[quote]hungry4more wrote:
FWIW, for the last few months, I’ve been working on bringing my front squat up again. Once I hit a 475 front squat with a belt, using a wide stance, about 1" below parallel. Now, I’ve been using a slightly wider than shoulder width stance, no belt, just some knee sleeves for knee health.
Some recent PRs doing it like that are 405x2, and 365x5, weighing 200 lbs, +/- depending on the day. I’m about to start front squatting 3x a week, started that planned program today, with a plan to hit 450+ beltless before this deployment is over. Using one light day, one medium day, and one heavy day for that. For reference, my best beltless back squat so far is 475x4.
As far as shoulder bruising goes…my best answer is honestly to just stop worrying about it. Whenever I’ve taken a break from front squatting and start it up again, I get the bruises and scrapes, but after a couple months, the skin gets thicker and tougher, and you’ll barely even notice it anymore. Just like back squatting.
Set-up is EVERYTHING. Everything. I use a mixed grip, have dabbled with oly grip and strap grip, didn’t like them that much. Walk right up to the bar, so your neck is barely touching it. Put your arms straight out in front of you, move closer in to the bar, so your neck is pressed against the bar pretty good. While keeping your shoulders on this position relative to the bar, “pull” your neck back and up a little bit, to avoid choking yourself out during the lift. Take a breath, and lift off. [/quote]
Thanks for the info H4M. It makes sense about the adaptation of the shoulders to the weight. So for your form based on what I’m reading, you keep your arms straight out the whole time and just keeping your arms up and back straight keeps the bar in place, or you’re just noting your que’s/process and the hand grip is unimportant?