Bar on the shelf, not the back

Front Squat

Bar sits on the front of your shoulders. Elbows stay up. Sit between your knees. Stand. If the bar rolls onto your throat, you lost the shelf.

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Hunter: I use these when a back squat feels like a shrug contest. The front rack tells on a lazy torso. If I cannot keep the elbows up, I goblet until I can.

Cues

Bar on the meat of the shoulders. Fingertips can be on the bar. Elbows high.
Brace. Ribs down. Do not turn this into a backbend.
Sit between the knees. Heels stay down.
Elbows stay up as you stand. If they drop, the bar wins.
Stand all the way. Own the last inch. Rack it like an adult.

Setup

Clean-grip or crossed-arm rack. Pick one for a month. Empty bar first. Three to four sets of 5-8. Rest about 2 minutes. Wrist mobility is not a personality. Straps or a goblet squat are honest swaps. Log the name.

Vs a back squat

The bar in front keeps you honest. You sit more between the legs. The load is usually lighter. That is not a lesser squat. Log front squat. Do not compare it to last week's back squat like they are twins.

If the rack fails

Goblet squat still trains the pattern. A safety-bar squat is a cousin if the gym has one. Log what you actually put on your body. Matching last week beats matching a screenshot of someone else's clean grip.

Plates

Same as any bar: write the plates. Engine plus a plate calculator if the math gets noisy. You do not need a second app to remember 25s.

Common misses

Elbows collapsing. Heels peeling. Dumping into a good-morning. Crossing the arms then letting the bar roll. Also: a load you copied from a back squat. They are not the same number.

FAQ

Clean grip or crossed arms?

Clean grip if the wrists allow. Crossed arms if they do not. Both count. Pick one.

How deep?

As deep as the elbows stay up and the heels stay down. Depth is earned.

Log front squats in the free Vitality Engine. Plates, every working set.

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