To,
Eric Troy

Sir,
I am writing to you regarding me having constant problems with my Front Squats.
I have never really got a hold of the form on Front Squats.
Though Some workouts have been good but with each passing week I feel overall my form is becoming worse and worse and I am really struggling on this exercise.

Below are few of the issues noted by me and Ashiem.

1. I am unable to stay tight in the bottom positon.
2. I am not able to generate power from the bottom position and I keep bending forwards while coming up.
3. My butt keeps sliding outwards in the bottom positon.
4. I keep making the front squat into back squat.
5. My knees tend to become knock kneed while coming up.

Also this past week ** M13 W4 ** I worked out with Ashiem trying to sort out some of theses issues, which helped but not to any of our satisfactions.
Something weird happened this week , which has never happened to me before, After doing the First Rep my body went completely Cold like I had no energy, no muscles were firing and no core tightness could be felt as well and this kept happening on every set whatever be the weight (135/165/185).

Another thing that we tried were a lot of verbal cues in this workout ,
for e.g. Chest Out, Hips forward , Elbows Up ,but they didn't seem to lead to any significant improvement.
Ashiem also made me try pausing at the bottom , that though did seem to help at first but with me attuned to do front squats like I have before made it tough for me to improve.

I also wanted to mention that I have read up on the Front Squat articles each week and though it does seem to help I still keep making the same mistakes over and over again .

Sir I thought of writing to you as this problem has been perrenial and I want to make it better any way I can.
Any help you may provide will be deeply appreciated.
Thanks again for your time.
I am posting the videos of the last 4 week workouts from the latest workout onwards.

M13 W4 Front Squats

M13 W3 Front Squats

M13 W2 Front Squats

M13 W1 Front Squats

Looking at the second video, when you are doing 135 for a warmup, it looks pretty damn good. There could be various little nagging problems, but it kinda seems like this is a "front squats are damned hard and annoying" reaction. I would say the first thing to change is your expectation: Don't expect front squats to ever feel like a walk in the park, especially when you're trying to add weight consistently.

I think you need to lower the weight back down, stick with sets of 1 to 2 where you can really push out some powerful reps.

We can go over it more later but one thing to mention, is, as you know, I'm a big proponent of the idea that how we conceive of what we are doing is extremely important. You are having problems coming out of the hole, and leaning forward, etc. The hips going back when ascending…

So..remember, that when you are descending on the squat, to never think in terms of going down. See, you always stay extended in terms of the hips to the shoulders. You just flex at the hips. When you think in terms of "down" and "up" you tell your body to fold up into a ball, basically. So, you don't think down. You just let your body move down while you "keep extended." Always keep pushing up towards the bar, even when you are moving down, and then when you're in the hole…

To incorporate this into your mindset, you'll still need to lighten the weight.

Firstly Sir, I wanted to say thank you! for the quick response, I really appreciate you droping everything and getting back to me so fast. Also I wanted to say sorry for the Late reply! I had a crucial exam on Thursday so I didn't see your reply till Ashiem mentioned it to me.

"front squats are damned hard and annoying"

I agree with you E! that I have this reaction of Front Squats every week I want this to be easier as the weight goes up which I guess is stupid and has only tended to increase my problems on Them.LOL!

So..remember, that when you are descending on the squat, to never think in terms of going down. See, you always stay extended in terms of the hips to the shoulders. You just flex at the hips. When you think in terms of "down" and "up" you tell your body to fold up into a ball, basically. So, you don't think down. You just let your body move down while you "keep extended." Always keep pushing up towards the bar, even when you are moving down, and then when you're in the hole…

Sir! I have always thought of front squats as going straight down and up , never in terms of staying tight or staying extended throughout and it makes sense I lose tightness at the bottom positon now!(phew) .I will definitely work on this on my next Workout and post the results here.

I think you need to lower the weight back down, stick with sets of 1 to 2 where you can really push out some powerful reps.

I will definitely Work my hardest on Front Squats this Week and Week's beyond till I can do them properly.
Thus Next Week's Goal is:- Form is the priority and I will Work upto a Weight where I can Maintain it and see what Numbers I get.
To finish off I wanted to say Thanks SIr for all the help! I am truly Grateful.
I love Posting on Ground Up Strength and I believe it is one of the most Important factors which keeps me going in my Training Thanks for everything!

P.S.: E! I was both shocked and impressed at how accurately you got my thinking spot on
"always up and down on Front Squats" LOL!!

I'm glad you understood what I was talking about, Kanishk, because I didn't want it to come off like I was dismissing your concerns. It's just that sometimes, the problems we perceive have to do with our expectations. Front squats start out an annoying and difficult exercise, and they only get more annoying and more difficult, lol, if you want to get hella strong on them.

Sir! I have always thought of front squats as going straight down and up , never in terms of staying tight or staying extended throughout and it makes sense I lose tightness at the bottom positon now!(phew) .I will definitely work on this on my next Workout and post the results here.

It is something that is counter-intuitive but you can definitely train your mind, and body, to do this and it does not just make a subtle little difference, it makes a huge difference.

P.S.: E! I was both shocked and impressed at how accurately you got my thinking spot on
"always up and down on Front Squats" LOL!!

It's because I can "see it" when I watch your front squats. You can see this subtle shift in attitude between "now I'm going up" and "now I'm going down."

