For cross grip in the front squats, here’s my set up, if you still want to try it. I put my right thumb on my left clavicle, then I cross my left arm over the right and put my left thumb on my right clavicle. Sit the bar on the meatiest part of your thumb, bring your elbows up high, and then fold your fingers over top of the bar (i find you don’t need to grip with your fingers). Then lift off and squat. Deeeep.
If you want to learn the clean grip front squat, zap is right: it’s practice. The thing that got me doing it right was doing Tabata front squats and Cosgrove-style barbell complexes with that grip. You’ll be so worried about whether or not your heart will explode that you won’t have time to think about the grip and you’ll just do it.
Today is leg day. I’m excited try both the front squat again, and zercher squat. My squatting experience is limited to the back squat only. This was in high school. Wow, 10 years ago. Feel like an old man. I will post results either tonight or tomorrow. Thanks Kalle,Live,Zap,Roach for your suggestions.
With any luck I won’t be walking tomorrow. Front squats are my new favorite exercise. After I did my sets, I wanted to check how much fuel I had left. I was feeling pretty good. So I did lunges. I kept dropping weights until I was able to do one good set with 20 lb dumbbells. That was a good indicator of how hard I had actually worked. Like I said earlier, I haven’t done squats of any kind in 10 years.
I decided to go with the I Dream of Genie style front squat. Towards the end of the workout is when my shoulders became sore from the weight. I’m sure within a couple of weeks it will be all good. The first couple sets were done to get used to the bar positioning.
The workout
8x135
8x180
6x205
6x215
6x225
6x225
6x225 (the last rep was tough)
Why so many sets? I was just testing the waters. I was curios as to how much I could really work next time. By the way, these were not full squats, ATG. I am trying to go lower. I really feel tension in my hips when I get to parallel. Suggestions? I’m just guessing I’m not flexible.
Can you get very low with just the bar? Maybe you’re using too much weight? 225 seems like quite a bit, considering you haven’t done any squatting in 10 years.
When I first did front squats, what body part was really sore was my abs not my legs.
[quote]goochadamg wrote:
Can you get very low with just the bar? Maybe you’re using too much weight? 225 seems like quite a bit, considering you haven’t done any squatting in 10 years.
When I first did front squats, what body part was really sore was my abs not my legs. :)[/quote]
Agree with this on the weight and the abs.
If you are having trouble getting low lighten up.
I could never go ATG on back squats but I can do it with front squats and I am not very flexible.
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
goochadamg wrote:
Can you get very low with just the bar? Maybe you’re using too much weight? 225 seems like quite a bit, considering you haven’t done any squatting in 10 years.
When I first did front squats, what body part was really sore was my abs not my legs.
Agree with this on the weight and the abs.
If you are having trouble getting low lighten up.
I could never go ATG on back squats but I can do it with front squats and I am not very flexible.[/quote]
Thanks goochadamg and Zap. My legs are actually not that sore today. Just tired. I think my shoulders are most sore. As far as weight, maybe I was being a little to overzealous. I cannot get very low with just the bar. Only if I hold onto something. I get the sensation of falling backwards. Anyway, I’ll post here again after another leg day.
[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
With any luck I won’t be walking tomorrow. Front squats are my new favorite exercise. After I did my sets, I wanted to check how much fuel I had left. I was feeling pretty good. So I did lunges. I kept dropping weights until I was able to do one good set with 20 lb dumbbells. That was a good indicator of how hard I had actually worked. Like I said earlier, I haven’t done squats of any kind in 10 years.
I decided to go with the I Dream of Genie style front squat. Towards the end of the workout is when my shoulders became sore from the weight. I’m sure within a couple of weeks it will be all good. The first couple sets were done to get used to the bar positioning.
The workout
8x135
8x180
6x205
6x215
6x225
6x225
6x225 (the last rep was tough)
Why so many sets? I was just testing the waters. I was curios as to how much I could really work next time. By the way, these were not full squats, ATG. I am trying to go lower. I really feel tension in my hips when I get to parallel. Suggestions? I’m just guessing I’m not flexible.[/quote]
You havent squatted in ten years and you can do ATG front squats with 225 for 6 reps? That’s awesome.
If you feel you’re going to fall backwards during front squats, I suggest putting some plates under your heels. Try it with a couple tens, you won’t believe the difference it makes in being able to squat ass to grass.
