FRONTSQUAT: Tips for Tall People

[@Abdullah_Deen]

Long femur master race

[@Wayf4rer]

Having long ass legs and a long torso and trying to squat to full depth high bar/front squatting is a nightmare. I love squatting but the lift is the bane of my giraffe legged existence.

[@UniverseAZ]

wider stance

[@jdelorenzod2725]

Just drop the squat. Seriously. This isn’t 1980 anymore, there are other ways to build legs. Squats and tall guys don’t mix.

[@asdfkjhlk34]

Long torso is good tho

[@energyzer_bunny1913]

I'm 6'2" and disproportionately long-limbed. Back Squats are a no-go for me. I either Front Squat, Barbell Split Squat, RFESS, or Safety Bar Back Squat (the Safety bar allows you to push the weight up, allowing you to stay more upright).

[@asdfkjhlk34]

@@energyzer_bunny1913 do u have weightlifting shoes? I use weightlifting shoes with heel elevation inside them as well, it lets me use my quads

[@Themistoclees]

140kg clean/160kg paused front squat/180kg paused back-squat... 300kg paused sumo My snatch is a tall snatch by default because when I grip collar to collar the bar is still not in the proper height. Do u even limb bro

[@faronyoung9609]

The explanation of how you used to front squat is EXACTLY the stuff Im going through now trying to learn weightlifting. This series has been extremely useful, thanks!

[@jayeye89]

I’ve been itching for this for ages

[@wolfemooney7188]

Could you make a video on the program Gurph ran to get such short femurs?

[@SportyWizard18]

im 5'7 fridge why am i watching this

[@StevenAllotey]

I'm 6'5". When I back squat, I have to damn near do a good morning to hit depth. Front squats have been an absolute game changer for my leg development.

[@Lavabug]

Not advocating for all cases, but as a 187cm hobbyist nothing has ever put kilos on my front squat faster than squatting daily maxes with 4-6 back off doubles 4-5x per week (and back squatting only once). 30-40kg increase in my front squat in under 2 months. I had already done blocks of 5x10 in the front squat before (which killed my knees). No comparison. The intensity and frequency made a real difference.

[@steveyboyy1]

It could be that you saw a bit of a peaking effect there, and that wouldn't have necessarily happened if you hadn't have done the 5x10 front squats first

[@Lavabug]

@@steveyboyy1 not really, the gains were pretty much permanent. I could pretty much front squat near that top weight with only 3 warmup sets for a long time after reducing the frequency. Sets of 10 reps just didn't provide the stimulus I needed to fix my front squat. Didn't carry over to a bigger 1RM, in fact I went backwards because it inflamed my patellar tendons and put a pin in progress for months, so I lost what little hypertrophy I gained from them way before trying daily squatting. YMMV. I for one am never doing 10's in squats again (I actually tore a quad doing 10's for back squats not long ago which solidified my opinion lol). I'll just add sets and frequency to achieve more volume. Quality reps > quantity crammed into a single set.

[@sneil8056]

Most of my injuries too have come from hi rep squats. Prefer 10 heavy sets of 3 than 3 lighter sets of 10, only issue is the session time. If volume is equated, total kg lifted is greater with the 10 triples. Am I missing anything apart from pain by avoiding the tens...?

[@Lavabug]

@@sneil8056 probably some cardiovascular stimulus but there are lower impact ways of getting that than squatting like 20-30 mins of light cardio lol

[@kylebeng]

while i understand a lot of this talk is strength sport focused, i very much appreciate the references/considerations to other sports. I'm a tennis player and I try to extract as much info to improve my training, outside of just getting a bigger squat. Many strength sport athletes typically tend to only focus on contact sports, but largely, there are many other sports to consider when speaking about S&C like soccer, basketball, volleyball, racket sports, batting sports, etc. Many of these sports, spending so much time in the weightroom is often detrimental, because the sport is so skill-dependent rather than athleticism.

[@LithiumAndDietSoda]

Can you make a part two showcasing some weighlifter front squats and comment on them in light of this advice?

[@selfemployed1338]

It's like you're literally saying everything I did wrong yesterday doing my front squats. I'm going to get those toes a little straighter and more volume.

[@DredFulProductions]

A blessing from the lord!

[@drkyleditz]

Great video, wasn’t until I made my front squats as deep and as narrow footed as I needed to catch my cleans, and some cycles with pauses. Started too strong at first and had some knee issues but took it back and then slowly loaded. Now FS is much closer to max clean. Sikastan, you never fail me❤️

[@drkyleditz]

Long femurs homies need to take the hit and be weaker for awhile if they want to be more upright and have stronger quads.

[@enochcrosby6630]

Fitz, how do you feel about doing paused front squats in order to build postural stability and become more comfortable in the 'hole'? Is this a substitute for higher rep sets?

[@topemeister3000]

Just to give my 2 cents: I like to do paused front squats for my warm-up sets. Helps me complete both of those goals.

[@futurewolftsw4462]

I did them for a while just to get better tecnique, if you hinge over or have any upper back pain doing them paused helps alot.

[@chrisnicolaou3871]

If you're bored to watch the video here's the answers: 1) Use a more narrow stance for more forward knee tracking - more quad involvement 2) Do more volume on Front squats

[@throwawayaccountjr9003]

Ty

[@simsiize]

Thank you!

[@markcalleja8463]

I'm not very strong at squats I. Defiantly long femures and short torso at just over 6 ft back squats feel more awkward than front squats , i feel much more natural doing front squats, but yes i do flare my toes out alot

[@Alejandro-te2nt]

my torso, femur and tibia are all the exact same length

[@fluffyscruffy]

Great video, thanks! - A loosy-goosy-limby lifter!

