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Here's my front squat from yesterday. Not the best angle but you can see I'm still having trouble racking it comfortably (see how quickly I have to get my arm out of there). I'm sure once I solve that, my FS will start to become respectable as I don't have any trouble actually moving the weight in the more upright position, it's just the inability to hold it for more than 5 reps.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJVPrRbN9no" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJVPrRbN9no</a>

Those look really nice. I'd say it's ok train with higher reps 5-8 while you're learning the movement. You'll get more benefit that way than doing low reps with light weight. Later when your FS catches up with your BS you can switch to low reps for strength. In the mean time you'll gain more by strengthening your rack (via longer reps). FWIW Danny Green trains exclusively with higher reps on FS, he says it does more for his leg strength. I think that's probably true when your FS is heavy enough that high reps are sufficiently heavy to work your legs hard but the rest of us get more out of lower reps for building leg strength.

^testing vs training!

I also had success with an approach to front squatting that had been recommended to me by world record holding squatter Sam Byrd. It was basically training for weekly PRs but with an emphasis on volume and reps and not missing reps. I adapted his regimen a little bit and had tremendous success!

Monday: Front Squats 3 sets x 5-8 reps, 1 set x 1-4 reps

Front squats were the workhorse and back squats heavy every week turned the strength into results. It was a very simple program, but was very demanding. For the front squats I never missed a single rep. For the back squats I missed many.

http://www.jtsstrength.com/articles/2013/01/25/the-greatest-squat-article-ever/

The best exercise for improving my squat has been the front squat. I learned them during my Olympic lifting years, but reinstated them in my powerlifting regimen after speaking with Mr. Sam Byrd.

Of course the most important way to improve the squat is to just squat and squat heavy! But for me the front squat has been huge. This is because of the nature of the exercise. Because the front squat forces you to not lean forward, you are forced not to allow your lower back strength to take over the lift. It forces you to squat with the knees forward loading up the quads. This is key for me because I have fairly long legs and had always had trouble not letting my back take over during heavy back squats. Front squats force the quads to do the work. Also holding a barbell racked across your chest and shoulders will provide enormous work for the upper back–erectors and traps. I like to use the front squat in the 5-8 rep range to really build the quads with high volume. Maxes are ok too but I feel reps carry over to the back squat best.

http://www.jtsstrength.com/articles/2013/01/22/how-i-built-my-best-squat-ever-front-squats/

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At the risk of belaboring the point, when you start FS, esp when you've been backsquatting and have strong legs from an athletic background, your legs are much stronger than your rack. But you need a very strong rack to use a heavy weight to challenge your legs. So you do higher reps to build your rack strength. Since initially you can progress the FS as easily for 8 reps as 3, it's more beneficial since it train an essential part of the FS. Eventually your FS weights will get heavy in which case they'll be challenging enough for legs. At that point heavy low rep sets is the way to go imho. Although I agree with Green that higher rep sets build strength better --- if  -- they're heavy enough to challenge your legs. No point doing doing 8s with 80kg to build strength as I see some guys do online when your legs are strong enough to backsquat 180kg.

Gym:

Foam roll warmup/activation

RDL: warmup, 2x5@60kgs, 1x5@110kgs, 1x5@120kgs

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsR_X-41nkY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsR_X-41nkY</a>

DB SL calf raise: 2x20/leg@35kgs (very easy)

Weighted back ext: 1x10@BW, 2x10@20kgs

SL ham curl machine: 2x15/leg@15kgs

BW: 77.0kgs

Easy RDLs again today. I think I'd be good for maybe another 5-10kgs. Either way I've hit my goals for this strength phase so time to deload and move onto a new phase. Been playing around with some programs for RFD/speed. I was thinking about incorporating cleans/snatches again but I'm wary that my form is probably shit atm, given my difficulties with the FS. So I might just stick with jump squats/depth jumps. Plenty of time to learn the O lifts properly later on.

Gym - deload:

Foam roll warmup/activation

Box jumps: 1x5@30'', 1x5@40''

Squat: Warmup, 1x6@60kgs, 1x6@80kgs, 1x6@110kgs, 2x6-7@60kgs (front)

BSS: 1x8/leg@24kgs, 1x8/leg@40kgs

UB

BW: 77.2kgs

alastair is such an awesome name.

Thanks man! It's actually Alistair with an 'i' though. It's probably one of the more misspelled  names going around.

Quote from: LBSS on September 19, 2013, 03:00:11 pm

alastair is such an awesome name.

Thanks man! It's actually Alistair with an 'i' though. It's probably one of the more misspelled  names going around.

FUCK. i hate misspelling stuff.

Hmm..right knee is feeling a bit weird today. Kind of achy on the right lateral side. I don't think it's anything structural as I can fully extend with no pain, no pops, clicking etc and no swelling. Just feels sore when I'm going through about 45-90 degrees of flexion, doesn't hurt to fully flex or extend. I tested out my IT bands with a cricket ball and the right side was way tighter. Might be my tight IT band pulling on the knee joint. Right calf is also a lot tighter, especially around the achilles. Also found a tender spot behind the knee, possibly the popliteus muscle. Booked in for a deep tissue massage again tomorrow to sort this out. As such I'll delay the start of this week for day or two. I think it'll be fine with a bit of rest but don't want to fuck this year's training up again. I'm having flashbacks to last year with my left knee  .

Joined the uni athletics club last night  First round is on the 19th of October, which coincidentally is when I'll be testing the first round of power block. Unfortunately they alternate the 100m and the 200m as is the usual case, with the 200m first. I may or may not run every 200m this season. I'll be very slow at them to start. My goals are still to throw down off one and two but competing will take the training up a notch. I won't be training with the club, just competing on the weekends as a progress tracker. Prior to starting vert training, my best vertical jump height by far was (unsurpirsingly) when I was training and competing heavily for sprints + long jump.