Hi! I started front squatting back in October, and I personally prefer it over back squat since I am more glute dominant. I’m not anti-back squat at all, but when I do it, it ends up being more glute focused, and I want the quads to be the primary movement. Hence doing front squats.
Anyways, as I’ve been using heavier weight overtime, I find that (a) one of my weak points is getting out of the hole, and (b) I get a good amount of upper body activation, especially when getting out of the hole. Ideally, I want to minimize any movement from my upper body that helps me get the weights up. I want to try and keep the quads soley responsible for getting the weight up. And don’t get me wrong, I DO feel my quads firing. I just feel like I could get even more activation from them if I didn’t use my upper body as much.
And yes, I know that front squats require a lot of back and shoulder strength. So, I will be working those muscles no matter what.
With struggling to get out of the hole and feeling my upper body working more - especially in the last 1-2 reps of a set - I am wondering if Anderson front squats or dead front squats (not sure what exactly is the proper name) would be beneficial. Basically, setting the rack adjusters slightly above where I reach the deepest part of my eccentric during a normal front squat, then putting the barbell there and loading it up. Then, get my chest underneath the bar and prepare as if I’m doing a front squat, but only the concentric portion. Go up, down, and rest the bar back on the rack adjustments. And that would count as 1 single.
Has anyone had luck with these? If so, do you see them carry over to your regular front squat performance?
Thanks in advance
-Abby
Question… have you consider a more olympic style squat or using a safety squat bar ( if you have one avaliable)?
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I’ve always called them “Bottoms Up” squats and I’ve done them for both front and back. I’m getting ready to start incorporating them for back again as the strongman show I’m doing has a dead squat event. The front squat version was really common in my Olympic weightlifting days for people who would get pinned at the bottom of the clean and couldn’t stand them up without the bounce.
Long story short: yes, these are a kickass exercise.
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No, I have not. Unfortunately, my gym doesn’t have a safety squat bar. In terms of olympic style squat (with this I’m going to make the assumption that you’re referring to high bar back squat - please correct me if I’m wrong), that’s what I was trying to master for the longest time before going to front squats. I have really good ankle and hip mobility, but I would still struggle to get good depth and keep my torso upright regardless of how light or heavy I went. And I think that ultimately stems from having longer femurs and a shorter torso. Either way, I do enjoy front squats a lot more than any form of back squatting just because I can feel my quads and core working a lot more.
I’m not sure if this stems from having more strength and size now compared to in October or the if it stems from just the fact that front squats feel better for me - but the weight I use for front squats right now is higher than the weight I used for back squats in October before I decided to make the switch.
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And I forgot to add this, but with front squats, I can get far better depth than with back squats. Again, I’m not trying to entirely rule out back squats, but just the experience I’ve had with them has not been the most enjoyable.
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Dope thanks, that’s good to hear! How would you recommend programming them if I still want to continue doing regular front squats? Kind of as a supplementary/accessory movement
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Yep, great squat variation. If you’re really trying to milk hypertrophy though you’ll want to keep doing traditional FS with a controlled eccentric and deep stretch, as that’s where the magic (likely) happens.
Got access to a belt squat by any chance? Excellent way to hammer the quads with a squat and basically no upper body interference. Plenty of ways to Jerry rig one at the gym with landmine attachments, bands etc too. Worth looking into
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I think there are many roads to Rome here. If you are doing something like 531 then yeah these could be the supplemental work. When I did my best front squat (308), I was doing front squat variations 3 times a week, usually 3-5 working sets of 3-5 reps, but that was more of a peaking program before an Oly meet. My last program had dead squats come up once every 3 weeks, but the volume was high- like 10 sets of 5. No real wrong answers here.
My other question was going to be, do you hold the bar with the cross-arm grip or a clean grip? That could be the cause of your upper body activation issues…
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You are correct… or at least a squat style that focuses on more forward knee travel and less vertical shins.
Your not wrong , possibility toy with stance with and foot angle next time you back squat to see if it helps
Ironically im the the opposite structure wise .lol
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Yep, my primary focus is hypertrophy. With front squats I either do a 4x6-8 rep scheme or a 5x5. My idea is that I do want to keep doing those traditional front squats and like you said, control the eccentric and get good depth. And then after those sets, add some of the dead squats. Or maybe that’s not good programming?
Ah I used a belt squat once at my campus gym, it felt amazing, but I don’t have one at my new gym now sadly. Definitely worth to set up though!
When you mentioned high volume of dead squats, you said 10 sets of 5 for instance. Did you count each rep as one single dead squat? And then after each rep, you get back under the bar? If so, what was your rest time in between those reps?
And I use a clean grip!
Yeah I’ll have to play around with how wide my feet are for sure. With any squat I typically have my feet pointed outwards, other than bulgarians or single leg squats.
Goddd I wish I had better back squatting anatomy
I start the set with the bar on the pins, squat it up, lower it down to the pins, pause a second to kill any momentum, then squat it back up again. Not sure if that answers your question.
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Makes perfect sense - thanks again!