Let's talk about Front Squats

[Tom Narvaez]

Due to a booboo, I can only front squat right now. As a result, I have a bunch of meaningless, wankish questions.

Anyone have any ideas on a typical ratio between front squats and LOW BAR squats? It seems that most people who high bar have front squats somewhere between 80-90% of their back squats. That's nice, but I don't high bar and don't plan to any time soon. I probably won't be able to predict where I'll be able to start my back squat off when I'm healed, but the numbers game motivates me.

What would you guys consider a "strong" front squat for the average ~200lbs lifter? I'm thinking something along the lines of the classifications Rip made for the other lifts. What do state level Oly lifters do in the front squat? National level Oly lifters?

Who are the strongest front squatters round these here parts? Anyone out there doing 315+?

Any of you Oly folk wanna do a front squat race with me?

[MattJ.D.]

I'm working my numbers back up after weight-loss,but I low bar, which is at 350lbs for 3x5 across as of this week with a belt and I frontsquat on my middle workout, as a light day for 3x3 across @ 300lbs with a belt as of this week, which is about between 85-86% of my 3x5 low bar, while weighing 215 or so @ 6ft

It should be noted though that I only do 3x3 and not 3x5, which is partly why my FS is so high compared to my low bar, and my legs are built fairly proportionally in the femur to tibia length ratio with a long upper back so I'm leveraged fairly evenly and have no problem distinguishing the two techniques from each other.

[Tom Narvaez]

nice man. thanks for the input. so yours falls in that ~80% range



edit: ya, i'd say you're closer to 80% due to the reps thing

i also think 3x5 is much harder than 3x3

[MattJ.D.]

3x5 is harder..I was actually doing that for a while but my back started to be the weak link not my quads and it was fatiguing me too much so I dropped to 3x3 and added a belt, quads are still growing so I don't give a fuck

[Tom Narvaez]

3x3 is definitely the way to go for light day. ya, the rhomboids fatigue isometrically quicker than the quads do concentrically. my current front squat programming is: 4x3,1x3+. triples are nice. limiting factor on my amraps is always upperback, never legs, but i'm sure i'll get the weight in the right range eventually.

when i was at 365x5x3, i was able to get 385x5x1 fairly easily when i made the switch so the ratio may be bigger than it seems. or maybe not.

[simonsky]

Dan green's best frontie on the tubes is 635, assuming his best squat is 800, that ’s about 80%.

[AdamW]

My best front squat was 405 at around the same time my low bar was 500, so about 80% as well. The first time I ever front squatted in my life I managed 370, so there's definitely a ton of carryover in my experience. I probably only ever did 6 or 7 front squatting sessions before getting to lazy to keep them in.

*have to pimp*

[Tom Narvaez]

Le Damn. I was hoping closer to 67% or so. Oh well. I'm sure it varies as well.


thanks fellas

[Dave 321]

When I first started front squatting I could get something like 80kg for 3 reps... when I had a 150kg x 5 low bar. It was a disgustingly shitty low bar squat, but they all just about hit depth.

[Tamara Reynolds]

I've pushed up my high bar squat, and I have no idea what my low bar squat is right now, but my front squat is currently 85% of my high bar squat. I am obviously someone who front squats often, though. My front squat was my weak link in my lifting for a long time, but it's gotten better.

My best high bar squat is 111 kg, which is 244.2 lbs, and my best front squat is 96 kg, which is 211.2 lbs.

I don't really like sets of 5 for front squats, and here's why. When a front squat breaks down, it is often your upper back. People's elbows start dropping and they get thoracic rounding. You can still gut out a front squat when that happens, but it gets ugly in a different way than a back squat.

If the numbers game motivates you, I would tell you to do what I'm doing if you have time and can squat daily. You basically hit a daily single max and then do back off sets of triples. I can give you more details if you're interested. But, pushing the daily single is fun and horrible in a different kind of way than sets of 5.