Barbell Front Squat
The barbell front squat is a squat with the bar resting on the front of your shoulders instead of your back. The load in front keeps your torso upright, so the quads work hard alongside the glutes, and your upper back and trunk have to stay tight to hold the bar in place.
How to do the barbell front squat
Set the bar in the rack at about shoulder height and step under it until it touches your throat.
Rest the bar on the front of your shoulders, fingertips under the bar just outside your shoulders, elbows pushed forward and up.
Stand up to unrack, take two short steps back and set your feet about shoulder width apart, toes turned out a little.
Breathe deep into your belly, brace your trunk and keep your elbows high.
Sit straight down between your heels, knees moving forward and out over your toes, until your hip crease is at least level with your knees.
Drive up through your whole foot, leading with your elbows and chest, until you stand tall.
Breathe out at the top, take a new breath, brace again and start the next rep.
Rack position for the front squat
Set the bar at about shoulder height. Step under it until it touches your throat, then push your shoulders forward and up so the bar sits in the groove between your front delts and your collarbones. The bar should rest there even if you open your hands. Push your elbows forward and up until your upper arms point roughly straight ahead.
Grip
The classic clean grip puts your hands just outside your shoulders with your fingertips under the bar and your palms open. The fingers only keep the bar from rolling; the shoulders carry the load. If your wrists or shoulders do not allow it, cross your arms over the bar or use straps as handles, and keep the elbows high either way.
Bracing and breathing
Take a big breath into your belly and tense your trunk before you start down, and hold it through the bottom. With the bar in front, a loose trunk folds you forward at once. Breathe out at the top, breathe in again and brace before the next rep.
Depth and knee travel
The front squat is an upright squat, so your knees travel further forward than in a back squat. Let them go forward and out over your toes, keep your heels down and sit between your heels until your hip crease is at least level with your knees. Lifting shoes with a raised heel help many lifters with stiff ankles stay upright.
Tempo and bar path
Lower under control and drive up with intent. The bar should move straight up and down over the middle of your foot. Lead the way up with your elbows: when they rise, your chest rises with them. Use the same depth on every rep, because only comparable reps tell you when to add weight.
Muscles worked by the barbell front squat
- Primary
- Quads
- Glutes
- Secondary
- Adductors
- Lower back
- Upper back
- Abs
- Obliques
The quads straighten your knees and do most of the work out of the bottom, and the glutes extend your hips. Compared with the back squat at maximal loads, the front squat showed more activity in the inner quad, the vastus medialis, and less in one hamstring muscle on the way up, with a more upright trunk. The adductors help extend the hips, and deep squat training grew them along with the glutes. Your lower and upper back, abs and obliques hold the trunk upright so the bar stays on your shoulders.
Common front squat mistakes
Dropping the elbows
When the elbows sink, the bar rolls forward and your upper back rounds under it. Drive the elbows up as you stand, especially out of the bottom.
Holding the bar with your hands
Squeezing the bar in your palms puts the load on your wrists. Let it rest on your shoulders; your fingertips only keep it from rolling.
Stopping too high
Half squats let you lift more but build less glute and adductor muscle. Go until your hip crease is at least level with your knees.
Knees caving in
When the knees drift inward on the way up, the hips stop doing their share and the knees leave their line. Let your knees track over your toes the whole way.
Losing the brace at the bottom
If the air goes out in the hole, the upper back folds forward and the bar slides. Hold your breath through the hardest part of the rep.
How Muscla coaches the front squat
- Warm up with two ramp sets: about 50% of your working weight for 8 reps, then about 75% for 3. Muscla adds them to every heavy compound lift.
- End working sets with about two reps in the tank, two to three when you train for strength. Going to failure adds little or no extra muscle, but more fatigue.
- Rest about 3 minutes between sets for strength, 2 minutes for muscle and 90 seconds for other goals. In trained men, 3-minute rests built more strength and muscle than 1-minute rests.
- Once every set reaches the top of your rep range, add one step of about 5%, rounded to your plates: at 100 kg the next step is 105 kg.
- After the last set, Muscla asks “How heavy was that?” Light adds weight, Good keeps the normal progression, Heavy holds it, At the limit holds it or takes off one step.
