You can do it, Sally! Plus people look at you trying to figure out what exactly you're doing--at least they do in my gym where most of the women stick to little weights and most of the men are doing bicep curls. lol
It's not just you, I'm terrified of this happening to me which is partly because I have this weird fear of losing all my teeth. It didn't help that while practicing at home I actually wacked my jaw with the broomstick I was using for the push press. It hurt, but not as much as it probably would if I had been using the oly bar!
I guess I learned my lesson though, because I did these for the first time at the gym on Monday and thankfully, I didn't have any accidents.
Sorry for bringing up an old thread, but I am starting stage 2 this week and I have been searching all the threads on this move and found this post. It made me laugh, because I did the exact same thing with my broomstick (dowel, actually) when I was practicing today; I got the squat, I pushed up explosively, and WHAM! into my lips and nose the stick went!
Also, this is something I haven't cleared up for myself yet in the threads on FSPP, my elbows just will NOT go up as high as people say they should. At least, I can put them up that far, but then my hands are behind my head; no way I'm going to be able to hold a BB in front of me with my elbows up that high! Is this a flexibility issue, or just a "can't change my anatomy" issue? I haven't yet tried it with a real bar, so maybe this will work differently when I have actual weight?
I was doing quite well with the back squats, but this feels like a totally different animal, and my back and shoulders are not happy with even the weightless practice. I am having nightmares about getting the bar onto my windpipe, dropping into the squat, and falling forward into a face plant when the bar pulls me forward. Either that or the self-inflicted nose job! Help! Can I just skip stage 2, pretty, pretty please?
(and anyway, why shouldn't someone bring up an old thread? If we still have questions after searching. . .or is it more proper to start a new thread?)
re:front squat grip
some of it is wrist flexibility, you just work on that
some of it is taking a wider grip that you would think (outside your shoulders) and also realizing that for a front squat, you don't have to hold the bar in your hand - you can get away with just a few fingers from each hand on the bar as it rides on your delts.
yes - this makes it challenging to move your grip in order to do the press.
Some people (don't remember if it was covered in this thread) use a grip more like what you would use for the press and squat with it rather than do a true front squat/clean grip on the bar. YMMV.
Other people do a real front squat, stop, move the hands around, do the push press, put the hands back, etc. That is - no attempt to make it smooth or a single movement, but just two distinct movements done back to back - the same way you might do a lunge and then a bicep curl.
you don't have to hold the bar in your hand - you can get away with just a few fingers from each hand on the bar as it rides on your delts.
This made the biggest difference for me when I was learning it - you don't "hold" the bar, it rests on your delts... I also struggled with feeling it against my throat, but now I'm totally used to it and it doesn't bother me at all. I sometimes have only 2 fingertips on each hand "holding" the bar when doing front squats...
Same here....I just use my middle three fingers, with the bar barely resting on them....wrists way back and elbows up, up, up! Bysti and I learned that real fast while oly training, right, Bytsi!
And Jane's right - Oly lifting REALLY makes you get that front squat grip correct!
When you say Oly lifting, do you mean just with the oly bar? Because it's so long it changes the balance factor? Or do you mean actually training for oly lifting--really really heavy weights?
Did this veer off from the Push Press discussion? Forgive me if the discussion has changed...
A push press doesn't have a squat portion. Get the bar up to the shoulders via a rack or clean movement, then just dip the hips a bit and use hip/leg drive to "pop" it up to full extension overhead.
No need to worry about special grips or anything, just avoid your chin, nose, etc. on the way up.
Haha. Well I tried it today, with the 30lb. fixed weight BB, just to practice the move, and it wasn't as bad as I was thinking it would be. It does help to have the weight stretching my wrists farther back, and that makes my elbows go up higher, and rests the bar on my delts like it's supposed to. Also the front squat part wasn't as scary as I feared. I didn't check in a mirror from the side, so I am not sure how upright my torso stayed, but it felt ok. Very different from a back squat.
And I managed not to bash myself, hooray! I think throwing my head back some was instinctual when I had actual weight instead of the dowel.
BTW, manyof the links in these older threads don't work anymore. I was really interested in seeing the video posted by I think LisaS, in which there was a girl described as "scooping" her squats. The link is broken. Anyone have new ones?
And I managed not to bash myself, hooray! I think throwing my head back some was instinctual when I had actual weight instead of the dowel.
Just remember that your finishing position is actually with your head forward... this pic (it's an overhead squat, but the best quick example I could find) shows it... you don't want to end up with the weight in front of your body and an overly arched back...
I like the pic on the front of Starting Strength, where Rippetoe shoes the proper alignment in relation to hips, feet, shoulders, head, etc. for the three lifts:
Just remember that your finishing position is actually with your head forward... this pic (it's an overhead squat, but the best quick example I could find) shows it... you don't want to end up with the weight in front of your body and an overly arched back...
Oh yeah, I did that. I just meant, as the bar was passing my face I did whatever was instinctive to keep my nose out of its path!
I like the pic on the front of Starting Strength, where Rippetoe shoes the proper alignment in relation to hips, feet, shoulders, head, etc. for the three lifts:
Now why didn't I think of Rippetoe for a good pic... . So many people stop with the bar about 12" forward of where his pic shows, and their back all arched (halfway to doing a backbend!) to compensate... Thanks Jane - much better pic than the one I googled up...
I know Bytsi.....yesterday at the gym there were 2 people doing O/H squats with a broomstick. Both work with a trainer, but were working on their own yesterday. BOTH of them were doing them soooooo poorly, I wanted to say something soooo bad, but didn't want to offend. They had the broomstick overhead, elbows weren't locked, nor were their arms wide enough. And, worse yet, the broomstick was, as you said, about 12" in FRONT of them! No wonder they looked as though they were going to tip forward every time they attempted to squat! Just terrible!
THEN, there was a trainer training someone on the FSPP, believe it or not. I couldn't BELIEVE how wrong her instruction was to this poor person. No instruction on the front squat clean position, no mention of form....nothing.
THEN, another trainer was training his guy to CURL IN THE SQUAT RACK. No wonder people think it's OK at my gym....their trainer showed them to do it there!!
Drives me bonkers.....the "trainers" at my gym. I swear I could train better than them without any type of certification or specialized training!
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