You can only view 3 videos without an account. Become a Member to access all videos on the website.
Front Squat to Press
The Front Squat to Press is an excellent full body exercise that engages both the lower body and upper body muscles. The movement begins in a standing position, with a barbell grasped in the front rack position. The athlete then squats down, keeping the elbows up and the chest out, before standing up and driving the barbell overhead. As the barbell is pressed overhead, the athlete finishes the rep by controlling the barbell to its starting position. This exercise helps build functional full body strength
Transcript
00:00:0000:00:04
This is Brent coming at you with another
00:00:0000:00:04
integrated exercise, this is one of my
00:00:0400:00:08
personal favorites for jacking up that strength training. This is the front
00:00:0800:00:14
squat to press. Now, I should mention that I've already done a front squat video, so
00:00:1400:00:17
for those of you who are looking for more queue's, setting up a good
00:00:1700:00:21
foundation for your integrated exercise, I would go back and watch that video.
00:00:2100:00:25
Remember, before we do any integrated exercise, we should probably master the
00:00:2500:00:29
two exercises that we're combining. I'm going to have my friend Mike Tierney,
00:00:2900:00:33
from Metropolitan Fitness, come out and help me demonstrate this exercise. Just a
00:00:3300:00:36
couple form queues that you are already aware of, but we should probably
00:00:3600:00:40
review a little bit, we know our kinetic chain checkpoints in the anterior view,
00:00:4000:00:46
feet parallel, second toe pointing forward, as he drops down I'm going to be
00:00:4600:00:49
looking to see that his patella tracks over his second and third toe, and, of
00:00:4900:00:53
course, his hips knees and feet are in alignment. Usually people get this down
00:00:5300:00:58
pretty good. In a front squat to press variation, most of our discrepancies can
00:00:5800:01:03
actually be seen in a lateral view. So, I'm going to have you face me. A couple
00:01:0300:01:06
quick ones on the squat, go ahead and drop down into a squat and hold it for
00:01:0600:01:11
me, we want to make sure his tibia torso angle is parallel, and then you can
00:01:1100:01:16
already see how he has his head back. This is something that somehow got out
00:01:1600:01:20
there, this teaching queue of trying to keep people's chins up, it actually would be
00:01:2000:01:25
better for his spine for him to come down, and look about five feet out in
00:01:2500:01:28
front of his feet. This will keep his spine nice and stable, nice and straight,
00:01:2800:01:35
helping improve those scapula thoracic mechanics. As he comes back up, and presses,
00:01:3500:01:39
we want to make sure that, just like on any shoulder press, he doesn't go into an
00:01:3900:01:44
excessive lordosis, or an anterior pelvic tilt. Alright, so those are the queues we're
00:01:4400:01:48
looking out for. Tibia torso angle, keeping the head in a neutral position,
00:01:4800:01:52
and then that excessive lordosis. Alright, let's grab those dumbbells and kick this
00:01:5200:01:59
up a notch. So we've got to talk just a little bit about this
00:01:5900:02:03
cradling position, I see this messed up a lot in front squats, I want
00:02:0300:02:08
his forearms perpendicular, his wrists in a neutral position. I don't want to see
00:02:0800:02:13
that radial deviation, which I see often, or an ulnar deviation
00:02:1300:02:17
where it sags. This isn't a good position to have the wrist in. I want a
00:02:1700:02:21
nice neutral position, a nice strong position. I tell my clients, before
00:02:2100:02:24
we get the weights in, imagine somebody's going to come down, like you're going to
00:02:2400:02:27
hit somebody. Think of our field athletes, our football players, or
00:02:2700:02:32
basketball players who have to take hits. We want to teach them a nice, strong,
00:02:3200:02:39
cradled position. Best queue I've found for the squat portion, is I want him thinking
00:02:3900:02:43
elbows to knees. That doesn't mean he actually has to get down so far that his
00:02:4300:02:47
elbows touch his knees, I only want him to go down as far as he can keep optimal
00:02:4700:02:51
form, but he's going to be thinking elbows straight down to his knees, and
00:02:5100:02:55
then I want him to use the momentum from his legs to get those weights up over
00:02:5500:02:59
head. Hold for two, bring them down slow to your shoulder. Alright, you
00:02:5900:03:09
ready? -Yep. Let's hit it. Great. Let's see a couple more of those. Ready? Push, draw-in.
