Front Squats and Cleans

The front squat is a great stand alone exercise for strengthening the legs and hips. It is generally considered to be an absolutely necessary movement to strengthen the legs for the full clean. I take a slightly different view.

Most successful lifters have front squats well in excess of their best cleans. After all, extra leg strength is not a bad thing. But it is interesting to note that it is not uncommon for lifters to get buried in the bottom of cleans that are significantly less than what they can front squat. Why is this?

The clean is a high skill exercise that involves a pull from the floor, explosive extension and and explosive, mostly unloaded, eccentric squat under which elicits (ideally) a powerful stretch reflex in the quads and posterior chain which helpso the skilled lifter "bound" out of the bottom to the standing position. These movements, reactions and skills are not found in the front squat.

The SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands) principle suggests that front squats will not make you a better cleaner. Practicing cleans will make you a better cleaner. Practicing front squats will make you a better front squatter. There are diminishing returns to carryover from the squat: the clean is over relatively quickly. If your max front squat takes 4-6 seconds to execute, this strength will not be available to a quick lift like the clean. However, this doesn't mean you shoudn't front squat to improve your clean.

What it means is that the exercises compliment each other: the explosiveness of the cleans will improve the speed strength of your front squats and the quicker front squats will provide a base for stronger stretch reflex responses and reserve strength for the clean. If your top front squat is 20% more than your best clean and jerk, that is about right. This ratio means that front squat training weights can be moved at appropriately brisk tempos.

But you must practice both to get better at both. Clean explosively and front squat quickly.

Weightlifting club member Phil Locker demonstrates in the videos below. He cleans and power jerks 275 with ease and front squats 315 just as easily. Note the tempo of the clean and the tempo of the front squat.

Front squat to clean better and clean to front squat better. Repeat!