Sometimes the strength and fitness world makes me laugh and shake my head.
It seems like no matter the exercise there is always a debate or controversy regarding its utility, value, performance, or safety.
Bench Presses are crowned “The King” of upper body exercises for one camp and are named wholly “non-functional” for another.
Front Squats are definitely one of those exercises that puts people in “camps” of yays and nays.
I generally try and take an objective stance with exercise selection and I avoid painting myself into a corner as a hard advocate either for or against any exercise.
Does it make sense for the program? Does it make sense for the goal? Does it make sense for the person?
No matter the exercise, we simply need to be able to justify it’s existence in our program. It can’t just be there because Coach X said he likes them.
Our time and energy is too valuable to waste on exercises that don’t help us toward our goals.
So we know that Front Squats are essential for Olympic Lifters. It’s a part of the sport. A skill that must be practiced and strengthened regularly
But what about for the average recreational lifter? The power lifter? The athlete?
Is there a role for the Front Squat?
The short answer is “yes.”
Let me start by saying that I never recommend front squats to novices who are focusing on trying to learn the low-bar back squat with correct technique. For most novices we are trying to get them to “unlearn” lifting with their chest out of the hole, and instead trying to teach them to drive “up” with their hips while holding a fairly constant back angle.
I don’t like deviating from this teaching model for a novice. The front squat teaches “chest up” as a cue for coming up out of the hole……this can create some “technique confusion” in less athletic lifters. Until the low-bar back squat is mastered and technique is internalized, I stay away from front squats.
However, for intermediate lifters I really like Front Squats as a light day Squat Variation. So I like Front Squats in addition to, not in place of regular heavy back squats.
Some coaches like Mike Boyle and Dan John are “front squat only” advocates but I just think they are wrong, plain and simple. I don’t think they have a good model of teaching the back squat and have therefore defaulted to something they are more comfortable teaching.
The front squat works less muscle and uses less load than a back squat. It’s more knee and less hip and I just can’t see how it’s a better strength exercise than a back squat. Unless we aren’t defining strength the same way.
However the fact that the front squat uses less load and works less muscle is what makes it such a great exercise for an intermediate!
As you guys know, I’m a big fan of Heavy-Light and Heavy-Light-Medium programming for intermediates.
Light Days and Medium Days can be done two different ways. The first way is that the parent exercise (say Back Squats in this example) can simply be repeated throughout the week, but with less volume and lighter loads. An example:
Mon: Heavy Back Squat 5 x 5
Weds: Light Back Squat 3 x 5 (-20%)
Friday: Medium Back Squat 4 x 5 (-10%)
The advantage to this approach is simplicity and practice through repetition. Especially if you struggle with form or technique, this approach will get you really good at squatting!
The other approach is to use variations of the parent exercise as subs for the light and medium day, that by their nature constitute light and medium day exercises.
As an example:
Mon: Heavy Back Squat 5 x 5
Wednesday: Heavy Front Squat 3 x 5
Friday: Paused Box Squat 4 x 5
In this case, the Front Squat, even when trained heavy is lighter than the heavy back squat and produces about the same amount of systemic stress as does a lighter back squat.
So here is the big question? ……Why bother with the added complexity of learning to front squat? Why not just squat light and keep it simple?
My answer basically has two parts.
First, I first and foremost value being strong. I’m not just interested in achieving a good Squat, Bench, and Deadlift for competitive purposes. There are lots of programs that “grease the groove” on just a few lifts with tons of volume and frequency for just the competitive lifts, and those programs work well in many instances. However, for the purposes of general strength, I like being strong on a broad base of different lifts. I find that when focus gets too narrow in terms of exercise selection that trainees lose out on the benefits of developing a broader base of strength that carries over better to a broader range of real life applications.
I look at it like this….do you want to wrestle with an elite strongman or an elite powerlifter? Who do you want to hire to move your furniture?
The point is that the elite strongman is probably comparable in strength to the power lifter in the Squat and Deadlift (maybe not the bench) but is probably far stronger across the board in a wider array of lifts and real world life events.
So I take the same approach in my own training and that of my clients. When possible and effective – broaden the base of exercises if you can.
The second part of this is that I like the mindset behind trying to actively get stronger on a lift rather than just training something light.
When doing a “light squat day” we’re kind of just going through the motions. Generally working off of a set % that makes the light weight moderately challenging, but undoubtedly doable. It feels like practice instead of training. After a few years of training under your belt – how much practice do you still need?
Been training for 5 years and still working on squat form? Come on.
I’d much rather approach a training session like it’s a challenge. I want to chase progression. Placing the front squat on my “light squat day” enables me or my clients to train hard, with an aggressive mindset, chase new PRs, while still giving our systems a break with a lower stress workout.
Let’s say you can currently Squat 365 x 5 x 5 on a Heavy Squat day. A light day at a 20% reduction in load would be something like 295 x 5 x 3.
Can you front squat that?
If the answer is “Hell NO! I’d be lucky to front squat 225 x 5 x 3!!!” Well then there you go….there is your project for the next couple of months!
Do you think that driving your front squat from 225 to 295 over the course of a few months will help your Squat, Deadlift, and overall base of strength better than just squatting a weight over and over again you already know you can do??? You’ll have to try and see. But it’s something to think about.
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