Or at least that’s how I like to think Brose came up with the rep scheme for Thursday night’s strength session, especially after a months worth of H2G2-themed blog titles.

The front squat = simply a squat with the bar done on your front shoulders instead of your upper back. “simply.” A fine adjective to use in theory, but not so much in practice. That small, 4-5 inch shift from the top of your traps to the top of your delts seems to be accompanied by an exponential shift in difficulty.

A big key to success with the front squats will be flexibility/mobility. Getting your arms up with the elbows parallel to the floor is essential to stable front squat. This is closely followed by necessary flexibility in the ankles and hips – without this, you can get your elbows as high as you want, but you’ll still find yourself pitching forward. Unfortunately, the best way to get better flexibility for the front squat is to do … more front squats!

A few key points for the front squat:

(1) Bar in your fingers (not palms) with the weight of the bar resting on your shoulders, not your hands!;

(2) Remember to keep your weight over your heels (again, ditch the running shoes!);

(3) Chest up and lats spread – keep your torso as upright as possible, as any pitch forward will cause the weight to pull you out of position;

(4) Neutral gaze – don’t look down, but don’t crane your neck to look at the ceiling either; a spot on the floor 3-4ft in front of you is more than sufficient;

(5) Elbows UP, Knees OUT. Really, these are the two biggest keys to proper, and successful, front squats – stop the knees collapsing by driving them out
while forcefully pushing the elbows up to the ceiling.

(6) And, as always, you must break parallel – do not sacrifice depth and/or form to chase numbers.

In groups of 3 to 4, perform as many strict pull-ups as you can while your partners jump-rope as active rest. When you come off the bar, rotate to a jump rope while one of your partners takes your place.

Pull-up variations included band assisted, chin-ups, ring pull-ups and chin-ups, and towel pull-ups.

Great work everyone. The weather looks to be fantastic this weekend, so be sure to get out and enjoy it.