Barbell Front Squat
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Advanced
How to do it
- Set the bar in a rack at roughly collarbone height and set the safety pins just below your intended squat depth.
- Step under the bar and rest it across the front of your shoulders, against the throat, not on the collarbones alone.
- Take a front rack grip: hands just outside the shoulders with the fingertips under the bar and the elbows driven high, or arms crossed with the hands on top of the bar.
- Whichever grip you use, the elbows must stay high — the shelf holding the bar is your shoulders, and the elbows are what keeps it there.
- Stand up to unrack, step back, and set your feet about shoulder-width with the toes turned out slightly.
- Take a breath, brace, and squat straight down, keeping your torso as upright as possible.
- Descend until the hip crease drops below the knee, then drive up while keeping the elbows high.
Common mistakes
- Letting the elbows drop. As soon as the elbows fall, the bar rolls forward off the shoulders and the torso follows it. Elbows high is not a style point; it is what holds the bar on.
- Gripping the bar in the hands and trying to hold it. The bar rests on the shoulders — the fingers only stop it rolling. A loose fingertip grip with high elbows works; a white-knuckle grip does not.
- Squatting it like a back squat. The front rack demands a much more upright torso, which is why the front squat loads the quadriceps more and the hips less.
- Loading it like a back squat. Most people front squat considerably less, and that is the position rather than a weakness.