Front or back squat?

Charlenelindsay5

Does it matter for stronglifts?

I spent an hour and a half with a trainer tonight going over form for squats. We started with low bar back squats. I struggled to keep my elbows back. After that we tried high bar back squats. This went a little better but still not quite right. She got this look in her eyes and brought me dumbbells. Had me try front squats. I could totally do them. Switched from dumbbells to the bar, could still do them. Added 10 lbs to the bar and managed 5x5. She wanted to add another 5 lbs... we settled with another set of 5 lol

I always see people doing back squats but I don't seem to quite be there. Will front squats do the job? I'm going to keep practicing the back squat but in the meantime, front seems to be going much better.

canadianlbs

i love front squats. can't back squat to save my lift rn though , so maybe i'm biased. i think the first principle is: do the squats you CAN do, rather than the squats you 'should' do, if the difference between them is about using good enough form to stay healthy.

i feel like an anatomical weirdo, because a lot of my experience seems to be the exact opposite of what people seem to say. but fwiw, my experience wiht front squats really felt like it taught me to isolate the mobility needs of the lift into my hips. with front squats, you keep your hips closer to the bar because you have to stay upright and sit down, instead of leaning a little bit forward and sitting back. supposedly this means you use less glute and hamstring, and more quads . . . but i can't say that's my experience.

front squats are also terrific at something i feel like i need a lot of: core and upper back strength. so there's that, because i don't feel like back squats provide the same hit. but then too, i think i mentioned that i 'can't' back squat anyway

DawnEmbers

I like front squats. I do them sometimes as an accessory on deadlift day when my hands not acting up. For competition I do high bar as that's the first one I learned but for sure, the front squats are useful.

krokador

I think the thing with front squats is it doesn't allow much, if any, forward lean, which is where a lot of people will compensate to move more weight on the back squat. So overall you'll handle less weight over time with the front squats, but it forces you to keep good form (cuz if you don't, bar rolls forward. You can try using your wrists to hold it in place, but it gets really painful, really fast). I also find I can get deeper and actually get more glute activation from those, as well. Then again, I have a knee that doesn't let me squat with a wide stance, so I'm guessing it's got to do with the overall anatomy of the person which one will feel best.

Either way, unless you're competing in a powerlifting competition, or doing a crossfit WOD where the prescribed move is the back squat, for general fitness purposes they're basically one and all the same.

I would keep trying the back squats to a degree anyways, because they do offer some slightly different loading patterns, and getting the mobility to do them is important, too, but it ain't no big deal if you can't quite get there.

Charlenelindsay5

Once again, thanks so much... I definitely over think things when trying to learn.

My left knee was a little sore yesterday, likely due to some poor form but it's 100% this morning. My left shoulder was also not good... kind of in the area between shoulder blades but more to the left, but that's been a multi year "injury" that comes and goes and my shoulder has been acting up the last while anyways. It feels a lot better after sleep. I hurt it about 3 years ago but to this day don't know how. It just froze up one day and that was that...

It then turned into left hip pain, numb arm, foot, blah, blah, blah... CT scans, physio, chiropractic, massage.... a cause was never pinpointed. Dr's best guess was myofascial pain syndrome or beginning of fibro, but it's all left side of my body, which kind of throws the fibro theory out the window.

Long story short, I'm not surprised to see that the left side of my body is acting up a bit. Dr cleared me for exercise but it's frustrating that my body is fighting me after 1 squatting session w/the trainer. At this rate it'll take me until April to properly learn each move in order to start the program but that's ok... the way my body acts up, it's better to meet with a trainer and know I'm doing it properly lol

canadianlbs

Charlenelindsay5 wrote: »

At this rate it'll take me until April to properly learn each move in order to start the program but that's ok... the way my body acts up, it's better to meet with a trainer and know I'm doing it properly lol

that sounds like it's worth it though. i don't regret winging it for my first year, given my circumstances. but if you have a trainer who can help to keep you on the rails right from the start, then it's worthwhile. i mean, the alternative to learning the right way slowly is my style of learning the wrong way quickly and then trying to unpick to the points where i went wrong, so it comes out to about the same time in the end anyway