The king of all squats and my personal favorite for developing leg strength and core stability - the front squat truly is one of the better exercises built for athletes.
Take a moment to think about this: you see guys squat two plates on a regular basis, but how often do you see people do the same with a front squat? Would you not turn your attention to their strength in awe and respect?
The goal of this two-part blog is to help you to achieve a strong and impressive front squat status. Get ready for the days of hard work, and be prepared for the next-level strength you will achieve after this program.
Understand Bar Position
The most important aspect of a front squat is ensuring that you have the proper bar position.
Unlike the back squat, the front squat is highly dependant on having a near-perfect position on the front deltoid.
Many lifters may also choose to cross their arms in order to avoid the amount of mobility needed for the exercise, but ensure you have proper elbow and wrist flexion is crucial to maintaining bar position and ensuring translatable strength (to exercises like overhead press, cleans etc).
In order to maximize your ability to control the bar position, you should ensure that you are positioning the bar on the front of the anterior deltoid, and depressing your scapula to maintain the bar over the top of the clavicle.
Picking The Correct Depth
The front squat is an exercise where you may feel the need to increase your squat depth. This is because the upright posture makes it much easier to fall into the hips. It is important that if you do choose to squat deep that you maintain upright posture and a strong core.
If at any time you start to fall forward you have now sacrificed form. Instead, drop some weight, use a heel lift or decrease the amount of depth in the exercise.
Use Volume to Overload
The next aspect to consider is how you will put the muscle under volume in order to see growth. Due to the position and difficulty of the exercise, you will likely struggle to start with even 1 plate - so using high weight can be a challenge.
In order to stimulate muscle growth, you should do your best to emphasize slow muscle contractions - especially on the eccentric portion of the exercise. We recommend a tempo speed of 3010.
Develop More Core Strength
Core strength is important in any exercise - but ever important during a front squat. Developing your core strength is important because without a strong and tight core you will fall forward which can lead to injury or a dependency on back braces.
The front squat is one of the most beneficial exercises for developing quad strength, posture and core strength yet many people avoid it.
With that said, If you’re the type that is looking to unlock their front squat strength and usher in a new realm of strength in overhead exercises stay tuned for volume 2.
