Strong, Shredded, and Athletic: The Front Squat Specialization Program
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Introduction
Before we get started I need to ask you something—Please, please, please, read the Full How To Front Squat: Big Quads, Biomechanics, & Improved Athleticism article before beginning the workouts. You need to have a full understanding of how the exercise works, how to progress, and how to self-diagnose issues you’re having. In addition, you must be well versed in the other lifts listed in the program and be an experienced lifter. This is not for beginners. I know you’re anxious to leap headfirst into the workouts and go to the gym, but you must follow the recipe to make the right meal. By practicing the lifts, and reading the articles referenced you will be guaranteeing your success. Jumping into an exercise program ill prepared is bad news for your body and the results you want.
The Workout Program If you have trained properly for the past year and become well-versed in weightlifting and made significant strides in your training then you are in the perfect place. This program is NOT for beginners, but intermediate and advanced lifters. This program will help you build significant strength, muscle, and improve your athleticism unlike the crap you read in most bodybuilder magazines and websites. Bodies that look like Tarzan and play like Jane are no good—you deserve more, you deserve better.
The all-determining factor for your success in the gym is still training with intensity as if your life depended on it. You need to bring it to every workout. Each workout you’ll be increasing load and training with a focus on either maximum strength, volume for hypertrophy, or speed for athleticism and additional gains in strength and muscle mass. You must improve upon what you did the previous workout to push your body past its previous level of performance. Gains don’t just happen, they must be forced by hard work and determination. If you’re not making gains you’re either not eating properly (or enough), neglected sleep and recovery, and partying too much. Overtraining isn’t an option—I’ve designed the workouts to prevent against it. Building strength, muscle, and athleticism isn’t complicated. Don’t over-analyze, just focus on the essentials, get stronger, and treat your body right. Follow the program as is. If you start adding 7 hours of Crossfit, a 3-mile run, and a day for “biceps” you’ll be running up a steep hill and the program won’t work. Stick with the program and follow the exercises, sets, and reps as I have laid them out for you. The goal of this program is a big front squat and total body muscle growth—changing the recipe changes the meal, don’t do it.
High Frequency: To become a stud with any movement you need to train it with a high frequency to rapidly learn the skill, develop strength, and enough volume to build muscle. It sounds easy, but it requires you to embrace the challenge, work your ass off, and be consistent at the gym. This program I’m about to show you will combine athletic movements so you’re both show and go, varying training intensities to minimize gaps in strength and muscular development, and a balanced training approach to make your workouts maximally efficient without leaving you open to imbalances and injury. Progression and Core Lifts This is where most people miss the boat—consistently training hard, yet not tracking their workouts and varying training intensity. This is a mistake that will limit your results, minimize performance, and shorten your training career. In this program you’ll be working in three-week cycles that fluctuate between a heavy emphasis for strength, higher volume emphasis to build muscle, and speed focused workouts to minimize gaps in strength development and improve explosiveness. At the end of the six week dual-cycle you will de-load and go no higher than 65% 1-RM in any lift. The rest is up to you, but take it easy.
Each lift will be trained once per week (with exception being the additional front squat work during cleans) and cycled through the varying intensities—meaning each week speed, volume, and maximum strength will be trained. This preserves the nervous system, allows ample recovery, and prevents training imbalances.
The Lifts: The lifts being trained are your big “money” exercises. The exercises are: The Power Clean: The ultimate total body exercise, power cleans require total body strength, explosiveness, and power. Each power clean must be taken to a full-front squat for additional front-squat volume. If you’re unsure about technique please be smart and hire a coach for a few weeks to work with technique. Here are some regressed versions to catch you up to speed: Hackey Pull, muscle clean, hang clean, hang clean to front squat. Front Squat: This is a front squat specialization—you must learn to front squat. If you’re working your way up to the front squat master this progression: Bodyweight squats ==>goblet squats ==>goblet squat with a pause ==> 2 KB front squat ==> 2 kb front squat w/pause ==> bar w/pause. Bench Press: The bench press has it pundits, but few exercises train pure upper body strength and add slabs of muscle like the bench press. Most athletes overtrain the bench press and most trainees have shoulder issues. For this reason
upper body pushes are alternated: floor presses for heavy days, incline barbell presses for volume, and close grip bench presses for speed. Deadlift: Deadlifts are among the best total body lifts and provide vital training in the hinge pattern. Trap bars are the best option for those not competing in powerlifting as they’re safer on the spine, but they are hard to find. Find a deadlift pattern that fits your body and ability levels. If you’re without a trap bar your options are: Conventional deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, and snatch grip deadlifts.
