Front Squats

How do you guys hold the weight?  I just can't find a comfortable position... with a lower weight, it wasn't a problem, but now... any ideas?

So are front squats preferable to regular squats, or are they considered different exercises?

Will's method is sound. Some folks also clamp a couple of pair of vise-grips on the bar and hold on to those. In my opinion, you should work to be able to hold a properly racked clean (might be more difficult if you have those Burchett guns though).

One technique note. If you are feeling a ton of wrist pressure then you are either leaning forward, caving in with the upper back, or don't have the bar racked far enough back. If you have proper flexibility and core strength then the pressure should be on top of your front delts for the entire ride. Most folks seem to feel the bar slightly choking them when it is properly racked (this eventually goes away).

Damn Carlos...stealing my NEGATIVE information again...    
Oh the Halloween...Thankgiving and Xmas pics of us really
came out clear and sharp...Happy New Year !

Just rack it on your shoulders, let go of the bar with the thumb.  Next let all of your fingers except your index, relax and slide forward off the bar.  You will be left holding onto the bar with 2 fingers.  This is easy on the wrists and easy to bail out of, just in case.

Weasel,

I think they are 2 very different forms of squat.  But I like to have all sorts of variety in my squatting.

Here's a good shot of correct front squat position

- Back tight
- Head straight
- Elbows Up
- Bar high up on delts
- Wrists and hands relaxed

If an eight-year-old girl can do a front squat correctly, surely you big, strong throwers can do it, too.

If you're having trouble with flexibility on front squats, I would suggest starting each workout with a few light to medium sets, then move on to the rest of your workout.

Also, I have found a great correlation between my front squat and my braemer stone - when my front squats go up, my braemer goes up as well.

Coach,

what kind of general rep schemes and progression levels would you suggest to getting over head squats started ? I imagine they make an incredible addition to midsection power - every muscle from the shoulders down has to fire and support whats overhead....

definitely one of the most intimidating lifts that I haven't gotten into yet

Will,

Start OH squats with a bare bar (seriously).  Use a snatch grip and keep the bar fixed overhead and behind your ears through the whole motion.  This is a surprising challenge to the flexibility of your shoulder girdle and spine.  Add weight gingerly.  Don't expect to get up to large weights for quite a while, so view them as a squat warmup.

-Wayne

OK, I keep hearing everyone raving about overhead squats, and having done them basically since the age of 11 for O-lifting, I can't say I see any advantage to doing them other than to benefit a max squat snatch.

I mean do you really think that after overcoming all the flexibility issues and wrist/elbow/shoulder pain needed for a non o-lifter to complete this excercise properly with a sufficient weight, that it is worth it for some small possible gain in trunk strength?

I think that too many people are thinking that since an excericise is so difficult do, that it must be incredibly beneficial.

 

Kurt,

  I think you've been doing overhead squats for so long that you are taking for granted something that many people simply can't do very well. To wit, applying upward force generated by the legs directly into an implement COMPLETELY supported by the arms in the PUSHING direction. This helps balance all the work we tend to do on applying upward force through the shoulders (squats, cleans, DLs, push press, and on and on). They are not a panacea but I think they are important in the same way that I think jerk supports are important.

 

Jayster,

  Great picture in MILO brother. You've got mail.

I couldn't do an overhead squat to save my life....and I've tried and tried    ....I sure HOPE you don't have to do these to throw well or I'm dead. 

I really like what Kurt and Craig said about people thinking they'll get some enormous benefit out of something that's crazy and really hard to do.  He's right... if you're not really, REALLY flexible in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists and try overheads, strengthening your midsection will soon be the least of your worries.

I think if you're taking throwing very seriously you stop looking for the next crazy thing and look for the next thing that's going to help you throw further.

~Jason

 

Coach,

what kind of general rep schemes and progression
levels would you suggest to getting over head squats started ?
WE DO THESE AS A "WARM-UP"....I imagine they make an
incredible addition to midsection power - every muscle from
the shoulders down has to fire and support whats
overhead....SAME OLD THING...WHAT IS THE WEAK LINK ?
WRISTS...ANKLE FLEXIBILITY...LOW BACK...SHOULDER
GIRDLE ECT.

definitely one of the most intimidating lifts that I haven't gotten
into yet
FUNNY STORY...WE HAD A 60' + PUTTER AT 206-LBS. WHO
WANTED TO TRY AND GET 20-REPS WITH HIS BODY
WEIGHT ON SNATCH GRIP SQUATS...HE GETS 18 AND
FALLS DOWN IN A BALL OR BREATHLESS SWEAT...ONE OF
OUR NEARSIGTE KIDS COME IN TO THE WT-ROOM AND
PROCEEDS TO STEP RIGHT ON HIS FACE...LOL...THE
PUTTER SAYS : I REALIZE I DIDN'T GET THE 20-REPS BUT
COME ON !!! "   

Skullsplitter wrote: Here is a variation on the the front squat that my diabolical, stone lifting, freak of a friend Erik Sauve came up with.  Simple.  Get a 350 lb rock (or size of your choice/ability) that is roughly Husafell-shaped (an inverted tear drop).  Lift it off the ground cradled in your arms and then start doing squats.  Any variation with a barbell is not as tough as bars a meant to be lifted and stones are not.  Talk about core work and not to mention back, quads, arms, grip, etc...try it, you'll hate it, uh I mean like it!

I have been using a 200# homemade atlas stone for these since October (part of my stone lifting GPP training this year). Brutal is right. You can go absolutely rock bottom (no pun intended). You struggle for air because you are crushing the stone against your chest to hold on to it. There is serious torque on your lower lumbar because of the position of the stone (much worse than a Zercher).

Joe Bob says - "Check 'em out"

These inevitably will be commonly misspelled "Suave Squats" or "Suaves", leading to numerous bogus theories that they were invented by a guy who was a lady's man, or that being one was the outcome of performing the exercise on a regular basis, and so forth.  Hey, whatever gets the mullets lifting.

-Wayne