Barbell Front Squat
The barbell front squat is a squat with the bar held across the front of your shoulders, which keeps your torso upright and lets your knees travel forward. It works the quads hardest, along with the glutes and adductors, and it places a heavy demand on the upper back and trunk to hold the upright position.
Also called: Front Squat, Clean-Grip Front Squat, Front-Rack Squat · Equipment: barbell · Pattern: squat
Step by step
- Set the bar in the rack at about shoulder height. Step in so the bar sits on the front of your shoulders, close to your throat.
- Take a grip with your hands just outside your shoulders. The bar rests on your shoulders and your fingertips only keep it in place; drive your elbows forward and up until your upper arms are close to parallel to the floor.
- Stand up to unrack, take two or three short steps back and set your feet about shoulder-width apart with your toes turned out slightly.
- Take a big breath into your belly, brace your trunk hard and keep your chest tall.
- Squat down by bending your knees and hips together. Let your knees travel forward over your toes while your torso stays upright and your elbows stay high.
- Go as deep as you can with your back held flat, ideally until your hips are below the top of your knees.
- Drive up by pushing the floor away and lifting your elbows and chest first, keeping the bar over the middle of your foot until you stand tall.
- After the last rep, walk the bar forward until it touches the uprights, then bend your knees to set it down into the hooks.
- Elbows high, upper arms level
- Chest tall, torso upright
- Knees forward and out over your toes
- Big breath and brace before every rep
- Lead the drive up with your elbows
- Weight through the middle of your foot
In VALDA, these cues are one tap away on the exercise while you train.
What it trains
| Muscle | Role | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Quadriceps: vastus lateralis | Prime mover | B |
| Quadriceps: vastus medialis | Prime mover | B |
| Quadriceps: vastus intermedius | Prime mover | C |
| Gluteus maximus | Prime mover | C |
| Quadriceps: rectus femoris | Secondary | B |
| Adductors | Secondary | D |
| Erector spinae | Stabiliser | B |
| Rectus abdominis | Stabiliser | C |
| Trapezius: upper | Stabiliser | D |
| Anterior deltoid | Stabiliser | D |
Evidence grades: A = strong research base · B = good · C = limited · D = coaching consensus.
What goes wrong, and the fix
Elbows dropping out of the bottom
Fix: Drive your elbows up first as you rise, keeping your upper arms close to level.
Torso tipping forward
Fix: Brace harder, keep your chest tall and use a load you can squat upright.
Heels lifting
Fix: Keep your weight through the middle of your foot; a small heel lift is a common aid.
Gripping the bar with a full fist
Fix: Let the bar rest on your shoulders with just your fingertips under it.
Bar sitting forward on the arms
Fix: Set the bar back against your throat on the front of your shoulders.
Knees caving in
Fix: Push your knees out in line with your toes on the way down and up.
What the research says
Strength · first choiceMuscle growth · first choiceSport performance · first choicePowerGeneral fitnessFat loss & conditioning
- Load by goal — Research comparing loads finds maximal strength favours heavier loads (about 8 reps or fewer per set), while muscle growth is similar across a wide range of loads when sets are taken close to failure.
- Effort — Studies show strength gains are largely insensitive to how close to failure sets are taken, and training to failure gives no strength advantage on average. In the front squat the upper back and trunk often give out before the legs, so many lifters keep sets short of failure.
- Front vs back squat — At the same load, the front squat produced similar leg muscle activity to the back squat. Lifters typically handle less weight in the front squat.
- Depth — In a 10-week trial, full-depth squats built more glute and adductor muscle than half squats, with similar quadriceps growth, and strength gains were specific to the depth trained.
- Order and rest — The exercise done first in a session tends to show the larger strength gain, so many programmes place the front squat early. In trained lifters, rests of about 3 minutes have produced greater strength and size gains than 1-minute rests.
Swap it mid-workout
With VALDA Pro, FLEX offers alternatives like these when you swap an exercise mid-workout.
Log the barbell front squat in VALDA, with these cues one tap away while you train and your history for it in one place.
General information about exercise technique, not medical advice. If you have an injury or a health condition, your healthcare provider is the right person to ask.