Sets/reps for front squats 3x/week

[Control_61]

My hockey team has several strength tests we take several times each year. One of these lifts is the front squat.
My front squats has always been weak compared to my other lifts, and I thought I would really make an effort to improve it.

I currently front squat 3 times/week.


Does anyone have any good tips about how to program sets and reps? I thought about having 1 heavy, 1 medium and 1 speed day. But I'm not sure. I also thought about 5x5 (heavy), 5x5 (light/medium), 1x5 (max). But Rippetoe says 5 reps isn't great for front squats because of the technique drastically gets worse with high reps.


What do you think?

[TrackJunkie]

Any reason you're not going to back squat heavy and let that drive the front squat's progress, along with some specific front squat work?

[Alex Bond]

8x3 for volume, 3x3 light, 1x3 intensity. Though it might be a good idea to do back squats 5x5 for the volume day. You can't entirely rely on the back squat to drive the front squat, since there are some salient differences, but once a week is still good. Triples are definitely better for front squats than 5s, there are some bullshit reasons, but you won't care about the reasons once you actually try them since 3s are so obviously better than 5s to anyone who has done a bunch of them.

[Control_61]

Thanks!

To be honest, my back squat technique isn't great. In the future, I will definately try to fix it. But for now it feels enough to focus on the front squat since it's more important in the short term this time.