All About the Front Squat

The Front Squat. It is an exercise in which you either hate it or you love it. The Front Squat or FS, by nature is a relatively complex lifting exercise to be used in conjunction with any Clean variation as the FS bar position happens to be the final catch position of a Clean. I am going to explain why the Trainers at APEX love the front squat so much and why it has become a pillar for a large majority of performance programs (skill appropriate of course). 

Lets start from the top and make our way down. The set up is identical to the catch position of a Clean, hands should grip the bar and should be placed roughly shoulder width or even a bit wider and should be resting on the collar bone and front deltoids of the shoulder. Next the FS requires elbows to remain high in order to maintain an upright torso or "big chest, flat back" to abstain from injury. This position requires a fair bit of T-Spine "upper back" strength and mobility. As we move down the line, our core is next up. Your core "abs" should be braced or flexed at all time to maintain proper spinal alignment, mentioned before with the upright torso. Now, the actual squating motion itself is lead by the glutes and the rest will follow. Leading with the glutes the goal is to imagine like you are sitting in a chair. Sit back on your heels keeping your knees just over your toes. Ideally you want to drive your knees outward to avoid valgus which opens up the possibility for injury. Sitting down until the tops of the thighs are parallel with the ground is considered a "full squat". Lastly with the knees just over the toes you are going to create a forward lean of the shin also known as shin angle. Proper mobility of the ankles is essential in this movement to allow for the proper shin angle involved in the squating motion. To ease the learning process you can always perform these movements in front of a mirror to critique and correct in real time.

A simple starting point leading into a progression would start out with a basic body weight squat as honing in the technique and being able to control your body is paramount. Once the body weight is mastered a stick can be brought in to mimic the bar resting position and also be a nice learning tool to teach maintenance of the high elbows. Once the stick motion becomes fluid feel free to add dumbbells in a neutral grip position to increase the difficulty with the added weight as well as continuing the high elbow education. Lastly comes the full out Front Squat. 

Once the technique is mastered it is up to the individual to decide how hard to push themselves, and from there the improvements and strength will come. And again the reiterate technique is king, master the technique and the weight will follow.