The Warm Up

In my setting, in the Youth Development space, I have the advantage of starting athletes from scratch. The biggest advantage I have is choosing the exercises that are the absolute best for the individual. When it comes to the squat pattern, in my opinion, it is almost always the front loaded squat. We do this in a variety of ways, the Landmine Squat, Goblet Squat, and ultimately the Barbell Front Squat.

3 Reason We Do Not Back Squat

1. The Front Squat is Harder.

   If you get really good at front squatting, you will be a strong back squatter, this equation does not work the other way around. I want to lay the foundation for future success with our athletes. I believe that if they can front squat well, they will be positioned to learn the olympic lifts or the back squat at a faster rate.

2. The Front Squat is Safer

   We have all seen ugly back squats. Even if you are not in the fitness profession you can visualize an ugly and dangerous back squat. With a barbell on your back you can contort your body by whatever means necessary to stand back up. These positions often do not follow the correct kinematic sequence, do not recruit the most muscle fibers, do not allow proper range of motion, and compresses the spine. These factors simply do not exist in the front squat.

3. The Front Squat builds Mobility

   The body follows a pattern that tells us which joints need stability and which need mobility. Starting at the bottom, we want mobile ankles, stable knees, mobile hips, stable core, mobile shoulders, stable elbows, and mobile wrists. A prober front squat attacks each area of the body and challenges it in the way we need it to perform.

Bonus: The Front Squat forces the torso to stay more vertical and the knees to travel forward over the toes. These joint angles are much more similar to jumping, making the case that the Front Squat will transfer more to the Vertical Jump.