Today for SST I front squatted for the first after my deadlift and just started with the bar for a couple sets of five. Now when I went down I really felt it in my lower back. However, I squat high bar and go down as deep as possible and that doesn’t bother my low back. Has anyone else ever experienced this? Does it just sound like a technique error?
Do you have anyone spotting you? My very limited experience with front squats is that they demand a more upright position, which might be hard to achieve, especially if you can’t see how your back is doing. So, you might be rounding your lower back towards the bottom.
I’m not an expert by any means but I do a fair bit of front squats and I can’t say they really irritate my lower back that much, I think it’s important to keep a very upright position, Dan Green’s video on the front squat really helped me.
I front squat because it’s one of the two squatting variations I can get away with due to a bulging disc at L5-S1. In order to stay upright enough to use some relatively heavy weights and spare my lower back, I had to take a wider stance than I was used to. I don’t plan on analyzing that, it just “is” for my build. I would suggest going a little wider to see if that helps. Don’t go Chuck wide, either, just experiment with it.
Hope that helps!
I did the very first time. It’s a new stance. Something similar happened when I changed my back squat stance from narrow to wider.
HOW ON EARTH do people stay so upright when they front squat!!!? This is a mystery to me, truly.
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
HOW ON EARTH do people stay so upright when they front squat!!!? This is a mystery to me, truly. [/quote]
I imagine that the better your ankle mobility is, the easier it becomes.
I’m gonna try to widen the stance a little and try to sit straight down as possible and see if that helps. Thanks guys I’ll let you know next week
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
HOW ON EARTH do people stay so upright when they front squat!!!? This is a mystery to me, truly. [/quote]
Strong core, back, good mobility and the weight in front of you balances you out.
[quote]tsantos wrote:
[quote]Spock81 wrote:
HOW ON EARTH do people stay so upright when they front squat!!!? This is a mystery to me, truly. [/quote]
Strong core, good mobility and the weight in front of you balances you out.[/quote]
Olympic shoes help too.
So I widened my stance and pointed my toes out more and I can stay upright a lot better. I didn’t know I was allowed to do this…
Thanks T-Nation.