Front squats

I feel like I haven't posted about personal training stuff in a while, or maybe I have.  But since my gym's reopened and it's been two weeks since then, and I'm just about to complete the first week of my new mesocycle with the Bridge program, as always, I thought I'd write about something I'm trying to do differently this time around.  And specifically it'll be about front squats. 

So the Bridge program doesn't call for any front squats, and that's pretty understandable since it is a powerlifting training program, and there aren't any front squats in the competition.  However, I decided to add it into my program, specifically replacing the 3-0-3 tempo squat, for two big reasons:

  1. It was more specific to what I wanted to do in the future, which was oly lifting, and
  2. I felt like it could address my current weaknesses/ needs better.  
So to dive more deeply into the second point, since the first point doesn't really need much explanation: I felt like front squats had everything I really wanted in an accessory squat exercise, which is quad-focused work, core work and mobility work.  
  • The mobility point kind of feeds into my first point about oly-lifting specific stuff, and it's that I really need/want to work on my front rack position.  Keep the elbows up, try to get my whole hand on the bar.  
  • The core work was kind of, surprising I guess, for me.  But front squats have been really taxing for my core, I really have to squeeze my abs to make sure the bar doesn't get out in front of me.  I mean it's also a mobility thing too, like if my elbows could go higher I probably wouldn't have to squeeze my abs as hard to compensate for the immobility. 
    But to be honest, I really appreciate that work because I don't really feel a core workout during my normal squats.  In fact I'm pretty confident that I would be squatting about the same with or without a belt, in terms of back squats.  Like the difference used to be a lot more drastic when my form wasn't as good, when I used to still good morning the shit out of the bar.  And I have this feeling I'm probably not going to get away with it forever, lol.  At least it's good to get that work in.  I have this hunch that core strength is going to become really important for my back squats soon.  I'll have to figure that out as the mesocycle progresses.  
  • Quad work... so to be honest with all this other stuff I have to focus on, the mobility and the core, I was sort of afraid that I wouldn't be able to get as good of a quad workout as I wanted to in this block of training.  Especially compared to the tempo squats, where I was getting some pretty quality quad squeezes.  But I came home from the front squat workout today and I feel pretty sore in the quads.  Well not like sore, but a dull ache that lets me know, he we got work done.  So I'll stick with it lol.  And just try not to forget about it amid all the other moving parts of the front squat.  
So overall my takeaway from recent thoughts on the front squat was that, 1. I want/need to work on front rack mobility at home a little more, and 2. I'll try front squats in this same slot for now, after belt deadlifts, replacing tempo squats.  

Probably gonna stick to the classic lat/shoulder stretch for mobility.  Unless I can find something more creative to do w/ bands.  

The Front Rack Fix | Refugee strength



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