How You Can Avoid Leaning Forward on Front Squats
Sep 18th, 2007 by Mehdi Tags: Exercise, Front Squat, Strength Training, Weight Lifting
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Leaning forward on the Front Squat is common. It’s also bad:
- You stress your spine more. More leaning forward is more torque.
- You can injure your wrists. Heavy weight on fully flexed wrists hurts.
- You might lose the bar. The weight can drop of your shoulders.
You should therefore avoid leaning forward on the Front Squat. Keep your torso as erect as possible. The following tips will help you avoid leaning forward.
Bar Close To Throat. Front Squats pull you forward because of the front bar placement. This makes you lean forward. The further the bar from your torso, the greater the forward pull.
The solution is to put the bar close to your throat, behind your clavicles. This feels uncomfortable at first. Breathing problems or clavicles that hurt are common. Start light, focus on your technique, progress slowly. You’ll adapt.
Elbows Up. Put your left hand on your right shoulder. Do it. Now lift your right elbow up. What do you feel? Your shoulder muscles contracts. Put your elbows down again and it relaxes.
The bar will roll off your shoulders if your elbows are down. Your flexed wrists will end up carrying the weight, which hurts. You’ll lean forward. You’ll feel the bar dropping of your shoulders.
But if you place the bar close to your throat with your elbows up, it can’t move. Elbows up, pointing to each-others, upper-arms parallel with the floor. The bar stays where it is and it’s much easier to keep your torso erect.
Chest Up. Lift your chest up & your back goes erect. Put your chest down & there’s more chance your lower back rounds, resulting in forward leaning. Again you want your torso to be erect. Keep your chest up.
Push From the Heels. The center of gravity moves forward if your heels come off the floor. You can never end up on your toes. You’ll lose balance, lean forward & will have to step forward to avoid falling.
Here’s an example of what I mean. Video of myself doing a Power Clean some months ago. The catching position is the same as with a Front Squat. You can see that I step forward to avoid falling. Why? I didn’t push from the heels.
Strengthen Your Abs. Your lower back keeps your torso erect from the back. What keeps your torso erect from the front? Your abs. Leaning forward can be a sign you have weak abs.
One exercise I did in the past, but totally neglected until recently are Turkish Get Ups. This exercise is performed by holding a weight overhead while moving in different positions. Here’s a video of the lift explaining the technique.
The weight tries to bend your torso during Turkish Get Ups. Your abs try to prevent this, keeping your torso erect. This is similar to the forward pull during Front Squats. But Turkish Get-ups are harder on your torso than Front Squats.
Maximum Attempts. Technique often goes loose when going for personal records. Front Squats are no different. While you should strive for perfect technique, it’s very hard to achieve when doing heavy singles.
If you lean forward during a heavy Front Squat, so be it. Just don’t make it a habit. Strive for perfect technique when lifting non maximal weights. It’s better on your back & wrists.
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Mehdi, is it better to begin front squats using the Smith machine, or with free weights? I tend to have very bad form on squats, which I like to blame on being short and short-waisted. I’ve been practicing form in front of a mirror with a medicine ball, and it’s helping, a little.
Always free weights ClickerTrainer. For everything. Free weights are better than machines. Healthier on your joints, better results, etc.
Start with an empty barbell, focus on your technique, check the other articles tagged front squat. You want to learn how to front squat: front squat. The more the better.
Tell me more about your problem: you write you have a very bad form on squats? Can you give me more info? Or if you have video of your lift, even better.
Video! God no!
I tend to bend forward too much at the waist, not staying vertical enough. I’m actually not sure why I’m doing that, but if I am not concentrating on keeping my head up and looking up, I just seem to bend too much. I actually thought I was doing it right until someone pointed out to me how utterly wrong I am doing it.
I can’t actually use the Smith machine at all, usually, as it feels like I am being choked….um wrong body position I guess! It has occurred to me that the squat is a lot like the position you need to be in when going over a jump on a horse. Only on a horse, you bend forward more too keep horse & rider in balance. Maybe I can blame this on my childhood riding instructor?
I think I just learned it wrong originally and developed the wrong muscle memory. I just have to retrain myself I guess. Light weights or just a bar (and a mirror!) until then.
PS, check out this article on former Mr. America Jim Morris in the LA Times, 72 years old and he looks great. I don’t think they have a photo of him in the online version, but they do mention his website (gymmorris.com):
Lol @ God No.
Ok. It sounds like you know what you need to do. You need to concentrate on keeping you chin up & looking forward (never look up to the ceiling, it’s bad for your neck). Just stay away from looking down. Fix a point on the wall.
The whole trick to technique is to focus on it. Bad technique habits are caused by 1) bad coaches 2) laziness. For the record, I often catch myself not keeping the elbows up/elbows pointing to eachother when doing front squats. Then my wrists starts to remind me I need to do it, by hurting.
Thus: focus on your technique. The more you do it, the more it will become second nature. Even if you now have bad motor pathways sets, it can change. Practice & persistence.
Didn’t know Jim Morris. Not bad at his age and here’s another example. Frank Zane. 64 on the pic. Granted, he was a genetic freak, but even then.
Mehdi, the weightlifting shoes do a great job in keeping my body vertical and the bar firmly in place. Love ‘em!
Mark
Ok here there are for everyone:
“You can do anything, but don’t step on my blue suede shoes”
-Elvis Presley
héhé
how would converse shoes do instead of these ??
Convrese are good. It’s just very hard to keep your heels on the floor on a deep front squat position or during the catch on a power clean, you tend to go on the toes. Weightlifting shoes like do-wins have heels, it’s better if you do a lot of weight lifting, but not necessary.
Agree with Mehdi on that but both are better than using running shoes and their squishy air or gel soles.
thanks for the comment Mehdi and Mark,
Actually I generally crosstrain so at present I just do squats and deads barefooted, but was thinking of buying new one so thought if converse will be good..I think there will be no problem running in those..
p.s: running shoes I use are also hard. only thing is that they are not flat…
Converse are good for running Harsh. They were design for basket in the first place, so running works. If you’re crosstrainers have a hard sole that works too.
Yeah, my progressive loading has finally gotten me to a point where I’m lifting enough weight that my technique is faltering. This is just the article I needed right now. Thursday I woke up with a sore lower back from front squats for the first time, and I notice some tightness in my knees. I’m stopping my weight progression for now until I can straighten my form out. I know I was leaning forward too much last time, but what about knees? Any suggestion on what corrections can avoid the sore knees?
Take a look at the article on squat & knee safety. Will help you out.
Btw. Sore knees are common. Just as you get soreness in your muscles, you’ll get soreness in the knees. It’s the joints/ligaments getting stronger. If it’s knee pain: it’s bad. If it’s knee soreness: it’s good.
If you have trouble distinguishing both: check your technique just like you planned to.
Best tip to avoid leaning forward is chest & elbows up.