Front Squat Worthless for Quad Hypertrophy?

Unless your livelihood relies on how you personally interact with people.

“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost without deserving.”

Keep in mind this was stated by Iago. I would rate Shakespeare more highly than Barnum.

Hmmmm… not sure about that.
But I will step out. Enough with the highjack.

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Mention PT Barnum and the usual response will be: Who?

Whilst here - you are correct. Research “Ratners”. The CEO gave a speech. It was in the papers the next day. Then they had to close 300 shops and destroyed the brand.
Rough day.

Not to mention strong men/women. A lot of their work outs are front squat based. And I’ve yet to see them in skinny jeans…

What is the hate for the front squat from some people? Rip came out a little while back with “getting a stronger front squats will not help you get a stronger back squat”

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This is the impression I always got. Use Zercher squats as an example. CT really likes these, and I have used them due to his articles and also really like them. PC, rather than just preferring other squats in his program, feels the need to keep going out of his way to bash ZSQ’s (and CT, by extension) for some weird reason. It seems he sees this as a personal clash and he needs to “win” or have his view validated. This is consistent with how he acted on his forum when anyone would question a claim, or point out that other coaches (or even PC in the past) really likes certain exercises.

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Literally exactly what I was referring to.

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Yeah… PC has a habit of flip flopping on things depending on which way the wind blows.

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I’ve always thought that some of these defining statements are really just strawmen.

I mean, are bodybuilders really pinning their scaps and performing a PL bench with the intention of hypertrophy?

Does anybody do front squats as a superior method to build quads?

These are largely performance oriented techniques, not BB. I doubt anybody actually does these things with those goals which he argues against in mind.

Of course I could be completely wrong. There is no end to what people will do with these exercise, so I wouldn’t be surprised if anybody actually did them as he’s describing.

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Probably not many bodybuilders, but LOTS of people who aren’t powerlifters are doing that, thinking it’s safer for their shoulders when it’s worse.

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Rip has been on his back squat is superior to front squat jihad FOREVER. Part of his gimmick about knowing how to train weightlifters better than the current Olympic coaches.

I was today years old when I found this out!

My problem was always way too much scapular movement. Drawing them back and trying to pin them down actually put them into the “just right” area.

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Too much can be bad, sure. And doing it isn’t going to blow your shoulders apart necessarily. I just like the pushback against the idea that it’s “safer”. Your scaps are built to move in rhythm with everything.

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Yeah I remember reading / watching this on youtube.

“Olympic weight lifters should low bar back squat. Because that’s the one that lets you squat heavier”.

Even though its the most far removed squat from what they do. And not totally correct.

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This is a good point. PC seems to have the approach that his current goals are also everyone else’s current goals, and that everyone’s exercise selection should align with that. PC’s goals, form what I can tell, are usually 100% aesthetic-based, and IMO this is more subjective than performance and strength-based methods/results. Perhaps that’s why it leaves more room for personal arguments, while the effectiveness of strength-based systems is more cut-and-dry.

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He actually states zercher squats are bad movement for hypertrophy goals.

And you should all have in mind he is only speaking about hypertrophy goals in training.

True. I guess his thoughts may be that anyone choosing to follow him would also have his goals, or they wouldn’t be following him. But, he shouldn’t be bashing CT or others for using something like zercher squats and make them sound like they’re completely useless, rather than just being less-than-optimal for his hypertropy goals.

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There was a guy a week or so a go who basically said you said X here and Y here, these conflict, you are shit and CT follows up with a comment on how that is a dick move and explains how it makes sense if you add context and how to apply it to this situation. Then he says he hopes he finds it useful and politely asks that he not bother him again.

The guy does ask a follow up question (he did apologize, to his credit) and CT continues to help.

This guy would have been straight out blocked from me under the life strategy of not allowing toxic people to shit on you but this is a step above.

Only time I have seen less than gold standard was when he had heart failure and even then, still helpful to the polite. I’d like to see him to go full clown dick though.

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Meanwhile, on the topic of front squats

These comments come from World’s Strongest Man competitor and former American Log Press record holder Robert Oberst, in contrast to the comments of Paul Carter, who holds the prestige of finishing 3 of 6 in the 2016 “Muscle Mayhem” competition!

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Damn… rocking the gyno in that pic.

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He was the guy who played the Wolverine.

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