Barbell front squat
A squat with the bar racked on the front of the shoulders. The upright torso shifts the work to the quads and the upper back.
The movement
2 stages
Racked tall
01 Racked tall
Bar on the front of the shoulders, elbows lifted high.
02 Bottom
Sit straight down with the torso upright and the elbows still up.
How to do it
Setup
- Rest the bar on the front of your shoulders, fingertips under it just outside shoulder width, and lift your elbows until your upper arms are close to parallel with the floor.
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, toes turned out slightly.
- Take a breath and brace your trunk before you leave the rack.
Execution
- Sit straight down between your heels, keeping your torso as upright as you can.
- Go as deep as you can hold with your elbows up and your heels down.
- Drive back up through your whole foot, leading with your elbows rather than your hips.
BreathingBig breath at the top, hold it down and up, breathe again at the top.
Getting it right
Form cues
- Elbows stay high for the entire rep.
- Keep your chest tall and sit down rather than back.
Common mistakes
- Letting the elbows drop, which tips the bar forward and folds the torso after it.
- Rising with the hips first, which turns the front squat into a bad good morning.
- Cutting depth because the wrists complain, instead of fixing the rack position.
Worth knowing
- If the bar starts rolling forward mid-rep, let it go rather than fighting it. Dumping the bar forward off your shoulders is the built-in escape, and it is why the front squat is one of the safer squats to push hard.
General guidance, not medical advice. See how Setkit works.
Notes
The front squat moves the bar from behind your neck to the front of your shoulders, and that one change rewrites the exercise. To keep the bar from rolling off, your torso has to stay nearly vertical, so your quads take on more of the work, your upper back fights harder to stay tall, and your lower back is asked for less than in a back squat at the same weight.
The rack position is the entry fee. Most people can hold the bar on their shoulders with a full grip only after some wrist and lat flexibility work, so start with fingertips under the bar and elbows driven high. If the position still will not come, cross your arms over the bar instead. The goblet squat teaches the same upright pattern while you work on it.
Expect to lift noticeably less than you back squat, and treat that as the point rather than a problem. The front squat rewards depth, posture and bracing over raw load. It carries over directly to the front-racked kettlebell and dumbbell lifts, and it is the squat that keeps teaching you position long after the back squat has become a grind.