I'm glad you understood what I was talking about, Kanishk, because I didn't want it to come off like I was dismissing your concerns. It's just that sometimes, the problems we perceive have to do with our expectations. Front squats start out an annoying and difficult exercise, and they only get more annoying and more difficult, lol, if you want to get hella strong on them.

I would hear this from many people when refering to Front Squats it doesn't get easier at all and now I know first hand LOL!!
If getting annoyed gets you strong. I am willing to get annoyed week in and week out.

Lastly,Thanks again Sir for all the help.
I am really looking forward to tomorrow's Front Squat Workout.
The plan:- is to do Honeymoon period and knockout a few good sets with 1-3 reps while maintaining form let's see how this goes.
Thanks Sir.

This is A 2 Week Update on My Front Squats

I meant to keep a Week to Week Log here to chronicle what I have accompolished on my quest to correct my Front Squat issues.
But a 2 Week Update with my Videos would be the bare minimum I should put up.
So here it goes.

Week 1 :-

Video:-

As I have written in my post on my journal, I had a torrid time in this Workout. I kept losing my breathe and I was extremely unstable in the bottom position of the Squat.
But on the positive side one of the recent issues which had crept up last week were addressed i.e. My body kept going cold which was due to my anxiety and overthinking and once I was able to calm down and knock out a few good reps.

Week 2

Video

This Week I got to the Gym earlier than usual and I did a lot of work with just the bar and weights under 135 lbs to get my body to do the work and not overthink when I get to the heavier sets.
The Workout was pretty good as compared to last week, I was still having problems on the heavier sets ( more than 155 lbs) but the weights before that were better than last week.
It was brought to my attention that I keep creating new issues as soon as one issue is solved for e.g. I got my breathing sorted but I kept pushing my knees in while coming up ,which wasn't a problem before all this doesn't help me and leaves me scratching my head as to why this is happening.
I put it down to not being confident/ aggressive enough on this exercise.
But, I feel with the positives from this week,the highlight being knocking out 185 x 2 after doing more than 50 reps!! I feel, I have gone from utterly dreadful last week to just dreadful this week.LOL!!!

This is Post is on reviewing the last 2 Weeks of Mesocyle 14.
Detailing my Tryst with Front Squats.

Week 3 Review

I don't remember much of what went on during this workout of what I do remember.
There were Lot of fail sets ,but I ended on a high by getting 205 x 2 after a Very long time.

Video:-

Front Squats Honeymoon Period Week 4 Review

This is straight from the heart, So please forgive me if it's not well written and too long.

I started pretty good this week I got to 155 lbs without a hitch, I was feeling strong and apart from a set or two where I was nervous It went pretty good.
I attempted 185 lbs after doing 4 reps with 155 lbs as I felt really good after doing 155 lbs.
On the attempt with 185 lbs.I felt all the nervousness coming back basically I went as cold and tense as I have ever been. I though willed myself to do a rep and on finishing the rep, I felt comletely gassed out .I reracked the bar and went for another rep but I still felt very unstable after finishing that,.I wanted to do another rep, My thinking being I could record some sort of progression from last week but at the bottom position, I just felt like giving up ( not passing out) and hence failed the rep and fell flat on my butt.
This frustated me beyond what I have ever felt in the gym and I had fits of anger passing through me I kept hinking “how could I allow myself to not give my all and fail when I know I could have done the rep”. From my experience, I know it's really bad to lift when you are angry, cause it's a way of focusing on the negative and that dominates your thoughts when you would be better served to focus on the lift and the set at hand, I don't want to be taken in the wrong sense I mean anger and not aggression. Aggression is good if used correctly it can fire you up when you are not feeling up to doing the work.
Anyhow, After the set with 185 lbs (which failed) I was really peeved with myself and just wanted to go home, I must have sat around 15 minutes alone thinking of this and how . I finally decided to get off my ass and atleast end on a set well done I did 2 sets with 135 lbs and 155 lbs which felt good and I decided to do 185 lbs again, It was a rinse and repeat of sorts I again felt drained after the 1 set rep and I reracked the bar and calmed myself down and did another rep.
I wouldn't call this a Success, but I realise that I just feel hopeless when doing front squats I keep arguing to myself this shouldn't be so hard you have done heavier weight than this around a month back without any of these problems, I felt I keep hitting the wall and whatever I do this ain't even going to make a dent in it.
I would really appreciate any advice I could get on dealing with this.
Lastly,Thanks for reading another rambling from me.

Video

I think that you got in a bit of a hurry building the weights up, to be honest. You need to chill out and take your time. If you want to try something different, I would recommend LIGHT front squats off a box. The key is to stay tight on the box, don't slump back, pause a sec, and explode off. This may help you learn to engage, stay tight, and explode. Plus, it will be something different and may loosen you up a bit and you can have a bit of fun trying a newish thing.

I think that you got in a bit of a hurry building the weights up, to be honest. You need to chill out and take your time. If you want to try something different, I would recommend LIGHT front squats off a box. The key is to stay tight on the box, don't slump back, pause a sec, and explode off. This may help you learn to engage, stay tight, and explode. Plus, it will be something different and may loosen you up a bit and you can have a bit of fun trying a newish thing.

Sir,Thanks for all the help.
I spoke to Ashiem also about this and we both feel Box Squats will be a good change of pace,Plus I have always had a lot of fun doing them.
I sincerely hope this helps overall and I have a strong feeling this will help with my issues.
I really appreciate all the help E!