward sled drags or lunges and then go into front squats. That way the quads are pre exhausted so you wouldn’t have to use as much weight which would make the exercise slightly less uncomfortable.

You could also start with kettlebells and progress to a bar after a few weeks or month. The kettlebell front squat is a great assistance exercise, although it does get a bit difficult to hold after a while when you start working up to heavier weights.

Front squats alone won't build big glutes

Of course, if you replace back squats with front squats on a long term basis you need to remember to include some more posterior chain work because the front squats won’t hit those muscles as effectively as the back squat. That means for big, powerful glutes you will need to add in some extra deads, glute hams and glute bridges.

One last thing is to make sure you don’t do more than six reps on front squats. That’s because the front delts and upper back will fatigue long before the legs do.

Whichever option you choose remember that perfect form and stopping shy of failure are crucially important.

I ran into Billy and Luke yesterday at the gym right before they were heading back to school for the semester. It looked like they had each gained size since I’d seen them last and I told them so.

“Yeah, man. I’m up five pounds. All that stuff you told us about the form and holding back on our weights, not going to failure; that helped so much on every single lift. We both just set new records on everything our last week here.”

Train smart.

Please leave your comments below and let me know what you think of the front squat and if you have tried the Sting Ray or front squat harnesses.