How do you hold the bar when you do your front squats? Do you find that you tilt forward slightly during the bottom half of the squat, having the bar roll forwards?

I try to use a clean grip, though I lean forward slightly, the bar rolls, I compensate, then when I stand up it *may* roll into my trachea. Awful.

I've done it with my arms crossed and as you described it. I find that I roll forward with the clean grip. I have been doing wrist stretches before hang cleans and power cleans and it has helped with my wrist forearm flexibility. With my arms crossed I don't notice any forward lean doing front squats.

A lot of people have that problem. Keeping the chest up and pushing the elbows as high as possible fixes it. Consciously think about the elbows when you're in the hole. Lead with the chest and head when coming out of it.

I used to have the same problem, and I've tried both crossed arms and olympic grip. After working with the olympic grip and finding the proper hand width, that works better for me. As chic says, concentrate on elbows up, and let the bar roll back to fingertips, resting on the clavicles. I sometimes end up with bruises there when I'm doing front squats and power cleans in the same week :) I probably do them with PCs, but irritate them with front squats.

I'm not perfect by any means, and am still working on wrist flexibility. Maybe I'm thinking wrong, but I always think to come up with my head up and back first, pulling chest up with it. Slightly different than chic's explanation, so maybe I'm visualizing myself wrong.

I think front squats show a lot of weaknesses in squat form for me. Working on them has helped my back squat. I'm weak in the core compared to my legs, so I have to fight more on the last reps of a set on preventing forward lean than I do pushing with my legs. I think once I clear that up, my back squat will benefit, as will my overhead presses, etc.

I used to hate front squats, now I enjoy the challenge :)

I'm not perfect by any means, and am still working on wrist flexibility. Maybe I'm thinking wrong, but I always think to come up with my head up and back first, pulling chest up with it. Slightly different than chic's explanation, so maybe I'm visualizing myself wrong.
Same difference. :tu: Your description is good that's what I mean.

Same difference. :tu: Your description is good that's what I mean.


After I posted, I reread yours, and had read right over leading with the chest AND head. I'd seen chest listed first and had to think through my mental process to see what I was concentrating on.

My reading comprehension sucked there. I stopped reading at "chest".