Adarq.org

any updates on your progress?

I had similar problems when starting front squats but having done them for a while now my wrists feel fine when doing them and I can get in the right position.

one thing though, my upper back tends to ache for a few days afterwards. do you get that? I've looked it up and am having trouble finding the cause.

Mybe your anterior pic tilt makes it difficult

Try using the OHS as a diagnostic.

Can you do them with upright arms and flat spine with the bar overhead or does it fly forward to to your toes? It's a good test for mobility. If you can do it reasonably well it means you've got decent mobility. I do them for warming up to squatting. To start with, I have terrible OHS form, but as I work on my mobility it gets better and when I can do a comfortable OHS i'll go on to my FS workout.

edit, so this is my pre-workout mobility sequence
- loosen up my upper and middle back and shoulders with a band stretch. not sure what it's called but draw out the band in front of you with palms out and then take it behind and touch your lower back and repeat it. Usually do about 2 sets of 8 or until I feel freed up
- take a pvc pipe to my traps and behind my neck, that takes seconds, but it's important because it frees up your neck to have a comfortable rack position without choking yourself etc
- roll on a softball against a wall traps, lats that upper mid back area. This is quick too, about 20-30 seconds and done
- work down the back but also take a very painful detour around the obliques (i think) -- rollling here is very painful but if you do it right (arms up in the air), it will do wonders for t-spine mobility
- new one for me is painful but awesome -- rolling on my glutes -- need this to have a decent upright position at the bottom of a squat so it's v. important
- usual kstar bullshit stretches everyone does, so called couch stretch which is a bit useless imho but i do it anyway because everyone raves about it
- roll hips against wall ..  i think pirformis? hurts like hell but it's cool
- free up quads, softball roll against wall .. magic for knees
- very important, ankles and calves, have to use pvc pipe for lower leg
- finally weighted ankle stretch, this feels so wrong but i kinda do it anyway, get into a squat position with the empty barbell across your quads near the knee, push down to stretch ankle on each side Then work up to using weight. i usually finish with 60kg on this, no shoes because that seems to help with the stretch

and im sure i'm forgetting some but if i go thru all that, will have decent mobility to do an easy comfortable correct OHS which then tells me i'm ready for FS.

You don't like the couch stretch? My squats feel so much better if my hip flexors are loosened up.

This is exactly what I mean. People get so much out of it, i can't help think i'm missing out. I don't get much out of it for hips. I feel my quads being stretched pretty good though. Which is ok i suppose, i just don't see why fuss over a quad stretch .. but that's why i am persisting with it in case something clicks one day.

15 minutes of brett contrariness......... no thank you .. would rather watch a lord gomad sermon

It's good to know my structural problems are actually reasons for people to get threads like this going, and point at me showing "how much of a pussy I am" for not being able to do front squats!

Great! You pussies are still not being able to dunk yet?

I don't know but the more I think about it... the more I'm starting to believe there's something in my hip mobility/flexibility that is the culprit.

That and general core/lowerab strength. It's the same thing that makes me look at the ground when I jump off two feet. I have to make a conscious effort to stay with a vertical back as in a front or high bar squat. My natural tendency is to look at the ground and bend forward, like in a low bar squat or a deadlift.

It's really depressing because I haven't been able to figure this out in so much time... years basically. I haven't found anybody to give me good ideas and perspectives either.

Butthurt much  ? I thought you were cooler than that Raptor! Anyway, you say it's mobility problems holding you back, are you doing any of the excellent mobility exercises that joe, entropy etc have been suggesting to do in the thread to help with these issues? Blaming "structural problems" for not being able to FS is kind of a cop out IMO. It's like if the sub-6ft guys trying to dunk here just giving up because they have the "structural problem" of not being tall enough!