My school (where I work) only has a Universal leg press. Lunges aren’t cutting it for me. Is it possible to do front squats off an olympic bench?
yes, and you can also do zercher squats which is what i am currently doing at home due to lack of equipment. my advice if you choose to do them is get some type of padding because theyll beat the shit out the skin on your forearms, but seriously theyre great for squats.
haha obviously yes, but you can also do back squats so long as you are able to simply move that bench and that rod out of the way.
I had to do this for a while when training at home with only a bench rack, in order to do squats.
It works fine, just be careful since there aren’t any safety bars like a power rack…
When I had a set up much like that one, I could pull the adjustable supports out and turn them around, giving ample room for squats, standing overheads, and whatever.
Thanks fellas, all good suggestions. I’ll try the zercher squats. I found a lunge article on here as well.
If it’s front squats you want to do you don’t need a bench at all. Just perform a clean to get the barbell up onto the front of your shoulders and do your squats from there. Another great option when you lack a squat rack is to do bulgarian split squats. Just put your back foot up on a bench. hold a dumbell in the hand on that side and squat away. If you want good ways to get around limitations like this, start reading everything Dan John has ever written.
[quote]lurker26 wrote:
If it’s front squats you want to do you don’t need a bench at all. Just perform a clean to get the barbell up onto the front of your shoulders and do your squats from there. Another great option when you lack a squat rack is to do bulgarian split squats. Just put your back foot up on a bench. hold a dumbell in the hand on that side and squat away. If you want good ways to get around limitations like this, start reading everything Dan John has ever written. [/quote]
Big thanks. Helpful advice. I did consider cleaning the weight up. I’ll research Dan John.
I did front squats using an olympic bench. Not good. It is possible, but all the weight was on my wrists. Incorrect? My wrists would not bend/flex enough for the weight to be placed on my shoulders. I tried doing them with my arms crossed genie style, but the bar kept rolling. I’d like any suggestions. Especially if this is normal for the first few times.
Enough rambling. Feedback please.
Part of it is wrist flexibility, but a bigger part is shoulder flexibility. When you’re in a front squat position, try to lift up your elbows as high as you can. It takes some of the stress off your wrists and allow you to rest the bar on your front delts/ clavicles. I can do it, and my wrists aren’t terribly flexible.
And if you’re gonna do it with the arms crossed, still focus on keeping the elbows up: It’ll stop the bar from rolling.
well the problem with trying to do a clean into a front squat is that if you dont know how to do a clean properly, you aint gonna do shit.
im telling you man, do zercher squats, especially if you cant do cleans ( i know i cant).
in fact thats the whole reason i do them, i used to just try and use my forearms to toss the weight into position but that only works for so long because forearms can only tolerate so much weight, and they dont have as much grow potential as your quads so while your legs can make drastic jumps weekly, your forearms will lag and will need lower weight incriments to grow. i.e, you squat 300lbs can only do reverse curls with 100, next week you can squat 320 but can only add 2 reps with rev. curls.
squats and milk
[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
I did front squats using an olympic bench. Not good. It is possible, but all the weight was on my wrists. Incorrect? My wrists would not bend/flex enough for the weight to be placed on my shoulders. I tried doing them with my arms crossed genie style, but the bar kept rolling. I’d like any suggestions. Especially if this is normal for the first few times.
Enough rambling. Feedback please.[/quote]
Elbows high and practice, practice, practice. Your wrists will get more flexible and you will also learn you don’t need to grip the bar, just control it w/ your fingers. You will get it but it will take a few weeks. Go light and do it a few times a week. And read Dan John’s stuff twice.
[quote]rander wrote:
squats and milk[/quote]
Milk and dbol, surely?
[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
well the problem with trying to do a clean into a front squat is that if you dont know how to do a clean properly, you aint gonna do shit.
im telling you man, do zercher squats, especially if you cant do cleans ( i know i cant).
in fact thats the whole reason i do them, i used to just try and use my forearms to toss the weight into position but that only works for so long because forearms can only tolerate so much weight, and they dont have as much grow potential as your quads so while your legs can make drastic jumps weekly, your forearms will lag and will need lower weight incriments to grow. i.e, you squat 300lbs can only do reverse curls with 100, next week you can squat 320 but can only add 2 reps with rev. curls.[/quote]
I’m using the oly bench so that I don’t have to clean it up. I will try zercher squats if these continue to be a problem.
well whatever you choose, i hope it works out for you, ive dealt with limited equipment for enough time to know innovation is key…in fact without innovation thered probaly only be 10 workouts to this day. anyhow, good luck and train hard.
[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
well whatever you choose, i hope it works out for you, ive dealt with limited equipment for enough time to know innovation is key…in fact without innovation thered probaly only be 10 workouts to this day. anyhow, good luck and train hard.[/quote]
Thanks for the zercher info. I did some quick research and they look very productive. How much weight do YOU use?
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
TheDudeAbides wrote:
I did front squats using an olympic bench. Not good. It is possible, but all the weight was on my wrists. Incorrect? My wrists would not bend/flex enough for the weight to be placed on my shoulders. I tried doing them with my arms crossed genie style, but the bar kept rolling. I’d like any suggestions. Especially if this is normal for the first few times.
Enough rambling. Feedback please.
Elbows high and practice, practice, practice. Your wrists will get more flexible and you will also learn you don’t need to grip the bar, just control it w/ your fingers. You will get it but it will take a few weeks. Go light and do it a few times a week. And read Dan John’s stuff twice.[/quote]
Thanks for the tips Zap. I will give it a go a couple more times.
for the front squat just put two fingers on the bar, push your elbows high and in
do a search on youtube for squat r/x there is a great video about doing a proper front squat.
[quote]Kalle wrote:
for the front squat just put two fingers on the bar, push your elbows high and in
do a search on youtube for squat r/x there is a great video about doing a proper front squat. [/quote]
Found it. Big help, and thanks for the suggestion.
[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
well whatever you choose, i hope it works out for you, ive dealt with limited equipment for enough time to know innovation is key…in fact without innovation thered probaly only be 10 workouts to this day. anyhow, good luck and train hard.
Thanks for the zercher info. I did some quick research and they look very productive. How much weight do YOU use?[/quote]
i did 205x20 yesterday.