Barbell front squat sets, reps and rest
| Goal | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | 3–6 → 2–5 → 4–8 | 3 min |
| Muscle | 6–10 → 8–12 | 2 min |
| Lose fat | 6–12 | 90 s |
| Fit | 8–12 | 90 s |
| Comeback | 8–12 | 90 s |
An arrow marks the range for the next 4-week block.
The front squat counts as a heavy compound lift in Muscla, so it gets the lowest rep ranges when you train for strength and the longest rests. It needs the highest experience level and sits low on Muscla's list of squats, so most plans use the barbell squat, the hack squat or the leg press instead; you can always add it to your own routine. If you ask Muscla to spare your knees or wrists, it leaves the front squat out. After every third 4-week block comes a deload week with 90% of the weight and one set fewer.
Estimate your front squat one-rep max
Filled in with example values. Replace them with yours.
Estimated 1RM
Brzycki 112.5 · Lombardi 117.5
Epley: 100 × (1 + 5 ÷ 30) = 116.7 kg
Load 117.5 kg on the bar →| Reps | Weight | % of 1RM |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 117.5 kg | 100 % |
| 2 | 110 kg | 94 % |
| 3 | 105 kg | 91 % |
| 4 | 102.5 kg | 88 % |
| 5 | 100 kg | 86 % |
| 6 | 97.5 kg | 83 % |
| 7 | 95 kg | 81 % |
| 8 | 92.5 kg | 79 % |
| 9 | 90 kg | 77 % |
| 10 | 87.5 kg | 75 % |
| 11 | 85 kg | 73 % |
| 12 | 82.5 kg | 71 % |
Barbell front squat alternatives
- Barbell Squat
- Hack Squat
- Leg Press
- Dumbbell Goblet Squat
- Kettlebell goblet squat
- Smith squat
- Dumbbell squat
- Dumbbell bench squat
- Band squat
- Squat to overhead reach
Barbell front squat questions
Front squat or back squat: which is better?
Both train the legs well. In one study, overall muscle activity was the same, while the front squat produced lower compressive forces and extensor moments at the knee. The back squat lets you move more weight, and Muscla keeps it as the standard squat in the gym.
Why can I front squat less than I back squat?
Your upper back and trunk have to hold the bar in front of you, and that limits the load before your legs give out. In an EMG study with trained women, the front squat still reached the same glute, hamstring and quad activity as back squats with a lighter load.
What if my wrists cannot reach the front rack?
Widen your grip, keep only two or three fingers under the bar, or cross your arms over the bar with your hands on the opposite shoulders. Lifting straps looped around the bar are another way to hold your elbows high.
How deep should you front squat?
At least until your hip crease is level with your knees, and deeper if your back stays neutral. In a training study, full squats built more glute and adductor muscle than half squats.
Is the front squat easier on the lower back?
Your torso stays more upright: in a study at maximal loads, the back squat showed significantly more trunk lean. Your back muscles still work hard to hold that position.
Train it with Muscla
Muscla plans your sets, reps and rest, and sets the next weight after every session.
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Sources
- Gullett JC, Tillman MD, Gutierrez GM, Chow JW. A biomechanical comparison of back and front squats in healthy trained individuals. J Strength Cond Res. 2009;23(1):284-292. PubMed
- Yavuz HU, Erdağ D, Amca AM, Aritan S. Kinematic and EMG activities during front and back squat variations in maximum loads. J Sports Sci. 2015;33(10):1058-1066. PubMed
- Contreras B, Vigotsky AD, Schoenfeld BJ, Beardsley C, Cronin J. A comparison of gluteus maximus, biceps femoris, and vastus lateralis electromyography amplitude in the parallel, full, and front squat variations in resistance-trained females. J Appl Biomech. 2016;32(1):16-22. PubMed
- Kubo K, Ikebukuro T, Yata H. Effects of squat training with different depths on lower limb muscle volumes. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2019;119(9):1933-1942. PubMed
- Schoenfeld BJ, Pope ZK, Benik FM, et al. Longer interset rest periods enhance muscle strength and hypertrophy in resistance-trained men. J Strength Cond Res. 2016;30(7):1805-1812. PubMed