If you're reading this then I don't need to tell you what a great exercise the Front Squat is.

And if you're always looking to improve your technique, you're going to love this trick.

This trick is designed to help improve your form out of the bottom of the Front Squat so that you prevent your core from collapsing, your thoracic (upper back) area from flexing and tipping forward, and your elbows from coming down.

These things together cause THE single biggest issue with the Front Squat...and this trick will stop it in it's tracks at the bottom of the exercise, where's it's most likely to happen.

You'll need to set this up in the power rack using two bars...one for doing the Front Squat with and one for blocking (you'll see what I mean).

Set the unloaded bar on the safety rails so that it's a few inches above your knee caps. Brace it up against the uprights of the power rack.

When you load the bar with weight, use small plates like 25's or 35's (or smaller). If you use 45's, the plates will contact the ends of the blocking bar too soon and throw off the exercise. Use a light to moderate weight here to start with as you may need to play with the blocking bar height a bit to get it right.

Take your normal Front Squat grip on the bar (either clean grip or crossed-arm grip), unrack and step forward.

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As an aside, I used to prefer the crossed-arm grip. I've since changed my preference to the clean grip. When you use the crossed-arm grip, your shoulders have to internally rotate (down and inwards), which automatically causes the upper back to relax and flex. This can lead to greater tendency for the upper back to round over, the core to tip down and the elbows to drop.

The crossed-arm grip is not necessarily wrong, if that's what you have to use because of shoulder or elbow mobility issues, but after testing, I find the clean grip to be more effective. The clean position externally rotates the shoulders, which puts the upper back muscles into extension (which is the position you want the upper back to be in during the exercise), which further promotes solidity in the upper back.

When I do the clean grip, I only keep three fingers on the bar (pinkies and thumbs off). It's not 100% comfortable but the overall exercise feels better. Your fingers should be set just outside shoulder width with the bar resting across the groove of the front delts in the racked position.

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Step forward until your feet about a foot or so in front of the bottom bar. You may need to adjust your position, once you do the first rep.

Come down into the squat. As you get to the bottom position, your elbows should contact the blocking bar (which is why I call it the blocking bar...it blocks your arms from coming down any further). Use that block to push your elbows up and reset your back into perfect position.

It's important to maintain tension in your upper back as you sink down and allow the bar to elevate the elbows. Activately try and raise the elbows with your muscles even as the bar is pushing them up (like doing forced reps).

Here's why that's beneficial...

1. It physically prevents your elbows from tipping or dropping down at the bottom of the exercise, when it would be most likely for that to happen. You can adjust the height of the blocking bar to however deep you want to come down into the squat.

2. If you had some tilting forward happen on the way down, it immediately corrects your body position, like a coach spotting underneath your elbows. This re-extends your upper back, putting you back to a vertical body position. This strengthens the specific muscles need to accomplish that position and it does it during the actual exercise for maximum specificity.

3. While you're in the bottom position with your elbows supported, you can reset the arch in your lower back, which also has a tendency to flatten out as you come down into the squat. This means when you come back up, your lower back is in perfect position to properly support the weight and is specifically strengthened.

4. It allows you to pause at the bottom of the Front Squat with NO PANIC. You're not immediately focused on getting the weight back up. You actually HAVE to control your descent, control the bottom position, adjust your body position, THEN come back up.

5. While you're paused in the bottom position, you can really FEEL where the tension is being generated in your quads. You can shift your weight back slightly, develop tension in the quads THEN push back up. This forces your muscles to do the work with no rebound help from the tendons and no elastic tension.

Put all of these things together and you have an ideal teaching/training technique for the Front Squat.

Come back up, just as you would for a normal Front Squat, focusing on trying to maintain that good body position (upper back extension and lower back arch) on the way up.

Here's a view of the bottom position from the side and back.

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Bottm line, this technqiue automatically improves the mechanics of the Front Squat exercise while strengthening the specific muscles necessary to properly perform it. It will absolutely carry over into a better, stronger Front Squat for you.

If you've got two bars and a rack, give this technique a try. I'd love to hear how it works for you!

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