[quote]AndrewBolinger wrote:
If you feel you’re going to fall backwards during front squats, I suggest putting some plates under your heels. Try it with a couple tens, you won’t believe the difference it makes in being able to squat ass to grass.[/quote]
Thanks for the advice. I will give it a go next time.
By the way, these were not full squats, ATG. I am trying to go lower. I really feel tension in my hips when I get to parallel. Suggestions? I’m just guessing I’m not flexible.
You havent squatted in ten years and you can do ATG front squats with 225 for 6 reps? That’s awesome.
You must be gifted in the legs.
[/quote]
Sorry if you were mislead. I was having difficulty getting that low. Reality is that it was definitely parallel, but no lower.
I have not squatted in ten years (since high school). As far as gifted, still not sure. I was able to back squat 320 as a senior (played basketball, no football) weighing 180 lbs. I have not worked out consistently since until this year. I’ll keep posting my leg workouts on this thread so that all can follow my progress.
I had my second (front squat) leg workout yesterday. Boy are my shoulders sore. But seriously, I did not progress as much as I hoped from last week. I also had a great and tiring chest/tri workout from Friday. I was still sore, and most likely not fully recovered from it. As far as ROM, I at least went below parallel this time around. I’m hoping that as my hips become more flexible I will be able to do a full squat.
1x8x135
1x8x185
1x6x205
1x8x225
1x10x225
1x20x135
After that I was spent. My split normally involves shoulders/legs. I had no energy/motivation to go on. Plus, my shoulders were sore still sore from last week’s front squats. I’m not about to use a pad as one student suggested. Does anyone else do legs and something else?
[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
^ i do legs(quads/hams/calves), chest, triceps,& abs in the same w/o.[/quote]
Do you mind sharing sets/reps? I go to failure with 2 sets and 8-10 reps. In the near future, I plan on changing to a 2 day full body split with all compound exercises as opposed to my current three day split.
When I first started doing squats, I did them off of an Olympic bench like the one pictured. I started out doing back squats, but also some front squats. In about two months, I progressed to the point where I was so unsatisfied with doing squats this way, I invested in a power rack.
Without a doubt, that was the best investment I ever made. With a power rack, I progressed much more quickly, mostly because I was no longer afraid of failing. Back squats are better if you don’t have a power rack or spotters because you can usually safely dump the weight off your back. If you need to dump the weight from a front squat, you are in serious trouble.
[quote]MarcusPhaeton wrote:
When I first started doing squats, I did them off of an Olympic bench like the one pictured. I started out doing back squats, but also some front squats. In about two months, I progressed to the point where I was so unsatisfied with doing squats this way, I invested in a power rack.
Without a doubt, that was the best investment I ever made. With a power rack, I progressed much more quickly, mostly because I was no longer afraid of failing. Back squats are better if you don’t have a power rack or spotters because you can usually safely dump the weight off your back. If you need to dump the weight from a front squat, you are in serious trouble.[/quote]
Agree, a power rack and back squat are also my preferred methods. However, this is what my school owns. I don’t have money to make a “donation”, and there is very little room. The cool thing is that there is talk of starting football next year. If that takes off, then I’m sure an upgraded weight room is around the corner. Care to elaborate on your dissatisfaction with front squats?
[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
Agree, a power rack and back squat are also my preferred methods. However, this is what my school owns. I don’t have money to make a “donation”, and there is very little room. The cool thing is that there is talk of starting football next year. If that takes off, then I’m sure an upgraded weight room is around the corner. Care to elaborate on your dissatisfaction with front squats?[/quote]
I love front squats. I think it is easier to maintain good form (particularly an upright and straight back) with front squats. My only point was that without a power rack or spotters, I was never comfortable doing fronts. If you bottom out and need to dump the weight from a front squat what do you do? Best case, you bounce the bar off your thighs, worse case you break a leg or seriously screw up your knees.
I started out back squatting to parallel (with an occasional front squat session, also to parallel). I continued this after I got the power rack, but one day I did fronts and just naturally went all the way down (it just seems like the right way to do front squats). After that, I was sore in muscles I never felt before. Now I front and back squat all the way down, even though that means less weight. Squatting to parallel is good for the quads, but you feel full squats in quads, glutes, hams, and hip adductors, and it is the only way to really develop the Vastus Med. (the large tear shaped muscle on the inside side of the leg, right above the knee). I don’t know anyone who regrets moving from partial to full squats.
