Front Squat

The front squat loads the bar on the front of the shoulders, supported by the clavicles and the anterior deltoids. A clean rack (elbows up, fingers under the bar, wrists extended) is the default; a cross-grip rack (arms crossed over the bar) works for lifters whose wrist or shoulder mobility does not allow the clean rack. Both rack positions are fine — the load ends up in the same place.

Because the bar is in front of the center of mass, any forward lean dumps you forward and the bar rolls off. The front squat enforces a vertical torso in a way that the back squat does not. That upright posture changes the squatting mechanics: the knees travel further forward, the quads work harder through the ascent, and the lower back gets a break from the hip-dominant mechanics of a low-bar squat.

Front squats carry over heavily to the clean and to Olympic weightlifting. They also make an excellent supplemental squat for back-squat-focused programs — the weight you can front squat is typically 70 to 85 percent of your back squat, and that limitation means you can program them more aggressively without the recovery cost of another heavy back squat day.

In LiftProof, the front squat commonly appears as a supplemental lift on 5/3/1 style programs and as the primary squat on programs where a more quad-dominant stimulus is the goal. Track it as its own lift — the front squat 1RM is not close enough to the back squat to share a training max.

• Rack the bar on the shoulders, not the hands — fingers support, they do not lift
• Elbows high through the entire rep — drop the elbows and the bar rolls
• Big breath, brace hard — the front rack makes torso collapse expensive
• Knees track over the middle of the foot — let the knees come forward
• Stay vertical — any forward lean dumps the bar

• Dropping the elbows mid-rep — the bar rolls off the shelf and the lift collapses
• Treating it like a back squat — the front squat is more upright and knee-dominant by design
• Using too much weight too soon — front squats punish bad positions more than back squats do
• Ignoring wrist and thoracic mobility — if the rack position is the limiter, train the position before the load

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• goblet squat→