I haven’t done heavy front squats since college.

I’ve always sort of dreaded them. I traded them in for back squats partly because I like to lift as much weight as possible and my numbers are bigger in back squat and partly just because I hate them.

But front squats are super good for you. They really work your quads AND your core. So I’ve started doing them and hope one day I will love them…

Till today, I’d done front squats as an auxiliary lift. Higher reps with lighter weight usually after a nice heavy round of deadlifts.

But for some reason today I decided it was time to tackle heavy front squats.

5 sets of 5 repetitions of heavy front squats.

I was nervous. 5×5 is usually a killer workout no matter what lift you are doing. And to be doing 5×5 on front squat…Uhm what was I thinking!?!

I was thinking…”Gosh I hope I can even manage to do one rep at my college max of 130!” (And by the way, I do still hold the Boston U. Women’s Tennis front squat record…I’m both proud of this and a bit disappointed that no one has beaten it.)

And today…even though I still hate front squats…I was very happy at the results of my workout (and Candy did super well too! She has a VERY strong core!).

We started with 95lbs for 5 reps. It definitely didn’t feel like a warm up set like it does with back squats. We then put on 115. That wasn’t a picnic either, but it was manageable.

So I decided we should attempt 135lbs. Yep, I decided that we should attempt more than my max in college. I mean 135 is a warm up for back squats so I should be able to easily do it….right?

Uhm…easy? NOPE! Doable? Yes!

I managed 5 very nice deep front squats with 135 although I do think Candy wasn’t sure if I was actually going to make it up on the 5 one.

Candy then repped out 5 with the weight and I was a bit jealous of how easy she made them look. Her core is gnarly!

Of course, what I didn’t consider was the fact that we had two more rounds of 5 reps…sweet….

Both of us stuck with 135 and busted out two more rounds of 5 although my depth was questionable at the end and my core was struggling hard to keep me up straight.

BUT…I DID IT! I repped more than my college max! YAY!

Of course, I then still had to do conventional deadlifts and snatches, but hey…I’d done heavy front squats!

I still don’t like them though.