How to Use the Front Squat to Improve Strength and Performance

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The front squat is hands-down my favorite exercise. Whenever I say this, it tends to start a front squat versus back squat debate. Which is crazy, as it’s not an either-or situation. 

But I will say that for an athlete who wants to get all-around strong, steer clear of injury, and maximize carry over into strength sports, the front squat offers a number of advantages.

Why Do Front Squats

In my article When in Doubt, Do Front Squats: 25 Tips for Better Front Squats, I explain:

• From a coaching perspective - Front squats are easier to teach, more self-correcting, and promote better depth. 
• From an injury prevention perspective - Front squats are kinder on the shoulders, and incur less shear forces and compressive forces.
• From an athletic perspective - Front squats facilitate awesome core strength and have incredible carry over into other strength movements. This is not just strength-wise, but in terms of position and mechanics, too.

 

For Olympic weightlifters, the front squat is the best movement for learning the squat clean bottom position. Weightlifting coach Bob Takano explains why in his article Hitting Bottom: 3 Tools to Perfect Your Olympic Lifts:

The best movement for learning the squat clean bottom position is the traditional front squat. This movement performed with an optimal amount of weight will force the body into the bottom position, while simultaneously stretching the tendons and ligaments involved in achieving the position. At this point the front squat is not a strengthening exercise, but a positioning and stretching exercise.

 

For powerlifters, the front squat can be valuable as an assistance exercise to the back squat. For strongmen, the front squat ties in very well to positions within the sport, such as sitting with a Atlas stone on your lap, ready to drive the stone up and onto the platform (pictured below). For CrossFitters, it also has carryover to other movements within the sport, such as thrusters and wall balls.



So let’s take a deeper look at the movement itself, why you might want to perform it, and variations on the standard barbell front squat.

 

How to Perform the Front Squat

For those less familiar with this movement, strength and conditioning coach Traver H. Boehm provides a demonstration and basic explanation in his video on the front squat.

If you prefer a written format, read through this great basic skill review by Breaking Muscle founder, Mindith Rahmat from her article Deconstructing the Front Squat:

• Take time to find your starting position.
• Find your natural foot stance width your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart and your toes slightly out so your toes can follow the path of your knees.
• Find your grip on the barbell slightly wider than shoulder width.
• Receive the bar from the rack on the front of the shoulders and step back onto the platform.
• Keep chest up and raise the elbows high.
• Stabilize the midline taking in a deep breath.
• Keep the feet flat on the ground pushing down through the heels.
• Squat down until the thighs are below parallel.
• Keep the chest up, back tight, and the elbows high when coming out the squat aggressively drive the elbows up to come out of the hole.

 

How to Improve the Front Squat

When people ask me how they can improve their front squat, they are disappointed when I don’t reply with something secret and Russian. Rather, I’ll ask to have a look at their front squat. The first place to look for improvement is within the movement, every time.

I’ve written two articles to specifically help you with this. For technical tips on the front squat, check out When in Doubt, Do Front Squats: 25 Tips for Better Front Squats – and I’m only half joking about the “when in doubt do front squats” bit.

"The first place to look for improvement is within the movement, every time."

Another way of creating improvement within the movement is to regress the movement down to even simpler forms. In this light, take a look at Squat Therapy: 4 Drills for a Better Squat. Squat therapy will improve your squats through the fact it is formed of four self-correcting movement drills. You are grooving good movement simply by performing the drills.



From regressions, we can move onto variations. Let's take a look at two variations of the movement, and how they compare to the clean grip barbell front squat.

Crossed Arm Grip

Strength coach Jesse Fernandez explains how this variation works in his article A Primer on Front and Back Squats: Crossed-Arm, Clean Grip, Low Bar, and High Bar:

Place the bar in front of your shoulders, resting it directly on top of your deltoids, just as you with clean grip version. You then will cross your hands over the bar, making an “X” when looked at from up above. Elbows will face forward and arms will be parallel to the ground

Why would you vary the grip? It’s a great question. There is less carryover to the clean with crossed arms. Also it’s not actually that easy to secure the weight like this. However, if you or your client has wrist issues, or other mobility or injury issues restricting him or her from performing a standard front squat rack, this is a useful way of facilitating the benefits of the front squat without rack position being the limiting factor in terms of weight.

If clean grip was the ultimate goal, then the root causes of the inability to get into a clean grip rack position must be addressed in parallel.

Left: Clean grip; Right: Crossed arm grip.

Two-Kettlebell Front Squat

This is an incredibly humbling movement. Strength and conditioning coach James Cerbie gives us an example of his client’s experiences with this movement in his article The 2-Kettlebell Front Squat: The Best Exercise You're Not Doing

“Well, that sucked.” My client un-racked the kettlebells and put them on the ground, still contemplating how in the world he got crushed by such little weight (comparatively speaking of course).

 

Here I was taking this guy who considered himself to be pretty strong (and to his credit he was - he could do a mid-300lb front squat relatively easily), and putting him on the struggle-bus with a pair of 24kg kettlebells.

