Weight training exercises are essential in the development of specfic strength. The front squat is one of these and should be an important aspect of your programming

When performing the front squat you must learn to ‘rack’ the bar on the front of the shoulders and hold the bar in the ‘Olympic’ position.

This is a key technique, especially as it is a foundation exercise needed before to transition into the full Olympic lifts such as the clean.

The exercise starts by sitting down into your heels by pushing your hips back. Maintain a tight core by engaging your abs and keep your elbows high as you go down.

Now the depth to which you go will depend upon a number of factors that you may or may not be able to change (but that’s for further discussion at another point).

The important thing is that you do not go so deep that your ‘tail’ bone starts to rotate under you, the risks to your lower back are just too large to any benefits you could gain.

The picture to the left is the lowest I am willing to go before I start to compromise my spinal position.

Everyone is different and you need to keep with in the safe zone to be safe…some people will undoubtedly tell you that you are not squatting deep enough but until you address the causes of your lack of range the most prudent thing to do is be cautious…you’ll still get some great gains from doing it any way.

Especially as most people are trying to be fit for daily functioning not fit for weight lifting competitions.

It’s important in the bottom posistion of the front squat to keep your weight back into the heels and the elbows as high as you can.

You initiate the up movement by driving the hips forward keeping you weight into the heels and generating as much power from the glutes and hamstrings as possible.

The beauty of the front squat is that recent research suggests the loading on the hips and the thighs is similar as to that of the back squat. Also the lumber spine forces are also of fairly equal loads.

The major advantage the literature reports is the reduced knee compression forces in the front squat compared with the back squat.

This can be incredibly important in reducing the amount of wear and tear in the knee joint and is especially pertinent to the heavier people who’s knees are forced to bear increasingly larger loads.

Of course don’t forget the main reason for lifting this way is to learn one of the key components of the Olympic clean.

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