Finding Your Maxes: If you’re experienced and have spent quality time in the gym you should have an idea of your absolute strength numbers. If not, it’s time to find your maxes. Maximal strength testing places significant stress on the muscles, connective tissues, and joints. For this reason to a 3-rm will be tested to bridge the gap between training levels and safety. Here’s your testing protocol, as listed in the Essentials of Strength and Conditioning. [Earle] 1.
Warm up with a light resistance that allows 5-10 easy repetitions. Rest 1
minute.
2. Estimate a load that allows 3-5 reps to be completed, but not close to failure. Rest 2 minutes. 3. Estimate a conservation 1-3 rep range for athletes. Add 10-20 lbs from previous attempt on upper body lifts and 30-40 pounds on lower body lifts. This lift should NOT be a miss. Rest 2-4 minutes. 4. Continue increasing load by 10-40 pounds for upper and lower body lifts, respectively. 5. If successful, rest 2-4 minutes and repeat step four. 6. If the lift is failed rest 2-4 minutes and decrease load by 5-20 pounds. Ideally, the 1-RM is found within three to five testing sets. The Progression: Week
Clean, Bench Press
Squat
Deadlift
1
Heavy: 85-90%5x2 Volume: 5x5 70-75%
Speed: 6x3 @6065%
2
Volume: 5x5 @70- Speed: 6x3 75% @60-65%
Heavy: 90-95% 5x1-2
3
Speed: 6x3 @6065%
Heavy: 90-95% Volume: 5x5 @705x1-2 75%
4
Heavy: 95-100%+ 5x1-2
Volume: 5x4-6 75-80%
Speed: 6x3 65-70%
5
Volume: 5x4-6 75- Speed: 6x3 65- Heavy: 90-100% 80% 70% +5x1-2
6
Speed: 6x3 6570%
Heavy: 95100% +5x1-2
Volume: 5x4-6 7580%
The major movement patterns programmed in unison eliminate gaps in training and mimic movements in life and sport. These six patterns are: pushes, pulls, hinge, squats, carries and lunges. For maximal efficiency, each exercise variation is performed weekly. Accordingly, achieve balanced strength and volume between movements to stay healthier, stronger, and more athletic. Work sets are balls to the wall. This doesn’t mean jumping over prescribed reps or intensities, it means having precise focus and applying maximal force to the bar every on rep. If you have minimal time to train the effort you put forth becomes more vital to your success.
The workout takes the following order: 1.Dynamic Warm-Up: A dynamic warm-up is a no-brainer—prepare your mind and body for activity. Limber eleven or agile 8 by Joe Defranco are a great starting point. 2.Movement skills: If you’re a competitive athlete, you need to move—lifting is supplementary in itself. Sprint and change of direction work is extremely neurologically intensive and is done before you lift right after the warm-up. Again, this depends on your goal—if you’re looking to get jacked out of your gourd, but don’t care if you run like the wind, then this is optional. 3. Throws/Jumps: Throws and jumps are max-effort to increase explosiveness and “rev” the nervous system for greater lifting performance. 4.Resistance Training: It’s go time. Put your money on your “focus” exercise and push it. 5. Conditioning: Time permitting conditioning work is completed after resistance training at the end of the workout. 10-15 minutes of high-intensity exercise like sprint work and prowler pushes is plenty. If strapped for time push
the tempo on your non-focus exercises and get a conditioning effect during the lift. 6.Recovery Methods: Neglecting recovery severely limits your efforts in the gym. Use the post-workout period to go through your dynamic warm-up as a cool down and hit some soft tissue work. Week 1 Day 1 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Box Jump 3x5 1b. Push-Up Plank Hold 3x45seconds 2a. Power Clean w/front squat 4x1-3 (Heavy) 2b. Lateral Band walk 3x10/leg 3a.Floor Press 5x2 @85% (Heavy) 3b. Band pull-apart 3x25 4a.Supinated Bent over row 4x6 4b.Goblet Split Squat 4x10/leg Conditioning: Hill Sprints 10 minutes Day 2 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Broad Jump 3x5 1b. Birddog ISO Hold 3x30s/side 2a. Trap Bar Deadlift 6x3 @60% (Speed) 2b. Bodyweight Hip Thrust 3x12 3a. DB Bench Press 4x8 3b. DB Row 4x8 4a. DB Walking Lunge 3x8/leg Conditioning: Row 2000 meters Day 3 Dynamic Warm-up 1a. DB Jump Squat 3x5
