Front squat

The front squat is a squat with the bar resting across the front of the shoulders. That position forces the torso upright, which moves work from the hips to the quads and asks a lot more of the upper back.

Expect to lift 15 to 25 percent less than your back squat. For most people the set ends because the upper back rounds or the elbows drop, not because the legs are finished.

Sets, reps and RIR

A heavy multi-joint lift with free weights. Keep a rep or two in reserve on most sets so technique holds.

RIR means reps in reserve: how many you could still have done when you racked it. RIR 2 is two short of failure.

How to do it

1. Set the bar on the rack at upper chest height and step under it so the bar sits on the front delts, touching the throat.
2. Take either a clean grip with the fingers under the bar, or cross your arms over it. Either way the shoulders carry the weight, not the hands.
3. Drive the elbows up until the upper arms are close to parallel with the floor, and keep them there.
4. Stand up, step back, set your feet about shoulder width with the toes slightly out.
5. Sit straight down with the torso as upright as you can hold it, until the hip crease passes the knee or your form says stop.
6. Drive up through the whole foot, elbows still high. The rep is over when you are standing, not when the bar is moving again.

Common mistakes

Elbows dropping as the set goes on

The bar rolls forward, the chest follows, and you either dump it or grind out a rep you cannot repeat. Elbows are the first thing to fail, so cue them every rep.

Gripping the bar with the hands

The wrists are not meant to hold the load. Fingers under the bar are enough, and the bar should stay put if you open your hands.

Letting the bar sit on the collarbone

It hurts and it will not stay there. The shelf is the front delts, with the bar pushed back into the throat.

Treating depth like a back squat

The upright position changes where the limit is. Go to the depth you can hold the torso through, and log that depth every session.

How it differs from the neighbouring variants

The back squat lets you load far more weight and shares the work between hips and quads. The front squat trades that for a more upright torso and more quad, at the cost of the upper back being the limit.

The hack squat machine gives you the quad emphasis without the upper back problem, which makes it the practical substitute on a heavy week. The goblet squat is the same upright pattern at a load you can hold in two hands, useful for learning the position.

What it suits

Front squats go first in a leg session, while the upper back is fresh. Five to eight reps works better than high reps here, because the position degrades before the legs do. If your wrists or shoulders will not allow the clean grip, use straps over the bar or cross your arms before you decide the exercise is not for you.

Muscles worked

Primary: Quads.

Secondary: Glutes, Abs, Lower back, Abductors.

Estimate your one-rep max

Epley's formula, from a set you have actually done. It is an estimate, and it drifts above eight reps, so keep the input between one and twelve.

What it is called elsewhere

• Norsk Frontbøy
• Svenska Frontböj
• Dansk Frontsquat
• Deutsch Frontkniebeuge
• Español Sentadilla frontal
• Italiano Front squat
• Português Agachamento frontal
• Русский Фронтальные приседания
• Français Front squat

Related legs exercises

• Goblet squat
• Bulgarian split squat
• Lunges (dumbbells)
• Walking lunges
• Step-ups
• Single-leg Romanian deadlift

athlate logs this exercise, keeps the numbers, and tells you what you lifted last time.