What weight are you using for your front squat and back squat? I am doing 315 at 5x5-back and only 155 5x5-front. I feel that my front squat is significantly lacking compared to my back squat.
I would like to know if there is any correlation between the two? Like if the back squat is___ then front should be_____% or is it just not that simple.
And does anyone think that my numbers are evenly matched, and fine?
Front Squat should be approx. 80% of your back squat…once you have good form in both lifts and have trained both for awhile. Comparing a solid back squat with a newly acquired front squat is worthless…
First thanks for answering my question. Second I have only been front squatting for 7-8 months, and I’m finding it very hard to move up in weight. I kinda figured that my front was weak now I just have to work on it that much harder.
Sounds like an easy question.
If you are doing OL style back squats then Jimmy is spot on.
But what style back squat do you do. From what you have said of your lifts I am betting it is more of a power lift style squat even if the bar is not down the back.
A good powerlifter may have that % closer to 50-60% than 80%, so look at you style if you are back squatting hips back lots of lean then what you are describing is not that surprising.
Yes, it is more of a powerlifter style squat with the hips way back.
In that case GMH is probably right. The front squat involves the upper back in a completely different way because the leverages are different, and also has a lot more involvement of the quads. So if either of those are weak your front squat will suffer.
Beltless front squat, sunk in; 150kg x5
Belted back squat, PL style (tho I detest that phrase) to just below parallel; 207.5kg x5
So around 72%.
There’s no way you should only be able to front squat 50-60% of your back squat as a raw lifter unless youve got amazingly weak ass quads and upper back.
Nice numbers Hanley!, Thanks for all the feed back everyone, its time to get that front squat up to par.
Hanley for me right now back squat narrow stance, 155kg x 3 bar up
last week good fronts 72.5kg x 3
have done more but they were not OL fronts and put lots of strain on my wrists.
now when I squatted 205 x3 (belt and wraps ) 28 years ago, with bar down, I was doing around 160 x3 with bar up, guess my best front would have been optomistically 130kg.
I also could SLD 220kg standing on a 4" block.
Now factor in suits because many guys when they mention their squats don’t think that it is worth mentioning and yep I think you could certainly get 50% for a PL guy with suit who does not front squat.
Congrats on your 72%.
This is what the numbers for some of the guys I train with:
Back–Front Squat (ATG)
205kg-180kg (87,8%)
180kg-158kg (87,7%)
190kg-155kg (81,5%)
166kg-134kg (80.7%)
145kg-115kg (79.3%)
126kg-113kg (89.7%)me currently 
[quote]GMH454 wrote:
Hanley for me right now back squat narrow stance, 155kg x 3 bar up
last week good fronts 72.5kg x 3
have done more but they were not OL fronts and put lots of strain on my wrists.
now when I squatted 205 x3 (belt and wraps ) 28 years ago, with bar down, I was doing around 160 x3 with bar up, guess my best front would have been optomistically 130kg.
I also could SLD 220kg standing on a 4" block.
Now factor in suits because many guys when they mention their squats don’t think that it is worth mentioning and yep I think you could certainly get 50% for a PL guy with suit who does not front squat.
Congrats on your 72%.[/quote]
Read it again, I specifically mentioned RAW lifters when making my point. That is to say, for a raw lifter, there is no way in hell that their front squat should be only 50% of their back squat (even if the back squat is to just below parallel and in a belt).
If we’re gonna start talking about single ply gear, my front squat’s probably right around 50-53% of it.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
GMH454 wrote:
Hanley for me right now back squat narrow stance, 155kg x 3 bar up
last week good fronts 72.5kg x 3
have done more but they were not OL fronts and put lots of strain on my wrists.
now when I squatted 205 x3 (belt and wraps ) 28 years ago, with bar down, I was doing around 160 x3 with bar up, guess my best front would have been optomistically 130kg.
I also could SLD 220kg standing on a 4" block.
Now factor in suits because many guys when they mention their squats don’t think that it is worth mentioning and yep I think you could certainly get 50% for a PL guy with suit who does not front squat.