1b. Palloff Press 3x15/side 2a. Front Squat 5x5 @75% (Volume) 2b. Fire Hydrant 3x10/leg 3a. Chin Up 4x6 3b. DB Shoulder Press 4x8 4a. Farmer Walk 3x30 steps 4b. Hammer Curl 3x12 Recovery: agile 8, foam rolling Week 2 Day 1 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Box Jump 3x5 1b. Push-Up Plank Hold 3x50 sec. 2a. Power Clean w/front squat 5x5 @ 70-75% 2b. Lateral Band walk 3x10/leg 3a.Incline Bench Press 5x5 at 70-75% -volume 3b. Band pull-apart 3x25 4a.Supinated Bent over row 4x8 4b.Goblet Split Squat 4x12/leg Conditioning: Hill Sprints 10 minutes Day 2 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Broad Jump 3x5 1b. Birddog ISO Hold 3x35s/side 2a. Trap Bar Deadlift 5x1-2 @90-95% (Heavy) 2b. Bodyweight Hip Thrust 3x12 3a. DB Bench Press 4x8 3b. DB Row 4x10 4a. DB Walking Lunge 3x10/leg Conditioning: Row 2000 meters
Day 3 Dynamic Warm-up 1a. DB Jump Squat 3x5 1b. Palloff Press 3x15/side 2a. Front Squat 6x3 @60-65% (speed) 2b. Fire Hydrant 3x10/leg 3a. Chin Up 4x6 3b. DB Shoulder Press 4x10 4a. Farmer Walk 3x40 steps 4b. Hammer Curl 3x15 Recovery: agile 8, foam rolling Week 3 Day 1 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Box Jump 4x4 1b. Push-Up Plank Hold 3x60seconds 2a. Power Clean w/front squat 6x3 @60-65% (Speed) 2b. Lateral Band walk 3x10/leg 3a.Close Grip Bench Press 6x3 @60-65% (Speed) 3b. Band pull-apart 3x25 4a.Supinated Bent over row 4x10 4b.Goblet Split Squat 4x10/leg Conditioning: Hill Sprints 10 minutes Day 2 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Broad Jump 4x4 1b. Birddog ISO Hold 3x40s/side 2a. Trap Bar Deadlift 5x5 at 70-75% -volume 2b. Bodyweight Hip Thrust 3x12 3a. DB Bench Press 4x10
3b. DB Row 4x12 4a. DB Walking Lunge 3x12/leg Conditioning: Row 2000 meters Day 3 Dynamic Warm-up 1a. DB Jump Squat 4x4 1b. Palloff Press 3x15/side 2a. Front Squat 5x1-2 @90-95% (Heavy) 2b. Fire Hydrant 3x10/leg 3a. Chin Up 4x8 3b. DB Shoulder Press 4x12 4a. Farmer Walk 3x45 steps 4b. Hammer Curl 3x15 Recovery: agile 8, foam rolling Week 4 Day 1 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Box Jump 5x3 1b. Push-Up Plank Hold 3x60seconds 2a. Power Clean w/front squat 4x1-2 (Heavy) 95-100%+ 2b. Lateral Band walk 3x10/leg 3a.Floor Press 4x1-2 (Heavy) 95-100%+) 3b. Face Pull 3x25 4a. Pronated Bent over row 3x12 4b.Barbell Split Squat 3x12 Conditioning: Hill Sprints 10 minutes Day 2 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Broad Jump 5x3 1b. Birddog ISO Hold 3x45s/side
2a. Trap Bar Deadlift 6x3 @65-70% (Speed) 2b. Bodyweight Hip Thrust 3x12 3a. DB Bench Press 4x8 3b. DB Row 4x12 4a. DB Back-lunge 3x8/leg Conditioning: Row 2000 meters Day 3 Dynamic Warm-up 1a. DB Jump Squat 5x3 1b. Palloff Press 3x15/side 2a. Front Squat 5x4-6 @75%-80% (Volume) 2b. Fire Hydrant 3x10/leg 3a. Chin Up 3x10 3b. DB Shoulder Press 3x10 4a. Farmer Walk 4x45 steps 4b. Hammer Curl 4x8 Recovery: agile 8, foam rolling Week 5 Day 1 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Box Jump 3x5 1b. Push-Up Plank Hold 3x60seconds 2a. Power Clean w/front squat 5x4-6 @75%-80% (Volume) 2b. Lateral Band walk 3x10/leg 3a.Floor Press 5x4-6 @75%-80% (Volume) 3b. Face Pull 3x25 4a.Pronated Bent over row 3x12 4b.Barbell Split Squat 3x12 Conditioning: Hill Sprints 10 minutes Day 2
Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Broad Jump 3x5 1b. Birddog ISO Hold 3x45s/side 2a. Trap Bar Deadlift 6x3 @60% (Speed) 2b. Bodyweight Hip Thrust 3x12 3a. DB Bench Press 4x8 3b. DB Row 4x8-12 4a. DB Back Lunge 3x10 Conditioning: Row 2000 meters Day 3 Dynamic Warm-up 1a. DB Jump Squat 3x5 1b. Palloff Press 3x15/side 2a. Front Squat 5x5 @75% (Volume) 2b. Fire Hydrant 3x10/leg 3a. Chin Up 4x8 3b. DB Shoulder Press 4x8 4a. Farmer Walk 4x50 steps 4b. Hammer Curl 4x10 Recovery: agile 8, foam rolling Week 6 Day 1 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Box Jump 4x4 1b. Push-Up Plank Hold 3x60seconds 2a. Power Clean w/front squat 6x3 @70% (Speed) 2b. Lateral Band walk 3x10/leg 3a.Floor Press 6x3 @70% (Speed) 3b. Face Pull 3x25 4a.Pronated Bent over row 4x10 4b.Barbell Split Squat 4x10
