Front Squat With These 7 Reasons

by Caleb Lee

I can nearly guarantee you’re not front squatting enough or to some extent. For some reason, you don’t see several gym goers (mostly bodybuilders) utilizing this time-tested training.

Crossfit has gone a long way off towards bringing it back, but if you’re not performing crossfit – it’s probably not even on your system.

This is a shame because if you want to get full body strength build awesome quads sculpt rock-hard abs and save your “tweaked” lower back then you’re going to enjoy the front squat.

Here’s 2 reasons why you must front squat for a stronger, bigger, more powerful body that moves, looks, and feels better than ever:

1. Get Improved Quads – The front squat is an EXCELLENT movement to get bigger, stronger quads-probably the finest training there is. As you’re position is more straight, it points out the quads more.

2. Get Stronger, More Cut Abs (Core) – Because you’re holding the weight in front of your body, and you must remain upright your entire core gets a great workout trying to stabilize the weight and keep you upright. If you find you’re leaning forward a lot when you back squat, you’ll quickly get stronger and fix this problem if you switch to front squats for a while.

Front squats aren’t just great for building a hard body with muscles of steel either! They’re also really good at just making you more fit and keeping you more fit. What good is looking strong if you must sacrifice your health in the process?

Here’s the five other reasons why you should Front Squat for better health:

1. Makes Your Other Lifts Better – Because the bar is placed ahead of you, on your shoulders, the front squat is enormously like other exercises and strengthens the “base” of those lifts/presses. Power Cleans, Overhead Presses, Overhead Squats, and so on all share the same “starting” position as the front squat. Getting stronger and more comfortable with Front Squats will help you in those exercises as well.

2. Bad Form Gets Self-Corrected – If you’re back squatting with bad form you can complete the exercise at the expense of causing injury to yourself. The good thing about front squats is the form is self correcting: If you’re not straight enough you’ll drop the bar if you’re not holding the bar right you’ll drop it if you don’t keep your elbows up you’ll drop it. It’s an exercise that pretty much forces your form to be good.

3. Less Weight – All in all, if you can challenge your body with less weight (because you’re doing a harder exercise) then it is safer. Because the Front Squat is harder than Back Squats you won’t be able to lift as much weight. Which means less spinal compression.

4. More Natural Spine Position – You’re more upright with the front squat your spine is in a more neutral “straight” position. This combined with the fact you’re lifting less weight is healthier for your spine in the long run.

5. Lower Back Approved – Most people have lower back problems and back squats exacerbate these conditions. But because your upper body is usually vertical (instead of leaning forward like in a back squat) there’s a lesser amount of force on your lower back. I started front squatting after I hurt my lower back.

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