I really wish you had shown examples of the things you were talking about like feet width and torso verticality. I'm a pretty new lifter and the information was interesting but pretty much impossible for me to know what I should apply.
Having long ass legs and a long torso and trying to squat to full depth high bar/front squatting is a nightmare. I love squatting but the lift is the bane of my giraffe legged existence.
I'm 6'2" and disproportionately long-limbed. Back Squats are a no-go for me. I either Front Squat, Barbell Split Squat, RFESS, or Safety Bar Back Squat (the Safety bar allows you to push the weight up, allowing you to stay more upright).
From my findings the main way to know if you're good at squating is the more up right squat is without having to do a sumo toes out squat, the more specific details to look at is If your torso makes up the majority of your height or if your tibias longer then the average tibia, the average femur to tibia length is about 1.28 femur to 1 tibia (I googled it so take it with a grain of salt)
140kg clean/160kg paused front squat/180kg paused back-squat... 300kg paused sumo My snatch is a tall snatch by default because when I grip collar to collar the bar is still not in the proper height. Do u even limb bro
The explanation of how you used to front squat is EXACTLY the stuff Im going through now trying to learn weightlifting. This series has been extremely useful, thanks!
Thank you so much for this. I love front squatting and I have zero back pain using front squat, but my long ass legs make it difficult to bias my anterior strength. I'm super hamstring dominant, they grow so easily for me so my hips, glutes, and hamstrings just want to take over every squat.
You had a long way to go or you show us that passive stretching is just overrated as a long term way to increase ROM. I believe loaded eccentrics are where it is at.
@@joys8634 can depend on your anatomy. If you've got long forearms, it's more difficult to get a good rack position. I'd watch Alan Thrall's video on front squats.
@@greglindstrom1705 yup! i stopped benching! havent hit the bench press in years and my front rack is better than ever!, i still do ring pushups and dips but bench press is way overrated.
I'm 6'5". When I back squat, I have to damn near do a good morning to hit depth. Front squats have been an absolute game changer for my leg development.
Not advocating for all cases, but as a 187cm hobbyist nothing has ever put kilos on my front squat faster than squatting daily maxes with 4-6 back off doubles 4-5x per week (and back squatting only once). 30-40kg increase in my front squat in under 2 months. I had already done blocks of 5x10 in the front squat before (which killed my knees). No comparison. The intensity and frequency made a real difference.
It could be that you saw a bit of a peaking effect there, and that wouldn't have necessarily happened if you hadn't have done the 5x10 front squats first
@@steveyboyy1 not really, the gains were pretty much permanent. I could pretty much front squat near that top weight with only 3 warmup sets for a long time after reducing the frequency. Sets of 10 reps just didn't provide the stimulus I needed to fix my front squat. Didn't carry over to a bigger 1RM, in fact I went backwards because it inflamed my patellar tendons and put a pin in progress for months, so I lost what little hypertrophy I gained from them way before trying daily squatting. YMMV. I for one am never doing 10's in squats again (I actually tore a quad doing 10's for back squats not long ago which solidified my opinion lol). I'll just add sets and frequency to achieve more volume. Quality reps > quantity crammed into a single set.
Most of my injuries too have come from hi rep squats. Prefer 10 heavy sets of 3 than 3 lighter sets of 10, only issue is the session time. If volume is equated, total kg lifted is greater with the 10 triples. Am I missing anything apart from pain by avoiding the tens...?
while i understand a lot of this talk is strength sport focused, i very much appreciate the references/considerations to other sports. I'm a tennis player and I try to extract as much info to improve my training, outside of just getting a bigger squat. Many strength sport athletes typically tend to only focus on contact sports, but largely, there are many other sports to consider when speaking about S&C like soccer, basketball, volleyball, racket sports, batting sports, etc. Many of these sports, spending so much time in the weightroom is often detrimental, because the sport is so skill-dependent rather than athleticism.
If you're bored to watch the video here's the answers: 1) Use a more narrow stance for more forward knee tracking - more quad involvement 2) Do more volume on Front squats
I'm not very strong at squats I. Defiantly long femures and short torso at just over 6 ft back squats feel more awkward than front squats , i feel much more natural doing front squats, but yes i do flare my toes out alot
It's like you're literally saying everything I did wrong yesterday doing my front squats. I'm going to get those toes a little straighter and more volume.
Fitz, how do you feel about doing paused front squats in order to build postural stability and become more comfortable in the 'hole'? Is this a substitute for higher rep sets?
Great video, wasn’t until I made my front squats as deep and as narrow footed as I needed to catch my cleans, and some cycles with pauses. Started too strong at first and had some knee issues but took it back and then slowly loaded. Now FS is much closer to max clean. Sikastan, you never fail me❤️
Did you know that Gurph was in this video? He was just quiet all this time and out of the frame, but you can see individual hairs creeping in the corner.
I've being front squatting with crossed arms rather than the front rack position. Is that an okay position for the long term or should I learn to front squat with a front rack position? Btw, I do front squats as a powerlifter, as an accessory to my back squat.
For the purpose of powerlifting I think this is great! If that’s what you have to do to load the quads more, I think that’s the option you should take in the short term. There are arguably some benefits for the front rack position (thoracic extension and maybe more general core tension) but for powerlifting you can arguably get those benefits other places if necessary. You can always slowly work into the front rack position while front squatting with crossed arms for the time being! (I know you didn’t ask for my opinion, sorry if this is an opinion you don’t want. I run a barbell club and figured I’d throw my 2 cents in since nobody else answered yet) Happy lifting!
@@jordanwigger2380No, no, I appreciate your answer. Thanks for the feedback! Just one thing how would I go about slowly working into the front rack position?
I thought my front squat was good, alas I was just bringing my knees waaaayyyyyy way over to the side. Sadge. At least now I know I have to correct it.
I’m literally the opposite of what a tall lifter should be good at, naturally strong quads but weak back. I’m 6’6 and best squats are 180 front and 210 back squat and best deadlift is 193 lol
