

Written by Daniel Green

Check Out These Other Parts of the How I Built My Best Squat Ever series…

The best exercise for improving my squat has been the front squat. I learned them during my Olympic lifting years, but reinstated them in my powerlifting regimen after speaking with Mr. Sam Byrd.

Of course the most important way to improve the squat is to just squat and squat heavy! But for me the front squat has been huge. This is because of the nature of the exercise. Because the front squat forces you to not lean forward, you are forced not to allow your lower back strength to take over the lift. It forces you to squat with the knees forward loading up the quads. This is key for me because I have fairly long legs and had always had trouble not letting my back take over during heavy back squats. Front squats force the quads to do the work. Also holding a barbell racked across your chest and shoulders will provide enormous work for the upper back–erectors and traps. I like to use the front squat in the 5-8 rep range to really build the quads with high volume. Maxes are ok too but I feel reps carry over to the back squat best.

For me I know that when my front squat numbers go up my back squat inevitably will too. In fact my squat tends to be about 200 pounds higher than my front squat! In sleeves I’ve front squatted 525×3 and back squatted 716×3. With wraps I hit 615 right before an 815 back squat.