Congrats on your 72%.
Read it again, I specifically mentioned RAW lifters when making my point. That is to say, for a raw lifter, there is no way in hell that their front squat should be only 50% of their back squat (even if the back squat is to just below parallel and in a belt).
If we’re gonna start talking about single ply gear, my front squat’s probably right around 50-53% of it.
[/quote]
Last night I was doing back squat (belt/med stance?/parallel) 275lbs for 6 reps and 155lbs front squat (no belt/deep) for 6 reps. ~56%, however my fronts followed the back squats and my back is still trashed from a deadlift session 2 days ago. Oh yeah, and my front squats suck… come to think of it, my back squats aren’t that good either. 
[quote]GMH454 wrote:
Hanley for me right now back squat narrow stance, 155kg x 3 bar up
last week good fronts 72.5kg x 3
have done more but they were not OL fronts and put lots of strain on my wrists.
now when I squatted 205 x3 (belt and wraps ) 28 years ago,
[/quote]
They had weights 28 years ago?
[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
Hanley wrote:
GMH454 wrote:
Hanley for me right now back squat narrow stance, 155kg x 3 bar up
last week good fronts 72.5kg x 3
have done more but they were not OL fronts and put lots of strain on my wrists.
now when I squatted 205 x3 (belt and wraps ) 28 years ago, with bar down, I was doing around 160 x3 with bar up, guess my best front would have been optomistically 130kg.
I also could SLD 220kg standing on a 4" block.
Now factor in suits because many guys when they mention their squats don’t think that it is worth mentioning and yep I think you could certainly get 50% for a PL guy with suit who does not front squat.
Congrats on your 72%.
Read it again, I specifically mentioned RAW lifters when making my point. That is to say, for a raw lifter, there is no way in hell that their front squat should be only 50% of their back squat (even if the back squat is to just below parallel and in a belt).
If we’re gonna start talking about single ply gear, my front squat’s probably right around 50-53% of it.
Last night I was doing back squat (belt/med stance?/parallel) 275lbs for 6 reps and 155lbs front squat (no belt/deep) for 6 reps. ~56%, however my fronts followed the back squats and my back is still trashed from a deadlift session 2 days ago. Oh yeah, and my front squats suck… come to think of it, my back squats aren’t that good either.
[/quote]
Just because you did 155lbs for 6 reps doesn’t mean you couldn’t have done 225 for 6 reps.
My max back squat is 420. The best I’ve front squatted is 295 for 3. It’s probably safe to say my max front squat is 75% of my max back squat.
To me this sounds like the skinny teenager asking about the ratio of C:P in his PWO drink when he only eats 2 meals a day. Stop worrying about stupid shit and just get stronger.
[quote]Airtruth wrote:
Just because you did 155lbs for 6 reps doesn’t mean you couldn’t have done 225 for 6 reps.
[/quote]
True. Although since I’ve never attempted 225lbs in front squats, I won’t claim that I could. I’m planning for both numbers to move up and I think as they do move up the ratio will narrow.
[quote]Steel Nation wrote:
To me this sounds like the skinny teenager asking about the ratio of C:P in his PWO drink when he only eats 2 meals a day. Stop worrying about stupid shit and just get stronger.[/quote]
True.
[quote]Neospartan wrote:
This is what the numbers for some of the guys I train with:
Back–Front Squat (ATG)
205kg-180kg (87,8%)
180kg-158kg (87,7%)
190kg-155kg (81,5%)
166kg-134kg (80.7%)
145kg-115kg (79.3%)
126kg-113kg (89.7%)me currently
[/quote]
You forgot:
146-135 (92.5%)
I think a lot of it boils down to flexibility and stability. For olympic style, the bar is really only about 4-5" different.
I have an amazingly weak front squat compared to my back squat. Oly style back squat is between 375-400lb. Regular parallel back squat is close to 450lb, while my front squat on a good day is 200ish. I have good quad strength, and good upper back strength, 100’s for 20 on 1 arm db rows. My dead is also around 450 if that should matter any.