James also lists some key reasons for performing this movement:

• Lower body strength – The increased instability of the kettlebells compensates for the lack of load.
• Core stability – This exercise puts your core on overdrive and forces you to maintain position.
• Grooving the pattern - The previous two points combine to make this movement an effective variation for grooving the squat pattern.
• Breathing into your back - By biasing a little flexion in the bottom of the squat, we can work on good breathing technique.

The article goes on to list how to perform the movement, possible technique flaws, modifications, and even programming – it’s well worth a read.

I hope this article has also been well worth your read. Now, read it again, pick out some points to practice, go do some front squats. Then come come back here and let me know how you got on.

The 3 Biggest Mistakes in Developing Fitness Programs

Every workout has a weakness, to combat this problem coaches unfortunately tend to throw in everything but the kitchen sink. Minimizing the weaknesses of various methods isn't challenging if we better understand powerful training principles. As coach Charles Staley has said, "everything has a cost, not everything has a benefit." You can easily apply this to workouts as well. Understand the weaknesses of a workout helps you better construct an entire program.

The lack of success of many fitness programs can be directly traced to not altering training variables. Even those that do try to cycle the various training concepts still miss big on three important ideas. Implementing these methods can enhance the strength of your workouts, easily periodize your programs without having a degree in Soviet sports science, and most importantly give you the opportunity to achieve long-term success.

Mistake #1: Not Altering Load Placement

I have spoken in previous articles in regards to altering holding position and how this principle plays a paramount role in loading, stability, and overall effect of an exercise. That may sound like a justification for only sandbag training, but the truth is that it applies to all forms of strength training. However, very few coaches actually systematically manipulate holding position. Why is this important?

Let's apply this concept with a barbell to get rid of any assumed biases. Front squats and back squats are favorite exercises for many lifters. However, which one do you choose and why? I have always heard of interesting ideas such as front squat works more quads and back squats works more hamstrings. The reality is most coaches do not understand why they are using specific variations of a movement. What does the research say?

In a study by Gullett et al, front and back squatting was directly compared. The researchers concluded, "The front squat was as effective as the back squat in terms of overall muscle recruitment, with significantly less compressive forces and extensor moments." This was also with lighter loads used during the front squat. Digging deeper, one could see some differences, but overall this is very intriguing. Now before you go run off and just start performing front squats, I want you to think bigger picture than just the exercise. This study ultimately demonstrates the value of load placement changing the impact of a movement.

Remember, both are squatting patterns, but it is where the load is applied that changes the outcome for both effectiveness and safety. Seeing such results with lower weights also has to make us wonder how other implements that are strategically placed on the body can also create positive effects even though the loads appear much lighter.

Examples:

• Kettlebell Single Arm Front Squat
• Sandbag Shoulder Squat
• Bear Hug Squats
• Front Loaded (Zercher Squats)

Mistake #2: The "Big Lifts" Are Your Keys to Success

The number one rule of strength training dictates that you perform cleans, squats, presses, and deadlifts, and that you do those lifts first! After all, whatever you place first in the workout does receive priority. I know, I know, the big lifts are all you need to get stronger, but what if that wasn't true?

"Typically these players (NFL players) over-emphasize the two-legged lifts and pulls like squats and power cleans without considering single leg loading. In other words, the pelvis must not drop laterally with high load or high-speed single leg support." These are not my words, rather, those of renowned spinal expert, Dr. Stuart McGill.

Are cleans, squats, deadlifts, and all the other "big lifts" good and important? Of course, but when was the last time you didn't put them first? When was the last time you prioritized other drills where you challenged stability or leverage over load? After all, many of these drills we are referring to may require more neural activation to coordinate the movement than simply high loading.

Examples:

• Lunging in All Directions Under Various Loading Positions
• Bench Pressing or Push-up Single Arm Leveraging
• Step-ups of Different Patterns and Loading Positions
• Single Arm Clean and Presses from Variety of Body Positions
• Carries: Farmer's, Single Arm Farmer's, Shouldering, Front Hold, Single Arm Overhead, Various Overhead Positions

Mistake #3: Not Paying Attention to Tempo

The fitness industry has changed quite a bit in the last ten years. For a long time, performing any type of "quick lift" was almost unheard of in fitness and only reserved for well-qualified athletes. Now, just about everyone is using explosive lifts as part of their program, for both good and bad.


The good? Explosive or quick lifts do help our neuromuscular system and fast-twitch muscle fibers. In fact, one of the fastest qualities we lose as we age is power and this can be related to aging issues such as falling. There definitely is no arguing that fast can be good, if used correctly, but so can slow.

"Slower tempos with lighter weights are an especially useful tool for novice trainees because such protocols produce neuromuscular and hypertrophic adaptations without being dangerous or compromising technique with loads that are too heavy. They are also a staple of programming when recovering from injury to increase blood flow to the injured area, gain strength, and focus on getting to the muscles to fire effectively."

These are the words of renowned strength coach, Charles Poliquin. Since many lifters spend a high volume of work performing quick and/or heavy lifts, I believe the same benefits can be found for the more advanced trainee.

