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Hi Guys

Just a random sort of topic they I thought I would share with you. I have always had a love hate relationship with doing front squats because as much as I love the challenge and the way it loads the legs, they have felt uncomfortable to hold the bar when the loads get heavier. I have tried a number of things to rectify this including the sting ray device, and all manner of different grips trying to find a good one with only marginal success.

Anyway, I recently bit the bullet and bought a Getstrength Front Squat Harness. $200 very well spent if you ask me (especially as I can claim it as a tax deduction).

http://www.getstrength.com/Front-Squat-Harness-s/GS-Front-Squat-Harness-Pro-Med-Large/flypage.tpl.html

Anyway, since buying the front squat harness I have gotten a bit addicted to the exercise. My actual training goal for this year is to safety bar box squat 180kg (including 32.5kg of chains each side i.e. 65kg of chains total, so obviously not a full 180kg at the bottom) for 5 reps. I have been following the fairly straight forward 531 Wendler program squatting once a week on Saturday (my best day to train) and making steady progress (squat is up from 147.5kg for 1 rep to a recent 152.5kg for 10 reps, even my vertical has gone up a few inches despite doing little jumping).

I have now added in another day of front squatting using the front squat harness on Wednesday with some medium load trap bar deadlifting singles tacked onto the end. It is too early to tell what difference it will make to my safety bar box squatting on Saturday but I will keep you posted.

Anyway, I know you all love a bit of front squatting for vertical jump purposes (I know I do anyway) so just thought I would give some feedback about the Getstrength device. Sorry if it sound like a sales pitch, but the device is proving very popular with myself and the guys I train. It makes a very good exercise much more comfortable to perform.

JW

wonder what would happen if you fail midway up and had to dump a heavy weight.. the bottom part of the harness would dig into your lower abs?

Hi Kingfish

I think you would be f*cked if you failed half way through, as there would be no easy way to dump the bar. If I thought there was a chance I would fail to complete a set I would set up the safety pins to ensure I could deload easily and safely.

As for digging into the abs, the harness does this a little bit anyway, but it isn't particularly bothersome. Certainly much less bothersome than trying to get a comfortable grip when doing the front squat without the harness.

Hi Guys

Just a random sort of topic they I thought I would share with you. I have always had a love hate relationship with doing front squats because as much as I love the challenge and the way it loads the legs, they have felt uncomfortable to hold the bar when the loads get heavier. I have tried a number of things to rectify this including the sting ray device, and all manner of different grips trying to find a good one with only marginal success.

Anyway, I recently bit the bullet and bought a Getstrength Front Squat Harness. $200 very well spent if you ask me (especially as I can claim it as a tax deduction).

http://www.getstrength.com/CrossFit-Strength-Equipment/Power-Post/flypage.tpl.html

Anyway, since buying the front squat harness I have gotten a bit addicted to the exercise. My actual training goal for this year is to safety bar box squat 180kg (including 32.5kg of chains each side i.e. 65kg of chains total, so obviously not a full 180kg at the bottom) for 5 reps. I have been following the fairly straight forward 531 Wendler program squatting once a week on Saturday (my best day to train) and making steady progress (squat is up from 147.5kg for 1 rep to a recent 152.5kg for 10 reps, even my vertical has gone up a few inches despite doing little jumping).

I have now added in another day of front squatting using the front squat harness on Wednesday with some medium load trap bar deadlifting singles tacked onto the end. It is too early to tell what difference it will make to my safety bar box squatting on Saturday but I will keep you posted.

Anyway, I know you all love a bit of front squatting for vertical jump purposes (I know I do anyway) so just thought I would give some feedback about the Getstrength device. Sorry if it sound like a sales pitch, but the device is proving very popular with myself and the guys I train. It makes a very good exercise much more comfortable to perform.

JW

very good idea and than k  you much for sharing!  I noticed you also have realized the superiority of Wendlers 5/3/1 program to other popular vertical jump program and are doing his program now, that is great!  I do it too haha! 

thank you for sharing this device even tho i personally prefer avishek drops i will try and see if i can get me one in the near future.

very good idea and than k  you much for sharing!  I noticed you also have realized the superiority of Wendlers 5/3/1 program to other popular vertical jump program and are doing his program now, that is great!  I do it too haha!  

thank you for sharing this device even tho i personally prefer avishek drops i will try and see if i can get me one in the near future.

Hi JDub

I don't specifically train my vertical these days, any increase in vertical jump I am getting from my strength work is a nice bonus, but not something I am too worried about. I am using the Wendler 531 routine because my goal for 2011 is to get my squat up. I am a fan of the 531 set up though as it simple to follow, seems to work pretty well, and, damn, if you want to get your squat up, then Jim Wendler is as good a guy to take advice from as any.

