Can't snatch grip front squat

[Rugger]

I donno why, but I just can't seem to do it. It's almost painful when I try; not sure if it's flexibility or what.

Any tips for me?

 

[jasonschaffin]

Snatch grip or clean grip? Snatch grip just sounds crazy...

 

[Rugger]

yeah I donno, whatever the normal grip is LOL
I've just been doing crossed arm grip but wanna see if I can get the other way down.

 

[jasonschaffin]

probably a flexibility thing. keep working it, it should come, or at least get better

 

[ABNRanger]

Hey Rugger, I can't comment on the grip issue, but I had the same problem so I got this
http://www.getstrength.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=70&category_id=37&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=29
I don't know if the grip is really important to you because you plan on competing or so, but I hope this helps. While not with the grip issue, but as an alternative.

 

[Stunt101]

do meth before hand pal :cheers:

 

[noobster]

It doesn't directly answer your question, but I found this article pretty helpful. It's often a flexibility problem, might be the wrists, shoulders or triceps that are holding you back.

Front squats
Source: Lyle McDonald's Newsletter Archive (April 2006)

As mentioned in the introduction, the front squat is one of the almost forgotten exercises in recent times. If you see someone performing anything close to a proper front squat in your gym, you work out in a very unusual gym. An excellent way to work the quads and take stress off the low back (relative to back squats), front squats are a movement that you'll rarely see unless your gym has Olympic lifters. Occasionally, you might see them done in the smith machine.

Many people have problem holding a good rack on the bar and, for this reason, I'm going to show a variety of grips so that even the most inflexible can use this movement. Front squats can make a good second leg movement after deadlifts (although lower back fatigue can make the front squats problematic). Because of the difficulty holding the rack, front squats are rarely done for high reps, sets of 5 or triples are best. Many people, depending on wrist flexibility, also have problems with breathing but as long as you hold a good rack, this will get better.

On the topic of racking the bar, there are basically three different ways to hold the bar. Olympic lifters, of course, use a clean style grip as that is how they receive the bar on their shoulders after the clean. However, some bigger bodybuilder or powerlifters types, usually with larger arms and/or inflexible triceps can have problems with this type of grip. The original modified way of holding the bar was the cross arm or Cossack grip. Personally, I've never liked it, I don't feel like the bar is stable. A third option is a semi-crossed arm grip where you are actually holding the bar. All three grips are shown below and, in all three, the elbows are kept high so that the bar is being held on a 'shelf' formed by the shoulders. The bar shouldn't be pushed so far back into the neck that breathing becomes a problem.

Clean Grip

Cossack Grip

Modified Cossack Grip

Once the bar is racked, the next issue is to perform a proper front squat. The feet should be shoulder width or slightly wider with the feet angled out. The movement begins by breaking the knees forwards while squatting essentially straight down, the knees will go forwards of the toes and should stay over the feet at all times (see form error below).

It's crucial to keep the torso bolt upright and this is facilitated by keeping the head up and driving the elbows up throughout the movement; if the elbows drop, the lift will generally be lost out front. Most people will find it easier to perform a full squat to full depth. Starting and ending positions for a properly performed front squat appear below.

Finally, let's look at some common errors in the front squat. As with back squatting, letting the knees break in at the bottom is fairly common, seemingly moreso in women than in men. The reasons for this can be many ranging from weak hip external rotators (some coaches think that weak adductors are the real cause) to simply not actively pushing the knees out throughout the movement. A very exaggerated example of this appears below, you can see how the knees break in and the feet roll to their insides.

A second problem that occurs is dropping the elbows in the bottom of the squat. This causes the torso to come forwards and the upper (and often lower) back to round. Usually, a heavy weight will be lost out front when this occurs. Two examples of this appear below. The rightmost (EDIT: the lower) picture is common among lifters with very poor shoulder flexibility, they tend to try to simply hold the bar in their hands rather than getting it into a good rack position on the top of the shoulders.

Finally, for people with limited hamstring flexibility, or who simply do not actively try to maintain a good arch, the lower back will tuck under which can throw a lot of dangerous stress onto the low back. This appears below with a properly performed squat shown next to it.