An additional benefit of slower tempos may be in the energy systems. Coach Poliquin cites a study showing how excess post-exercise oxygen consumption was lower for lifts with a faster tempo than slower. Additionally caloric expenditure was shown to be less with the faster than slower tempos. The moral is to vary tempos over the course of training cycles to obtain the benefits of both.

Understanding how to apply these principles can dramatically change the outcome of your programs without having to perform overly complicated exercises. Where do you start in using these concepts? If you have never varied how you hold your weight, start to plan a cycle of one major exercise in which you do so. If you have never prioritized asymmetrical lifts, use that as a secondary movement in your program. If all you have ever performed are highly explosive lifts, try a finisher movement where you focus largely on slowing down the speed of the movement. These principles are easily integrated into any training program and can add motivation for new training goals.

Join the 300 Swings a Day Kettlebell Challenge and Burn an Extra 947 Calories a Day

Kettlebells are magical little pieces of equipment. I keep my little kettlebell friend parked by the front door, and each time I bear into him I swing for a set of ten or fifteen. He used to sit in the attic, days on end, but was of little good use there, and amongst the less reputable company left by the previous homeowner - mostly roaches, a ball of tissue paper, and one “Grandma Snuggums” - so I brought him down, and here we are. He is 24kg.

There is little more that can be done to please the ego than a physique commanding of attention - a body of iron, lean and hard, a very athlete! There is a fetish with muscle striations, to be sure, but understandably so, as what else can be used so effectively for getting us that most enviable of all things - another man’s envy. I do not deny it. I do not say it is wrong. I only offer insights on how to acquire it - in a sane, reasonable, and minimalist manner - like by doing 300 swings a day.

But people say, “300 swings a day! Golly, good gracious, gee whiz, that’s way too much!” Yes, I don’t deny it, and certainly, for an invalid, it is. But I am not in the business of servicing invalids, and work mainly with persons removed from decrepitude. I thought by venturing the reasonable number of 300 swings a day this would have been very plain.

But all of this is scarcely relevant. I would not advise this protocol for those on the final chapter of animated life, less I sought to hurry them along. I ventured it for people healthy, robust, and to use a term surging in popularity, “anti-fragile.” As well, if you cannot work up to 300 swings a day in a safe, sane, and reasonable manner, and without causing yourself harm, then I bring into question your efficiency as a life form to begin with, and hold some doubt as to the strength of your link in the evolutionary chain. In other words, if you think 300 swings will cause you to perish, perhaps it is better if you do.

I joke, but only somewhat. Be reasonable, of course, and work your volume up judiciously. Challenge yourself, but remain successful - that is what I want you to do.

The Benefits of 300 Swings a Day

The benefits, it must be obvious, are many in number. From a movement perspective you will develop the hinge, an essential, but often-neglected pattern, and, in turn, learn to use your hips to produce and reduce force, a necessary, but often-neglected skill. The swing also strengthens your back, lubricates your joints, and boosts your explosiveness, to name a few other benefits of everyday interest.

In addition, the fat stores on your belly, butt, and other such areas where they are most unbecoming will begin to disperse, little by little, day by day, and sure enough. (As to the importance of proper nutrition for success on this protocol? Well, this is so obvious it shouldn’t require any mention at all, really. Just eat clean for thirty days, whatever that means to you.)

You will also notice, around the second week or so, your kettle booty beginning to blossom. This covetous fruit sprouts only in regions where it showers swings in plenty enough volume. Under such fertile conditions the ass inflates with the ego, bubbles outward, beefs up, and bloats; its curvature is lifted, highlighted, and exaggerated. One quickly becomes a walking, bouncing spectacle, and cannot help but relish in all the freshly fetched attention, and make every conceivable effort to put on a show, that is, by dropping your purse and using the misfortune to bend over and knock the car door shut. This is wholly devoid of graces, of course, but effective.

Points of Contention

There were two points of contention when I first ventured the idea, and we have already dealt swiftly with the first one - of those people who thought maybe 300 swings a day might be a little too much. 300 swings is too much?! These people, you must understand, give them a pilsner and they’ll call it too bitter!

The second area of contention is found amongst those who say 300 swings a day might be a little too little. Critics, as we know, are never consistent - they commit errors in all directions. To quote a Facebook detractor: “Short term gains would be awesome but after the motor engram is established?” Oh well yes, of course, the motor engram, hadn’t occurred to me! I concede in indignity, and return the flabby idea to the mush of my intellectually limp and flaccid brain. (But you know what, really, this motor engram dude, well he just needs to relax.)

Truth is, if you add 300 swings a day, you’re going to get a little leaner, you’re going to move (probably a lot) better, and you’re going to develop some power and a more delicious derriere. Maybe not indefinitely, no, how could you - but at least for thirty days you will, and for probably quite some time after that.

So I invite you come and take the challenge with thousands others and me. Be safe, and work at your own pace. Build up the volume gradually - men with a 24kg, women with a 16kg. The steps to do so are simple enough, and all are welcome to join.