Front Squat Tips

*Originally published August 2021

It was 534 days ago when my training forever changed.

For those who don’t know much about me or the craziness that ensued more than a year ago, my training style had a total rebirth. I started squatting everyday – yes, every single day – with a conjugate style format in hopes of great increasing my strength and muscle mass. It’s been more than 500 days and every day I’ve challenged myself on the squat, rotating squat-specific exercises daily.

Throughout this process and training overhaul I utilized many different versions of the program, but one of the most popular has been the Squat Everyday 2.0 plan that is on my YouTube page. I urge you to subscribe to my channel and take in all of the squat everyday madness on there.

Now when I first started, the initial 100 days were back squats only, neglecting the front squats for all the reasons I’m about to share and help you with in this article.

I dodged the front squat

For one, I dodged the front squat because I simply didn’t have the wrist flexibility to hold it properly in a clean grip. This, in my opinion, is the most effective way to utilize the front squat as opposed to the folded-arm route, which I feel isn’t as athletic or allow for maximum strength in the movement.

Second, I previously could never hit true depth on front squat due to ankle flexibility. When I mean true depth, I mean dropping into the bucket, getting in a catcher’s stance, going ass to grass, whatever you want to call it. Before of having poor flexibility in my ankles, I wasn’t getting close to any of those terms, which means I sure as hell wasn’t getting maximum benefit out of the front squat.

That needed to be fixed and I also needed to stay upright, a problem that revealed itself because I wasn’t sure where the bar should truly sit. With all of this, I felt like my back was at risk because I never felt comfortable in the lift, in part because of all the contributing factors previously mentioned.

Front squat more

It all added up to a complete mess and that was evident in my absolute lack of strength in the front squat, initially. I was trying to avoid injuring my back, but in the meantime I just felt incredibly weak. Well, that was it. I had enough of feeling that way and said, “Fuck it, it’s time to fix my front squat.” I went in the gym, got under the bar and got to work – which is always the best solution when you’re trying to improve a lift. It’s also the most obvious one but also a solution some seem to forget about. I wanted to get better at front squat. The solution? I needed to front squat a hell of a lot more, both in frequency and in weight, and I needed to start now.

The first day I front squatted was simply awful. I did a measly 205 pounds, almost dropped the weight, didn’t hit depth, almost choked myself out due to improper bar position and I just felt awful in general. It was clear I had plenty of work to do.

But as I got better and fixed those problem areas – bar position, wrist flexibility, ankle flexibility, hitting depth – a funny thing happened. I never had to worry about injury as my back, and specifically my lower back, got immensely stronger.

My deadlift skyrocketed like never before and, working hand-in-hand, my front squat shot up as well. I didn’t truly realize the front squat is so core-oriented until I saw how much it helped my deadlift. My conventional deadlift was 425 when I started and I recently hit an easy 550 at 189lbs, also pulling 405 through 220 lbs. of band tension. My sumo deadlift is at 575 pounds, which I did weighing 198, and, oh yeah, my front squat is better too.That 205 I did the first day is a distant memory as I have maxed out at 405, routinely hitting 315 or more for paused reps on the front squat.

TIP #1

Wrist Flexibility

TIP #2

Ankle Flexibility

TIP #3

Bar Placement Lat Activation

TIP #4

Pause Reps

TIP #5

Using Belt

HELPFUL KNOWLEDGE BOMBS

EP.318 | Better Ankle Mobility

EP.276 | Front Squat Bar Placement

EP.47 | Front Rack Mobility

EP.14 | How to Use a Lifting Belt

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