Finally tried front squats with clean grip

[gymtime]

For anyone who responded to this thread: How many times did you do fronts before you felt comfortable with them?

 

[the People's Champ]

I was doing fronts for about 3 months, but the my arms crossed underneath the bar. I was sort of uncomfortable about doing fronts that way. I just couldn't get it right. this last time I did squats with the clean grip, it was just natural, I mean it felt like I knew how to do them. maybe because I was used to the range of motion, regardless, I love the clean grip for front squats.

 

[ballast]

It took atleast 5-6 workouts before I was comfortable with my form on front squats.I had problems with wrist flexibility and with maintaining proper bar position.

 

[shaft]

do you guys still do back squats?

 

[the People's Champ]

YES! of course! I do front squats after I do back squats because they hit more of the front portion of the thigh, the quad, whereas back squats hit more of the glutes.

 

[ballast]

I do back squats about once per month, just for a little variation.

 

[TheGame2001]

remember though

Just remember your size is going to come from regular squats and they have to remain the staple of your leg work.

Congrats on the front squats thing although I like crossing my arms over.....

 

[DaCypher]

I found this article that talks about an alternative to the traditional and clean grip methods for doing front squats. It involves using wrist straps to hold the bar. Anyone ever try this?

Also, I was wondering, could you use a military press type grip when doing front squats? It seems like if your shoulders are flexible enough you could just hold on to the bar at the lowest position of a military press.

I'm not flexible enough to do clean grip properly and I don't really like the crossed-hands grips, so I'm looking for any alternatives...

 

[ballast]

DaCypher-The problem with doing a front squat while holding the bar in the bottom position of a military press is that when the weights get heavy, the bar will want to roll forward.This is why the elbows need to be held as high up as possible.As for the grip, I don't close my hands around the bar.I keep my hands open, allowing the bar to rest on my palms and curl my fingers slightly.I've found that you don't need as much flexibility in the wrists when doing them this way as opposed to gripping the bar normally.

 

[Nico Cujo]

Like ballast said, let the bar roll back on your fingertips. It takes a while for the flexibility to come, but it will if you practice. You may want to move your grip in a little closer than a normal press grip. I find that the closer grip takes a lot of stress off the shoulders.