[@tytanowykarol]

Did you know that Gurph was in this video? He was just quiet all this time and out of the frame, but you can see individual hairs creeping in the corner.

[@neptunexii8927]

6 foot roll call

[@christopherroberts2500]

Sir yes sir

[@omarmorosse3473]

Aye

[@neal520]

6 ft is manlet tier, the cutoff starts at 6’3

[@eric3483]

@@neal520 6' is the new 5'8"

[@Fredbernier14]

I fucking love it! Great video with applicable tips!

[@johnescobar9951]

woww you are very strong, i dont know it

[@jamesellison6154]

6ft7 120lbs bean pole checking in

[@greglindstrom1705]

Damn that's skinny. I'm 6"8 and 150kg so like 330 lbs?

[@ericooliveira9693]

Lanklets, when will they learn

[@88kris88]

I'm not even tall but I'm watching this anyway! All Hail 🙌SIKASTAN!🙌

[@tiagofranco6029]

I thought my front squat was good, alas I was just bringing my knees waaaayyyyyy way over to the side. Sadge. At least now I know I have to correct it.

[@applefreak2000]

I’m literally the opposite of what a tall lifter should be good at, naturally strong quads but weak back. I’m 6’6 and best squats are 180 front and 210 back squat and best deadlift is 193 lol

[@VidzMisc]

kgs, right? your deadlift is a weak point but your front and back squat is respectable

[@dylanfinucane7193]

Who the flip front squats 160 and then cleans 160. Fricken frock! They more efficient than nuclear energy

[@patrickmcdonagh539]

He definitely just woke up from a nap

[@O1OO10]

Appreciate the video (197 cm)

[@jarettmeyer4929]

It would be cool if you did a video on average proportions of limb lengths so people can determine if they have good leverages.

[@callmeacutekitten8106]

From my findings the main way to know if you're good at squating is the more up right squat is without having to do a sumo toes out squat, the more specific details to look at is If your torso makes up the majority of your height or if your tibias longer then the average tibia, the average femur to tibia length is about 1.28 femur to 1 tibia (I googled it so take it with a grain of salt)

[@Swamp_Donkey_]

I really wish you had shown examples of the things you were talking about like feet width and torso verticality. I'm a pretty new lifter and the information was interesting but pretty much impossible for me to know what I should apply.

[@TypicallyUniqueOfficial]

Thank you so much for this. I love front squatting and I have zero back pain using front squat, but my long ass legs make it difficult to bias my anterior strength. I'm super hamstring dominant, they grow so easily for me so my hips, glutes, and hamstrings just want to take over every squat.

[@32srt32]

took me a full year of everyday stretching the shoulders lats and wrists to be mobile enough to get into a proper front rack.

[@greglindstrom1705]

Took me around 9 months. Too much bench press I think.

[@joys8634]

Took me 2 weeks. Is front squatting really that hard?

[@landerhendrickx3522]

You had a long way to go or you show us that passive stretching is just overrated as a long term way to increase ROM. I believe loaded eccentrics are where it is at.

[@06alepea1]

@@joys8634 can depend on your anatomy. If you've got long forearms, it's more difficult to get a good rack position. I'd watch Alan Thrall's video on front squats.

[@32srt32]

@@greglindstrom1705 yup! i stopped benching! havent hit the bench press in years and my front rack is better than ever!, i still do ring pushups and dips but bench press is way overrated.

[@iwnl_vale]

Just what I needed on my Front Squat day

[@coulliebleu3422]

Based

[@angusroewl7206]

I'm 6ft 3 and just built to front squat, 110 back, 105 front haha

[@kblkbl]

clean=front squat team represeeeent

[@user-he4ef9br7z]

I. CAN'T. EVEN. HOLD. THE. BAR INTO POSITION! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

[@timthemaranta3148]

YES can we get a series for the giraffes? Squats/weighlifting/pressing for the giraffes

[@x2lazy2die]

its almost as if youtube knew i was getting into front squats

[@SLouiss]

Interesting, it helped me to stop “pushing knees out” it’s a cue that i overused

[@faranji]

When you guys talk about good or poor ankle mobility, what's an objective way to measure that?

[@BlueTac1992]

Check out the squat University video on ankle mobility, there's some really good tests and fixes on it.

[@Roper122]

I'm confused now. Isn't this exactly the opposite advice as the recent video on long femur lifters?

[@koonhanong2267]

Loosy-goosy-limbly-good-flexibility-but-poor-mobility lifter

[@k.Shubham]

i can also clean my 100% front squat i think i do because my legs are weak.

[@adamjones7891]

As always, Love the subtle jokes in the thumbnail lads.

[@inky4690]

love these fitz videos with the glorious accent

[@andrew98115wl]

Wide stance and relax!

[@LukeJitsu]

I’m 6’8 😔

[@tylerlofgren1775]

Great content as always.

[@FavourJaiyeola]

I've being front squatting with crossed arms rather than the front rack position. Is that an okay position for the long term or should I learn to front squat with a front rack position? Btw, I do front squats as a powerlifter, as an accessory to my back squat.

[@jordanwigger2380]

For the purpose of powerlifting I think this is great! If that’s what you have to do to load the quads more, I think that’s the option you should take in the short term. There are arguably some benefits for the front rack position (thoracic extension and maybe more general core tension) but for powerlifting you can arguably get those benefits other places if necessary. You can always slowly work into the front rack position while front squatting with crossed arms for the time being! (I know you didn’t ask for my opinion, sorry if this is an opinion you don’t want. I run a barbell club and figured I’d throw my 2 cents in since nobody else answered yet) Happy lifting!

[@FavourJaiyeola]

@@jordanwigger2380No, no, I appreciate your answer. Thanks for the feedback! Just one thing how would I go about slowly working into the front rack position?