Thoughts On... Front Squat

Back in my intern days at Northwest Missouri State, myself and the other coaches use to get our lift on over the lunch hour. My buddy, Jake Niedermann, was serving as a grad assistant at the time and was actively competing in weightlifting. And he was good… real good. One day, while I was doing God knows what, Jake was hitting some heavy front squats.

“Oh, so like, 185 right?”

No… 405… with a pause.

Forgot to mention. Jake and I are basically the same height and weight. 5’9” (ish) and somewhere between 170-185 lbs. So yeah, a 405 front squat, with a pause nonetheless, is strong as hell.

That was the day I realized that I needed to play around with front squats a little more. For my own training, yes, but more importantly, for my athletes.

A couple years later I made the switch from back squat to front squat as my main squat pattern with my athletes. Here’s why:

1. They executed them better than back squats.

2. See point 1.

Maybe that’s indicative of my ability to teach the back squat. Probably so. But, when you’re understaffed and training big groups with limited time, you learn to look for the exercises that your athletes can execute well and get stronger with. For me, the front squat checked both of those boxes.

Plus, we also had less low back issues with the front squat compared to back squat. Check another box.

Does that mean I eliminated back squat entirely from our program and shunned any athlete or coach who had the audacity to back squat?

No. I’m not a dick. Don’t be a dick.