Last month, we began a series of posts covering CrossFit’s 9 Foundational Movements. We started with the Air Squat (Part 1 and Part 2). The cues we learned in the Air Squat now lead us into the Front Squat. You’ll see this movement at the end of a Power Clean and the beginning of a Thruster each of which come up quite frequently in CrossFit WODs. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves – we’ll start from the beginning.
Nothing changes as far as setup and execution except now we’re adding the load to the front with a bar in the rack position.
Where to Start
• Shoulder width stance with toes slightly pointed out
• Stand up tall with hips and knees fully extended
• Bar is rested on the rack across our shoulders that we create by pointing elbows straight ahead with a loose fingertip grip and hands just outside shoulder width (upper arms should be parallel to the floor)
Let’s Do This
• Butt travels backward first, then down
• Maintain weight on heels and lumbar curve
• Elbows remain high and pointed straight ahead during the entire movement
• Keep a big chest pointed forward and upright
• Head remains neutral (facing forward)
• At the bottom of the squat, hip crease should be below kneecap (below parallel)
• Knees track parallel over feet
• Elbows lead the way back up from the bottom of the front squat
• Completely open hip and knee angles at the top (stand all the way up)
Crucial Points to Remember
• Maintain rack position with loose fingertip grip outside shoulder width
• HIGH elbows!
These cues regarding elbow position will be helpful during the descent in today’s thrusters. Keeping that elbow position will prevent the load from pulling you forward increasing the onset of fatigue, loss of balance and inefficiency of movement.
Additional Viewing : CrossFit HQ Front Squat demo
WOD – 6.19.09
AMRAP 12 Minutes:
5 thrusters
10 Burpees
Cash Out:
Rope Climb X 6
Nice, timely post! I’m loving these Foundational Fridays, Al.
Front Squats….
Funny thing, I was just reading what Dan John said about most male athletes:
“They need to add 100 pounds to their front squat and get the flexibility to go deep. ”
Here’s the link:
http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/advice_you_dont_want_to_hear_vol_2
Also, I wanted to send out a congrats to Jeremiah, Gavin and Nicky who all completed their Elements sessions within the last week and a half. Jeremiah has already jumped into our classes and was seen Wednesday putting forth an impressive effort during J.T.! All of you were a joy to train and we all look forward to seeing youl rocking the workouts soon!
Gio if I’m doing my math right, and I like to think I am, then I should be front squatting 101 pounds in order to improve my flexibility.
Congrats pledges! Now the real hazing begins.
Haha! Begin Hell Week! Congrats also to Nick who finished his Elements and jumped right into his first class by doing the CrossFit Total! Well done!
Forrest…. huh?
Dan John is not saying: “Most males need to add 100 pounds to their front squat to get the flexibility to go deep.”
He said: “Most males need to add 100 pounds to their front squat AND get the flexibility to go deep”
So basically squat more, and go deep…. if you can’t go deep then you need to asses your flexibility/mobility issues because you usually you go deeper with the front squat than the back squat. C’mon man… haven’t you read Starting Strength… you’ll see the difference between a back squat and a front squat, because the position of the bar the angles differ.
That’s what she said.
Yeah Gio, my front squat sucks and my flexibility is even worse. I’ve been working on the overhead squats with the KBs which totally hurt and make me want to cry, but it has helped my flexibility. Marcus and I made a promise that we would do an exercise we hated every day. I might have to add front squats to the routine.
Congrats kids! Time to embrace the suck!!! See ya at the box.
That list of hated exercises is certainly loooooooooooong Forrest! Not that mine is much shorter
Forrest,
If you have the time this stretch routine is great for lower body flexibility, especially for your hips.
http://agt.degreesofclarity.com/stretching/ (Base program)
For something quicker you could use Joe DeFranco’s “agile eight” and “simple six” routines.
Agile Eight (lower body) – http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_08-10-03.html
Simple Six (upper body) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgxr6xAB5ZM
Joe D’s routines are a great warm up before WODs too.
Oh yea, that lunge/squat workout sucked.
Joe D.!!!!
That guy is the shit!!!…. That stuff works…. painfully brutal though. (do this at home because no one wants to see a grown man cry… lol)
Also, if you are starting to lose your low back arch the further you go into the squat and your pelvis starts to tuck, one thing you can do is box squats. Squat to a box that’s just above the point where you’d lose your arch and your pelvis tucks, and you can lower the box a little each week. Box squats, foam rolling combined with dynamic and static flexibility work and you should be good to go!