Hands on front squat

brianthebard

Where do you hold the bar personally? do you have your palms facing up and the bar resting in your fingers or do you cross your hands at your collar bone, palms down? Is there a difference to the lift? I just ask cause I've been doing them with my hands crossed for the last while but don't want to be doing them wrong especially if I start to add more weight.

Hanley

Clean grip for me! (as in bar in finger tips)

Arms crossed is gonna limit the amount you can lift. One of the lifters in my gym regulary does 150kg front squats for reps with his arms crossed.

brianthebard

See I was thinking that might happen. I tried it with the clean grip last week and it felt a bit awkward, but it definitely keeps your elbows locked in place, and when I start to get tired in the fourth or fifth set they can start to drop and you don't want that! I guess I'll bring them down to forty for five sets next week and build it up again from there. Also have you seen heard of a manta ray thingy? Its an attachment that goes on the bar to spread the weight over your shoulders, so its not as sore as having the bar on your traps. My friend uses it and just about everyone else in the gym I've seen squatting but I don't really like it cause it puts teh bar a lot higher on your neck. I just tend to stick to front squats cause putting weight on my back still seems a bit odd. What's the general opinion?

JayRoc

First of all, nothing wrong with crossing your arms for front squats if it seems more comfortable, once you've given it a couple of tries to see which suits you best.
It would obviously make more sense for someone like Hanley to use the grip he does, but he's going to be looking at this from an oly perspective as well.
Personally, I've always found a clean grip to be very distracting when front squatting, I end up thinking more about my wrists and arms than the actual exercise, but that's just me- I know some people find if they cross their arms the bar begins to slide forward as they fatigue, but luckily I've never had that problem. The grip just suits me!:)

As for the manta ray thing, I've seen them once or twice, and to be honest, they strike me as being just another gimmick.
People may as well be wrapping a towel around the bar (and that's not a good thing )
Basically I'd just advise trying to get used to the feeling of the bar on your traps....we all had to do it, and before you know it it'll be second nature.

brianthebard

Was going to ask about the towel. Yeah I shall just stick with the plain old bar, will probably serve as a reminder not to try and put the weight up too quickly! When I've squatted without the ray its just felt so much more solid on my traps and I don't worry about hurting my neck so I'll keep at that. At the minute I'm just lifting to build muscle and strength but I would like to include oly lifts, even if it were just for personal use as opposed to competition. I guess I'll just play around with the different grips-its just good to know I'm not doing anything wrong.

tribulus

I find it terribly uncomfortable using a crossed grip.
I use a clean grip. It's important to remember that the wrist just rest on the bar to keep it on your shoulders, they don't or shouldn't take part in the movement.

As for bar placement, again I found high bar rather uncomfortable and messing up my form a bit, lower down is much easier and feels more natural for me, but it varies for each person. Experiment to see what suits you and mess around with your grip a bit, i've found if my grip is wider (for back squats this is) i can create a "shelf" easier and the bar rests better on my back.

Hanley

This is roughly how the bar sits on my back during squats http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/glen23_backsquathigh.jpg

If you work at it, as Trib said, you'll eventually find a natural shelf where the bar sits perfectly.

It will probably take a while for your shoulders to adjust. It took me somewhere like 4 to 5 weeks of constant shoulder pain and dreading squats to make it work. I'm fine now, but I wouldn't recommend doing it the way I did. Did it work? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes. Does that mean you should do it like that? No. But it does work. Very painful tho.

If the bar starts to roll forward on front squats, it's cos your elbows have dropped. Pretty much simple as that. It doesn't matter whether you're arms crossed, or clean grip. Again, getting clean grip to work for you could be painful. It took a few weeks of front squats and cleans 2/3x a week for my wrists to be ok with it. Again, I just pushed on and hoped it would come together.

There's a shelf for front squats too like. I'm able to front squat with my arms straight out in front of me without losing the bar forward like this http://www.marunde-muscle.com/fitness/fsquat2.gif

When it comes down to it, it's all about body position. I was able to achieve this position thru a hell of a lot of practice. Like everything physique related, it takes time. Just keep working on it.

And let me know if I can be of any help.

brianthebard

You've helped loads thanks man. I didn't like back squats at first cause it was too high on my neck and I was using too much weight. But everything sort of clicked for me with front squats. I look up to where the wall meets the ceiling and try to keep my elbows up as much as possible and everything is fine. I have found a spot where the bar will sit pretty solid on my traps now and even though its sore it feels more natural in a way, cause it keeps my back from bending when I'm coming up. The arms forward squat looks mad! Definitely would want to be sure of my form before I tried that. Again thanks for all the info guys.

Hanley

With the arms out front squat, there should be no weight on your arms at all. they don't support the weight. It sits across the top of your shoulders.

cowzerp

Arms crossed is the way it is taught usually but you can try a few different hand positions and find which 1 suits you, differrent body sizes and shapes can affect good positioning! Try out a few ways and pick the best..The important thing is that the movement is done in good form.