Front squat question

[Dirty Workout]

I tried front squats the other day. I had no prob with the bar on delts but in the first few warmup sets around 135 my right knee started killing me at bottom. I never had knee problems b4. I just did low weights and high reps but I ddont know if I gonna do it again.

 

[BigBadBootyDaddy29]

Dirty Workout, you knees should not hurtdoing fronts, check your form again.....you still need to sit back as in a back squat and although the hamstrings ar recruited to a lesser degree, they are still keep tight and flexed throughout........Stingrays are okay if your goals are bodybuilding related, but for the strength athlete, I personally feel they have no place in the program......and this is why.....you can't use them to clean!!! This is what is bothering me Shades, and I am trying to help, not jump all over you......you said you are cleaning, you rack the clean in the same manner as the front squat, and yet you are only having problems with the fronts......this is like an alarm to me that something is wrong with your form on cleans......just check out some videos and pictures of cleans and front squats, then practice with just bar, stretch the forearms out good, and practice a nice, firm rack....it is okay if you don't utilize all of your fingers, just keep your elbows high and rest the bar on the shoulders and you shouldn't need a stingray.

 

[Shades McCool]

I use the resting the bar on my delts with my arms crossed method. Should I try the method with the bar positioned as if it were at the end of a clean? I know my clean form is just fine.

 

[SeymourCuts]

Stingrays are okay if your goals are bodybuilding related, but for the strength athlete, I personally feel they have no place in the program......and this is why.....you can't use them to clean!!!

You don't need to keep it racked on your shoulders unless you're gonna proceed to Jerk. I do Power Cleans while cutting and sporadically at other times. But I never do the Jerk. Therefore I never have a need to Front Squat with an Olympic grip. I also occasionally Front Squat *explosively* using the Stingray and a bodybuilding grip. So that can be done as well. It just seems to depend on his goals pertaining to the Jerk.

 

[SeymourCuts]

Actually what I do are High Pulls into a finished Clean position, not full Power Cleans.

 

[BigBadBootyDaddy29]

Seymour, regardless of jerking or not, a proper clean concludes with the barracked on the shoulders, if the bar is not firmly racked, it is not a clean, also there is no need to finish off a high pull with a finished clean position, a high pull uses the arms and a clean does not, they are 2 different lifts......I don't mean to go off, but that is misinformation....a clean is finished with a firm rack on the shoulders REGARDLESS of whether you are going to jerk or not, otherwise it is NOT a clean!!!!!

 

[SeymourCuts]

I don't mean to go off, but that is misinformation

Yep, that was my bad. I got confused as to when the Clean ends and the Jerk begins, so I looked it up to make sure. Turns out what was taught me and referred to as a Power Clean is actually a High Pull, and the Jerk starts later than I'd thought from watching C&J competitions.

 

[Curious George]

You could buy a manta ray for the front squat.

You could also end your workout with leg extensions supersetted with either sissy squats or put a board down and hold a 45lb plate....put your heels on the board and hold the plate and do a simple squat.....do these for reps after your leg extension.

You can also get inside the power rack, put the pins below your parallel squat....come down with the bar on YOUR BACK and sit the bar on the pins......stay tight but pause for 4 seconds, come up and rep with this.

You can do 1 and 1/2's by coming down on the BACK SQUAT, come half way up, go down below parallel again without bouncing and then come up.....that is one rep.