The front squat focuses more on your quads than anything else. Now if you back squat and never front squat will your quads be lagging? NO!! Actually I never front squatted until recently, and am looking to go for 405 for a single soon. All because I can back squat 515. The only reason I use the front squat is because I am looking to get into olympic weightlifting (already do powerlifting), and the front squat is a sport specific exercise to weightlifting (also to crossfit).
So if you are a crossfit athlete, you should front squat, but make sure you do it AFTER you back squat. Back squatting is actually even a better way to develop your front squat than front squatting! So just do your working sets of back squats, then do the front squats afterwards. I suggest doing 1 leg day a week, doing 3 extremely hard all out 6 rep sets of back squats. Then do the olympic lifts, then end it with front squats. Generally you want to move from heavy to light. Now you are probably thinking that the oylmpic lifts are lighter than the front squats, so why not do the oly lifts last?
Well the oly lifts are a higher priority and even though they are lighter, they are actually more taxing than front squats due to their unique requirement of power along with the axial load placed on your body.
So if you are a crossfit athlete or just are curious about the front squat, check this video out to see proper form. But be sure one thing... you can NOT drop the back squat!
Good article! Crossfit is the latest fitness rage. Wonder if it will stick around?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about the front squat for vertical jump training? I agree back squat is a better overall lift and I do them as my primary leg exercise. But, I've added the front squat to some of my workouts, to really nail the quads. Another benefit of the front squat (I feel) for vertical jump training is it more closely matches the joint angles when you jump which seems like there would be benefit. For example, in the front squat - I can have my feet pointing forwards and a shoulder width stance just like when I jump. Whereas on the back squat, my stance is wider and toes are pointing out which does not match the stance on the vertical jump.
When I first added front squats to my workout, I noticed some immediate gains in my vertical jump. But, impossible to know for sure if it was the front squats or something else.
Sorry to be so late on the response, I havent been checking everything as I should.
DeletePersonally, I think that front squats do not help vertical training. Now that is my blanket statement stance on the issue, but when you get into specifics there can be exceptions. I think that it can depend on body type and back squat form. I squat with a high bar form, don't use my lower back too much, really I have the same stance for front squats as back squats.
If you have a wider stance like yourself for back squats, perhaps use low bar form, then I would definitely think that front squats could help a great deal. A front squat does nothing a high bar back squat doesnt do, but a front squat does expose weaknesses not covered in a wide stance low bar back squat.
My suggestion for vert training would be to either do high bar squats and deadlifts. Or focus on low bar squats with front squats. Low bar squats/deadlifts for posterior chain, high bar squats/front squats for leg strength
Cool - thanks man!
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