What muscles does the front squat work?

The quads do the work of straightening your knees. The glutes assist out of the bottom, and your upper back and midsection hold the rack position. Compared directly with a back squat, overall muscle recruitment came out much the same, while the knee took less compressive force with the weight in front.

Why do my wrists hurt on front squats?

Because you are holding the bar with your hands instead of resting it on your shoulders. The bar sits on the front of your delts and the fingers only stop it rolling. If a full clean grip is not comfortable, cross your arms over the bar or use straps looped over it.

Is the front squat harder on your knees than the back squat?

No, and it was measured. The back squat produced higher compressive force and a higher knee extensor moment at the knee. Shear force was similar and low in both. The idea that forward knee travel makes the front squat the knee-wrecking version does not survive the data.

Why is my front squat so much weaker than my back squat?

Because the limit is your rack position, not your legs. Holding a bar on the front of your shoulders with your elbows up caps what you can carry long before your quads are finished. In the study that measured both, front squat maxes averaged well below back squat maxes.

How do I keep my elbows up in a front squat?

Make it the active cue for the whole rep rather than a setup detail, and stop the set when they start to fall. If they drop on rep 1 with an empty bar, the position needs work before the weight does. If they only drop when you are tired, the weight is fine and the set was long.

Can you front squat without a clean grip?

Yes. Crossing your arms over the bar and holding straps looped over it are both standard, and neither changes what your legs are doing. The grip is only there to stop the bar rolling off your shoulders.

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Barbell · advanced · upper legs

Barbell front squat

Also called Front squat, Clean grip squat, Front rack squat, Barbell front squat.

The short answer

The front squat carries the bar across the front of your shoulders instead of your back, which forces you to stay upright because a forward lean would drop it. Your quads straighten your knees against the load, and when the two squats were compared directly overall muscle recruitment came out much the same while the back squat produced higher compressive force and a higher extensor moment at the knee. You will lift noticeably less weight on it, and that is not a flaw in you.

How to do it

Step onePosition a barbell in a front rack across the front of your shoulders with your elbows raised high.
Step twoStand with feet shoulder-width apart and toes slightly pointed out.
Step threeKeeping your elbows high and torso upright, descend by bending your knees and hips.
Step fourLower until your thighs are parallel to the floor or below.
Step fiveDrive through your heels to return to the standing position.

What usually goes wrong

Each starts with what you would notice.

Your elbows sink as you come out of the bottom and the bar rolls toward your throat.

WhyOnce the elbows drop, the shelf your shoulders were making disappears, your chest folds down and the bar moves forward of where you can hold it.

FixDrive the elbows up as the hardest cue of the rep, not just at the start. If they still fall on the last two reps, the set is over. A dropped rack is how a front squat gets dumped.

Your wrists hurt more than your legs.

WhyYou are gripping the bar rather than resting it on your shoulders, usually because the shoulder range for a full clean grip is not there yet.

FixThe bar sits on your front delts, not in your hands. Let your fingers sit lightly under it and open the rest of your hand. If that still hurts, cross your arms over the bar instead, or loop two lifting straps over it and hold the ends. All three are real front squats.

You tip forward at the bottom and have to fight the bar back.

WhyThe upper back gave up its position, so the bar and your center of mass separated. Everything after that is a recovery rather than a rep.

FixSet the chest and the elbows before you unrack, and think about descending straight down between your feet. A front squat gives you almost no warning before it goes forward, which is exactly why it is a good teacher.

You cannot get anywhere near your back squat weight.

WhyNothing has gone wrong. The front rack limits what you can hold long before your legs run out.

FixTreat it as its own lift with its own numbers. In the study that compared them, front squat maxes came out well below back squat maxes across the board.

Front squat or back squat for your knees

The received wisdom is that the front squat is harder on the knees, because the knees travel further forward. It was measured, and the result went the other way: the back squat produced higher compressive force at the knee and a higher knee extensor moment. Shear force was similar between the two and low in both.

The researchers went as far as suggesting the front squat for people with existing knee problems such as meniscus tears, and for long-term joint health, on the grounds of that lower compressive load.

That is their suggestion from one study, and a knee with a diagnosis is a question for a physiotherapist rather than a web page. But if you have been avoiding front squats because you assumed they were the knee-punishing version, the measurement does not back that up.

What each one actually trains

In that same comparison the muscle readings did not separate the two lifts. What did separate them was the knee: compressive force and the demand on the knee extensors both came out lower with the weight in front.

That fits what the positions do. A back squat lets you lean forward, and leaning forward hands work to the hips. A front squat cannot be leaned into, so the knees do more of the job of standing you up.

The trade is load. Back squat maxes ran far above front squat maxes in the same lifters, so the back squat remains the way to put the most weight on your legs. The front squat is the way to make sure your quads cannot hide.

Holding the bar up is not ab work

The front squat gets called a core exercise on the grounds that your trunk has to hold a bar that is trying to fall off you. It does have to. But your abs are stopping something from happening rather than moving anything, and if you want them worked there are exercises that do it without a loaded bar at your throat.

Your back squat will not go up because of it. The two carry over to each other, but they are separate lifts with separate ceilings, and chasing a front squat because it will move your back squat is a slow route to a thing you could just train directly.

Where it is genuinely irreplaceable is honesty. A back squat lets you shift work to your hips when your quads get tired and you will not necessarily notice. A front squat does not, because the moment you lean the bar tells you.

What it is for

The barbell front squat is a compound lower body exercise targeting the quadriceps. Holding the bar in a front rack position shifts the torso more upright, placing greater emphasis on the quads and core compared to the back squat.

Questions people ask

What muscles does the front squat work?: The quads do the work of straightening your knees. The glutes assist out of the bottom, and your upper back and midsection hold the rack position. Compared directly with a back squat, overall muscle recruitment came out much the same, while the knee took less compressive force with the weight in front.
Why do my wrists hurt on front squats?: Because you are holding the bar with your hands instead of resting it on your shoulders. The bar sits on the front of your delts and the fingers only stop it rolling. If a full clean grip is not comfortable, cross your arms over the bar or use straps looped over it.
Is the front squat harder on your knees than the back squat?: No, and it was measured. The back squat produced higher compressive force and a higher knee extensor moment at the knee. Shear force was similar and low in both. The idea that forward knee travel makes the front squat the knee-wrecking version does not survive the data.
Why is my front squat so much weaker than my back squat?: Because the limit is your rack position, not your legs. Holding a bar on the front of your shoulders with your elbows up caps what you can carry long before your quads are finished. In the study that measured both, front squat maxes averaged well below back squat maxes.
How do I keep my elbows up in a front squat?: Make it the active cue for the whole rep rather than a setup detail, and stop the set when they start to fall. If they drop on rep 1 with an empty bar, the position needs work before the weight does. If they only drop when you are tired, the weight is fine and the set was long.
Can you front squat without a clean grip?: Yes. Crossing your arms over the bar and holding straps looped over it are both standard, and neither changes what your legs are doing. The grip is only there to stop the bar rolling off your shoulders.