T Nation

Ever Fall Down on Front Squats?

Beginners
#1

ok so I was in the gym earlier doing deep front squats from a power clean. Ive done it before with light weight but today i decided to go heavy for the first time on it. I put a 45# plate on each side and did 8 reps fine so i decided to do the next set with 10 more lbs on the bar.

On the 6th rep i struggled a little to get it up but thought i could do a 7th so i went down and on my way back up i got stuck just above parallel and bailed by dropping my elbows and throwing the bar on the floor (and i prob pissed off everyone there because i goto a pu*sy gym).

anyways i tried to do one more set after this with another 10# on and this time i got stuck below parallel and while trying to bail, lost my balance and fell down right on my a**. I prob looked like a douche. Should i do front squats in the power rack whatever from now on like i do my back squats? is it unsafe to bail like this? maybe not going for that 1 more? i like to power clean into a rack position for front squats from the floor to kinda kill 2 birds with 1 stone but i don’t think that can be done in a squat cage.

#2

Depending on the poundage and the reason you couldn’t finish the movement bailing is sometimes safer than not bailing. But if want to keep using that particular gym you might want to keep it to a minimum. Personally I would forget about power cleans and concentrate my energy on the actual squat. Why not just use the rack? BTW anybody in your gym that doesn’t understand occasionally dropping the load while doing a front squat is a chump that probably never tried it themselves.

As for dropping it on yourself, I am having trouble visualizing that. If you had your head back and you were using and overhand grip, there’s really no where for it to go but to roll down to the floor in front of you

#3

I’ve missed the squat coming out of the hole after a full clean. But for normal front squats I usually dump the bar.

#4

[quote]force of one wrote:
Depending on the poundage and the reason you couldn’t finish the movement bailing is sometimes safer than not bailing. But if want to keep using that particular gym you might want to keep it to a minimum. Personally I would forget about power cleans and concentrate my energy on the actual squat. Why not just use the rack? BTW anybody in your gym that doesn’t understand occasionally dropping the load while doing a front squat is a chump that probably never tried it themselves.

As for dropping it on yourself, I am having trouble visualizing that. If you had your head back and you were using and overhand grip, there’s really no where for it to go but to roll down to the floor in front of you[/quote]

what happened was i lost balance and fell down and it rolled down on the floor in front of me, the bar was over my body, i mean there was enough room for me to not get hurt, im actually more embarassed about it than anything. This version of the squat is still kind of new to me. What about asking somebody to spot me, would that work?

#5

[quote]elano wrote:
force of one wrote:
Depending on the poundage and the reason you couldn’t finish the movement bailing is sometimes safer than not bailing. But if want to keep using that particular gym you might want to keep it to a minimum. Personally I would forget about power cleans and concentrate my energy on the actual squat. Why not just use the rack? BTW anybody in your gym that doesn’t understand occasionally dropping the load while doing a front squat is a chump that probably never tried it themselves.

As for dropping it on yourself, I am having trouble visualizing that. If you had your head back and you were using and overhand grip, there’s really no where for it to go but to roll down to the floor in front of you

what happened was i lost balance and fell down and it rolled down on the floor in front of me, the bar was over my body, i mean there was enough room for me to not get hurt, im actually more embarassed about it than anything. This version of the squat is still kind of new to me. What about asking somebody to spot me, would that work?[/quote]

People spotting you in squats is worse then bench, because most have not seen what a real squat looks like, and also what a hard rep looks like, if i were you i would do it in the power rack and put up the safety pins. If you are going heavy you can ask someone for a spot but make sure they have squatted before.

Once i had a guy giving me a spot on a triple (back squat) and on my second rep i didn’t go up as fast as my first, he freaked out, bumped into me, hit my left arm while trying to give me a spot and pushed me forward way too much.
Result you ask??? i tipped forward, arm almost got ripped off, my life was saved by the safety pins, never again do i trust someone that i have not seen squat before.

#6

Well for certain you should rexamine your squat form, but most likely it’s a function of going heavier than you are used to. The front squat is tricky because of the way you hold the bar and I won’t pretend that I know a ton about it myself.

But what I find is with the big compounds going heavy has a totally different feel than going light and can reveal flaws in your technique that you didnt notice at a lighter weight. I would reccomend going heavy for lower reps and more sets in order to really focus on your form.

Poliquin once said something about not doing high rep front squats as your back tires out isometrically.

#7

thanks guys this helps me out alot. i was thinking that since i know what kind of weight i can and cant handle now i should just try to keep my front squats and power cleans as separate exercises and do the squats in the rack with the safety bars unless its lighter weight.

#8

I fell on my ass doing a full clean with more weight then I should have, I know how it feels. I have had the bar fall off like you did the first time a few times. It sounds like you just lost balance, when your position is off even if your strong enough your going to have trouble not eating shit or you’ll do a partial rep.

I always feel do a good rep or fall trying, your not going to really hurt yourself with a front squat fall-usually-. It’s always best to be safe though so if you can use pins you might as well.