00:03:0900:03:12
That was a little too deep.
00:03:1200:03:16
He went a little too deep and his hips went into a posterior
00:03:1600:03:20
pelvic tilt, so I want you to stop about three inches before your knees. Ready?
00:03:2000:03:26
Glutes. Up. Draw-in. Back down. Good, let me go ahead and grab those from you.
00:03:2600:03:31
So, one thing I want to mention, while Mike takes a little
00:03:3100:03:34
breather here, we've actually done several takes, so Mike's getting a little
00:03:3400:03:43
tired. I don't personally enjoy the Olympic bar front squat to press. I'm not
00:03:4300:03:46
saying it's bad for my power lifters, I know you have to practice for your
00:03:4600:03:51
sport, you guys do you. But, if I'm just training somebody for fitness, or I'm
00:03:5100:03:55
training an athlete for sports performance, there is a problem with that
00:03:5500:04:02
bar, and the position you have to be in. This position here, forces hypermobility
00:04:0200:04:08
at the wrist. It also reinforces a common postural dysfunction that happens
00:04:0800:04:14
at the elbow that could set somebody up for carpal tunnel, for those
00:04:1400:04:18
epicondylitis we see like tennis elbow and golfers elbow. I would rather see
00:04:1800:04:22
somebody use a dumbbell, where they can keep a nice, neutral position.
00:04:2200:04:26
Unless somebody's doing powerlifting, why would we even need to worry about the
00:04:2600:04:31
bar. So think toward your goals, as far as where you're headed, and
00:04:3100:04:34
what apparatus you're going to use. Now, one thing we will show you, that works
00:04:3400:04:38
out really well, is kettlebells. Actually, they have a very nice feel to them. So Mike's
00:04:3800:04:44
going to grab those kettlebells and show you what that looks like. It
00:04:4400:04:49
makes it a little easier if you grab the inner part, like you're not
00:04:4900:04:53
balanced. You want to kind of grab up, in that inner corner of the kettlebell, and
00:04:5300:04:56
then it tends to cradle really nicely. Mike can actually bring his hands in a little
00:04:5600:05:01
bit, there you go. So his hands are going to be just inside his elbows. Alright,
00:05:0100:05:04
how does that feel? -Very comfortable. Kettlebells make this exercise very
00:05:0400:05:09
comfortable. So now let's go ahead and show them this. Front squat, and boom!
00:05:0900:05:13
Press. You can see Mike has really nice form, we've been working on those queues. So go
00:05:1300:05:19
down, elbows to knees, right before, glutes, draw-in, back down nice and slow. Alright.
00:05:1900:05:22
There're some of the teaching queues we can use. You can put that
00:05:2200:05:27
down for a second. Let's talk about some progressions. I can go in a couple of
00:05:2700:05:31
different directions. Obviously if I want to just increase Mike's strength, I can do
00:05:3100:05:34
that. I can just keep increasing weight. We can even move this from a
00:05:3400:05:38
hypertrophy general strength phase, where we're doing six to twelve reps, and get
00:05:3800:05:42
into those max strength weights once he's really got the form down, and do one
00:05:4200:05:46
to six reps, this could be our full body exercise. We can also go in a different
00:05:4600:05:53
direction. I like this exercise for some stability reasons. I can go unilateral. So
00:05:5300:05:56
if you guys think about our field athletes who take hits, basketball
00:05:5600:06:02
players, or football players, it's very rare that they get to hit straight on with
00:06:0200:06:07
even force on both arms. Let's get their core working towards a unilateral force.
