new to front squats

[kingsamj]

170x5, third set. About 70% of my guestimated max of 245.

Interested if anyone can help with anything obviously wrong with the squats above? This might not be the best angle to examine a front squat, sorry about that! I can take a video from the front or back three quarters angle next time if it helps.

The biggest problem I'm feeling is that, late into the session, it got hard/painful to breath in. It wasn't that I was out of breath, it felt more like my upper back/chest were crushed from the weight of the bar. Breathing in gave a sharp pain in my back. Is that.. normal? Or am I holding the bar wrong?

[mgil]

Few things:

-ratios for front squat:back squat are from experienced lifters

-make your initial sets of FS light; you’re acquiring a new movement pattern

-with the above being said, your form is decent

-focus on keeping the elbows up more and the rack as solid as possible

-if the back pain is in your upper mid back, that’s not too much of a surprise, your upper back is compensating for the quads getting weak and not allowing you to stay as upright as possible

[kingsamj]

Thanks for the advice! I'll bump the weight down a bit and focus on my elbows and on keeping a solid rack position. I didn't film it, but on my 6th set of that session the bar was sliding all over the place and I had to keep shoving it back up into place. No doubt that caused some of the upper back pain.

[Stoop]

I think you could probably shoot your knees forward a bit quicker. These look really good. Like others have mentioned, keeping the elbows up will help keep the torso more upright. I like to pretend I'm initiating the movement out of the hole by pushing my elbows up. Also when you unrack, pushing the bar as far backwards as you can into your neck helps as well.

[mbasic]

yeah, I think those are fine for a start.

Things might look different once you get used to them and the load goes up.
Balance and shit will different once the load increases (bar load:BW ratio).
I would probably post a second form check in a month or so.

[kingsamj]

I think you could probably shoot your knees forward a bit quicker. These look really good. Like others have mentioned, keeping the elbows up will help keep the torso more upright. I like to pretend I'm initiating the movement out of the hole by pushing my elbows up. Also when you unrack, pushing the bar as far backwards as you can into your neck helps as well.

I had another session tonight and these tips were on my mind! Knees forward and pushing my elbows up at the bottom of the squat helped keep me more upright for sure. I could feel my quads taking the load instead of my back, which felt encouragingly like I was headed in the right direction.

[asdf]

I can't see your grip, but opening your grip on the bar will allow you to keep your elbows higher and upper back tighter (in case that's not obvious).

[kingsamj]

I can't see your grip, but opening your grip on the bar will allow you to keep your elbows higher and upper back tighter (in case that's not obvious).

I've been messing around with my grip a lot. Last night I felt like bringing my grip in closer actually made it easier to get my elbows up? Could it vary from person to person?

Having my grip very slightly past shoulder width (close enough that my fingers almost touch my delts in the rack position) seemed to be the most comfortable and also where I was best able to keep my shoulders up. Wider grip felt like it put a lot of pressure on my elbows.

[asdf]

Last night I felt like bringing my grip in closer actually made it easier to get my elbows up? Could it vary from person to person?

Ideal grip and grip width is whatever allows you to most comfortably keep your elbows up and maintain your posture, and that will vary by individual depending on things like arm segment lengths, elbow and wrist flexibility, etc. Talking just about front squats taken out of the rack here. If you're catching cleans or setting up to jerk, there are other considerations.