Quote from: mj on August 11, 2011, 01:00:18 am

Thanks for the post man. I had considered one of these but couldn't justify the plunge based on reviews I didn't trust. I trust your view.

What kind of weight have you put on it? Do you think it will get unusable at a certain point/ weight? Does it force you very upright  since the weight is even more forward than a normal FS?

Hi MJ

The harness is very sturdy. In terms of weight loaded on it my front squat is pretty average. I hit 125kg for 5 reps on Wednesday morning (which when I think about it isn't really that bad at a bodyweight of 78kg = 1.6x BW). I couldn't see the harness having any problems loading the bar with a lot more weight than I will ever be able to front squat.

As a side note to this I tried front squatting without the harness today to see what I could do and fair enough i was a little sore in the glutes from yesterday, but I had great difficulty doing 105kg for 3 reps just because the bar is so damn uncomfortable. The 125 i did yesterday was hard on the legs where it is supposed to be, not on the collar bones and wrists.

In terms of staying upright I think it is easier to do so with the harness even though the bar might be slightly more forward. It doesn't feel like it is much more forward but because it isn't digging in like a regular front squat it is much easier to focus on maintaining good body position on the lift when you aren't thinking about how much your harms, wrists etc hurt.

I know there is a certain school of thought about using training tools like the front squat harness, and the Manta Ray which I also own, that says just get used to it, but unless you are a competing Olympic lifter or Powerlifter I personally am more than happy to find ways to make these exercises more comfortable. For the front squat the Getstrength Harness is a good solution. If $200 NZD isn't a stretch for your training budget then I would happily recommend it.

JW

Just the detail I was after. I get stuck at around the 110kg mark on FS like that too. Bruised collarbone and breathing restrictions. I don't subscribe to the macho crap either. If it gets the job done its a good tool. Thanks again. Top post

Hi Steven

I understand where you are coming from and for a long time I thought I wasn't doing it right so I went and had coaching from some of the coaches at the Victorian Weightlifting Centre (our state weightlifting training facility). According to those guys I seemed to be doing everything pretty much ok and it has always felt fine using lighter loads but as the loads got heavier it never felt entirely comfortable across the wrists and shoulder blades. I have been doing the lift on and off for a few years know and the awkwardness of it just kept putting me off using it as regularly as I would have liked. So I bought the Front Squat harness. And I love it! 

Hi JDub

I don't specifically train my vertical these days, any increase in vertical jump I am getting from my strength work is a nice bonus, but not something I am too worried about. I am using the Wendler 531 routine because my goal for 2011 is to get my squat up. I am a fan of the 531 set up though as it simple to follow, seems to work pretty well, and, damn, if you want to get your squat up, then Jim Wendler is as good a guy to take advice from as any.

Awesome.  All the old guys are doing 531.  I did it for 6 months while I went through hell in my family life.  Simple to follow, felxible so it's not too time consuming.  And you get results.  I did the just north of vag template

Quote from: JackW on August 11, 2011, 09:48:51 am

Hi Steven

I understand where you are coming from and for a long time I thought I wasn't doing it right so I went and had coaching from some of the coaches at the Victorian Weightlifting Centre (our state weightlifting training facility). According to those guys I seemed to be doing everything pretty much ok and it has always felt fine using lighter loads but as the loads got heavier it never felt entirely comfortable across the wrists and shoulder blades. I have been doing the lift on and off for a few years know and the awkwardness of it just kept putting me off using it as regularly as I would have liked. So I bought the Front Squat harness. And I love it!  

Hey Jack,

seems that you made an effort to get the problem addressed. I am not sure about the feedback you got from that weightlifting facility though. If wrists hurt doing front squats with 120 kg, there have to be ways to correct that. When lighter loads felt fine and heavier loads did not, this means that you are putting load on the wrists where there should be none and it is not just a wrist flexibility thing. I am pretty sure that this could have been solved easily enough if those guys made an actual effort to help you with your problem. Sucks that they did not.

I have to disagree with you here Steven, from talking to a number of coaches it seems that extra coaching or not, for a lot of people it can take some time to get used to the way the bar feels for front squats which is one of the main reasons why many recreational athletes and trainers, even the quite serious ones, prefer to back squat.

I took the approach that as neither I, or anyone I train, is a competitive weightlifter, the quickest and easiest way to overcome the comfort issue was with a very simple, effective and relatively cheap solution that clearly saves a lot of time in the learning curve. For me my goal is to find the quickest way to strengthen the legs. This achieves that nicely.

It seems to be a bit dogmatic to ignore the training tools available that really can make things easier, especially as in my case, their is no actual need to perform the lift without the harness.