00:06:0700:06:12
You are going to find that this is extremely challenging to get down, and
00:06:1200:06:15
keep that midline. So, I'm going to have you turn and face the camera, grab one
00:06:1500:06:20
kettlebell or dumbbell, whatever you're most comfortable with, and the
00:06:2000:06:24
whole time I'm going to be watching to make sure that he doesn't lean towards
00:06:2400:06:29
me, or lean away from me and kind of cradle the weight, I
00:06:2900:06:34
don't want any compensation. Can he keep this midline against an unbalanced force?
00:06:3400:06:39
Then the form stays the same, so let's see that.
00:06:4000:06:43
I know some of you are noticing that that right foot turns out.
00:06:4300:06:47
We've been working on that, but we didn't want to keep from making this video. Keep
00:06:4700:06:54
going, Mike. Great. You can see, in his core, Mike is keeping a wonderful
00:06:5400:06:58
centerline. This is a great progression for him. This is something great for him
00:06:5800:07:04
to work at. We could take this up another notch, I find that Airex pads make this
00:07:0400:07:08
particularly challenging. You could do, if we're in a stability
00:07:0800:07:12
progression, 12 reps on each side. I'd love to see a video of somebody trying to do
00:07:1200:07:18
kettlebell, front squat to press, 12 on each side, on Airex pads. That would be a
00:07:1800:07:24
wonderful goal to set your athletes up for some very big progressions later on.
00:07:2400:07:30
Of course, if we were going power, this exercise sets up wonderfully for
00:07:3000:07:35
some videos that you are going to see in the future, for our power press, or
00:07:3500:07:39
our power squat to press. If you're thinking about doing that in the future
00:07:3900:07:43
in your programs, this would be a wonderful way to set that up, a
00:07:4300:07:47
prerequisite exercise. The last thing I want to show you guys before we end this
00:07:4700:07:52
video is a regression for those working on their compensation patterns. The front
00:07:5200:07:57
squat to press is a wonderful exercise, because we can still do a ball wall
00:07:5700:08:02
squat, which allows us to reduce the need for dorsiflexion. So why don't you grab
00:08:0200:08:07
the kettlebells, those seem to be more comfortable for you. We could even do
00:08:0700:08:13
this unilateral, but I'm gonna have him do it bilaterally.
00:08:1300:08:18
He's going to lean back against the ball as much as he needs to reduce
00:08:1800:08:22
dorsiflexion, and then he's going to basically pretend like the balls not
00:08:2200:08:27
there. So he's going to try to get his butt back, and then push up and you
00:08:2700:08:30
can see, we could actually have him step out a little further,
00:08:3000:08:36
I can still see a little
00:08:3600:08:38
turn out, so I'll have him step out a little further, pretend the balls not
00:08:3800:08:44
there, and up and push. Good. Relax, Mike. So there you go, we've got progressions
00:08:4400:08:47
for stability with the unilateral and the Airex's pad, you can keep
00:08:4700:08:51
increasing the weight for strength, or if somebody's still compensating, you've got
00:08:5100:08:54
the ball to regress. I hope you guys enjoy this integrated strength exercise,
Related Videos
Front Squat to Press
Standing Cobra to Balance to Calf Raise
Side Step and Step up with Shoulder Series
Single Leg Touchdown with Scaption and PNF Carry Away
Dynamic Lateral Lunge with Shoulder Series (Lateral Subsystem Progressions)
Wobble Lunge
Wobble Squat
Deadlift Progressions Cueing and Questionable Variations
Gluteus Maximus Reactive Activation Progressions
Lateral Hop To Single Leg Box Jump
Sacroiliac Joint Chicago Technique
Thoracic Pistol Manipulation
Upper Cervical Manipulation
Radial Head Manipulation
Shotgun (Pubic Symphysis) Manipulation