Front Squats

Front Squats are a great lift. It took me a long time to add it to my arsenal, but I see the immense value in it. For comparison, in a Barbell Back Squat, the weight is on the posterior chain (Hamstrings and Glutes), whereas a Front Squat places more of the weight on the Quads, which means there's less stress on the knee in Back Squats.

I have found the clean grip hard to employ, and so I currently use the cross grip. It looks awkward, but feels very secure after drilling the move a few times. You cross your hands near your neck, and grab the bar. It makes you look like Dracula a bit or someone trying to strangle themselves. The foot width placement is more narrow than Back Squats. It is shoulder length with straighter toes. It's much easier to hit depth than in Back Squat. The bar rests atop your Anterior Delts. This will probably be uncomfortable the first dozen or so times, but you'll get used to it. I was told to wear a shirt with sleeves, but I only workout with no sleeves, and although the bar marked me up a few times, I adjusted and became accustomed to it.

I also feel more hip flexion in the Front Squat. At the top of each rep, I contract my Quads. You get quite a bit of energy from the stretch reflex when you dip into the hole, which serves as power to drive yourself up. I've come to better my technique in timing that stretch reflex by doing reps of heavy weight in Back Squats.

The most important exercises are the Squat, Deadlift, and Bench Press, and I'm coming to realize that some of their variations are spectacular and are worth using. Front Squats, Hack Squats, Sumo Deadlifts, and the most recent inclusion I plan to have is the Dumbbell Bench Press. I have dumped my old routine, and created a new one titled Leg Snatcher, DB Powered.

The focus of this routine is on hitting my legs 3x a week, having one day of extra recovery compared to my 6-day Swole routine, introducing DB Bench Press while preserving BB Bench Press, having 5 days of Bench Pressing. Only having two upper body days a week help me focus on the leg workouts. When I began working my legs in my lifting career, I had 3x upper body days scheduled and only 2x lower body. I knew this was a problem, but I thought it was absurd to workout 6 days a week to evenly workout the upper and lower body.

With December's Return of the Swole routine, I my muscles hard and frequently. Everything looks good. My upper body is only lagging in my Pecs and Triceps, and so I have an onslaught on Bench Pressing planned via DBs and barbell. I removed the Trap-Bar Deadlift from the routine because I felt it very strange to have the weight centered like that. It's very unnatural compared to the other barbell exercises. I would rather get strong in barbell exercises because I feel they carry over more, and are more common than Trap-Bars, wherever the future may take me.

Auxiliary exercises have taken a backseat position in my mind right now. I feel I've been overworking them, and that I'm due for a break, and that they honestly don't matter as much as I've been treating them. In adding the DB Bench Press, I've taken out 2 sets of the Barbell Bench Press, so I'm really looking forward to experiencing the minimalistic routine that I created.

I've acquired a set of gymnastic rings, and have used them once now, but I'll wait until I have more experience with them before I comment on them.