Conditioning: Hill Sprints 10 minutes Day 2 Dynamic Warm-Up 1a. Broad Jump 3x5 1b. Birddog ISO Hold 3x45s/side 2a. Trap Bar Deadlift 5x4-6 @75-80% (volume) 2b. Bodyweight Hip Thrust 3x12 3a. DB Bench Press 4x10 3b. DB Row 4x12 4a. DB Back Lunge 3x12 Conditioning: Row 2000 meters Day 3 Dynamic Warm-up 1a. DB Jump Squat 3x5 1b. Palloff Press 3x15/side 2a. Front Squat 4x1-2 95-100+% (Heavy) 2b. Fire Hydrant 3x10/leg 3a. Chin Up 4x8 3b. DB Shoulder Press 4x8 4a. Farmer Walk 4x50 steps 4b. Hammer Curl 4x10 Recovery: agile 8, foam rolling
FAQ How long between workouts? Two days is best. This program does well on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Monday, Wednesday, Saturday split.
Why the range in work percentages? The range in percentages during each day provides flexibility if you come in without your A-Game. Aim for the highest work set percentage, but you’ll still make gains if you work at the lower work-rate. Do I REALLY Need to Do Cleans? Well, no. But cleans are a great tool for building your strong, shredded, and athletic body. If they’re out of the question opt for another day of front squats using submaximal loading and perfecting technique. Stick with 60-75% 1-RM. How long do I rest between sets? Exercises like planks are implemented between your sets and count as active recovery during sets. With those included, keep rests 2-4 minutes on heavy exercises and 60-90 seconds on all other exercises. Do I need to include the movement skills? If you want to be athletic, you need to move—simply lifting alone won’t cut it. If you’re performing high velocity speed work perform it after a thorough warm-up in a non-fatigued state. I recommend two sprint workouts on day one and three, with change of direction work on day two. If you just want to get swole and don’t care if you become a walking ball of fail on the field, then ignore it completely. Will I build Muscle on this program? That depends. If you complain of hard gainer syndrome and eat 2,000 calories per day then you’re in the wrong place. If
you’re consuming ample calories and consistently getting stronger, muscle gains will come. How about additional workouts? If you fit in a fourth day, great. Keep it at the end of the week so it doesn’t compete with strength gains. Use this fourth day to focus on your weak-points: biceps, shoulders, your pencil neck, or whatever floats your boat. Sneak in push-ups, bodyweight squats, band-pull aparts, and pull-ups during the week—the additional volume adds up. Conditioning—what do I do? High rep kettlebell swings, prowler pushes/pulls, hill sprints, and high intensity finishers. What do you recommend for recovery: After your workout is a perfect time to soft-tissue work and flexibility. Perform your dynamic warm-up as a cool down, grab a foam roller, and take a few minutes to get better at the things you’re neglecting.
Enjoy this workout? Please, share your experiences on with three friends, Bachperformance.com, Facebook, or social media of your choice. Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, Please consult your physician before beginning any exercise program. I am not a doctor or RD. Nothing I say is meant to come across or be construed as medical advice, nor is it meant to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease.
Sources: Earle,R.W. Weight training exercise prescription. In: Essentials of Personal Training Symposium Workbook. Lincoln, NE: NSCA Certification Commission. 2006. ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT © Bach performance LLC.
