1.5-Rep Front Squat
The extra half rep doubles the time your quads spend in the hardest, deepest range of the front squat, where they get the most stretch and stimulus. Keeping the torso upright under a front-rack load while grinding through one and a half reps is brutally demanding on the quads and the trunk. Use it as a hypertrophy or work-capacity tool with submaximal loads.
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Body part
- Quads
- Type
- Strength
- Browse by muscle
- Rectus Femoris, Vastus Lateralis
- Browse by movement
- Squat
- Target
- Rectus Femoris, Vastus Lateralis
- Secondary
- Gluteus Maximus, Adductor Magnus
- Tertiary
- Erector Spinae
How to do it
- 1
Rack the bar across the front of your shoulders with elbows high and take your squat stance.
- 2
Brace hard and descend under control into a full-depth front squat.
- 3
Rise about halfway up out of the bottom.
- 4
Lower back down to full depth without losing your brace.
- 5
Now drive all the way up to a full standing lockout, that counts as one rep.
- 6
Reset your breath at the top and repeat for the prescribed reps.
Tips
- Pick a weight around 60 to 70 percent of your front squat, the extra range adds fatigue fast.
- Fight to keep the elbows high on every portion, they tend to drop on the second dip.
- Own the bottom position, the value is in the deep range, so don't rush the half rep.
Variations
Common mistakes
- The half rep goes higher than half because the front rack feels better up there, and the deep range this format exists for gets cut short.
- Heels lift on the second descent as the ankles tire, and the front-loaded bar goes forward with them.
- A breath gets taken mid-rep at the top of the half, and with the bar across the throat that breath is a shallow one. Take a full breath at the top and hold the brace through all three phases.
- Sets of eight get written down, but under a front rack the upper back decides how long a set lasts, and eight of these is sixteen trips to the bottom with the elbows fighting to stay up. Four or five is the sensible ceiling.
Frequently asked
- What weight and rep scheme should I use for the 1.5-rep front squat, and what should I be able to do first?
- Front squat to full depth with a stable rack for sets of five before adding the half rep. Then run three or four sets of four to five reps at around 60 percent of your best front squat, once a week, resting three minutes. Count each rep as one and a half: four reps is six reps' worth of work and eight trips to the bottom. If the elbows drop before the legs give out, the set is finished for the day regardless of the number you planned.
- What is a good substitute for the 1.5-rep front squat at home?
- A 1.5-rep goblet squat with a heavy dumbbell or kettlebell keeps the upright torso and the deep range, though what you can hold at the chest caps the load. Two kettlebells in the front rack are closer still. If it is the barbell rack position rather than the equipment that is the problem, a Zercher hold keeps the weight in front without the wrists, and a safety squat bar takes the wrists out of it with the load on the back. On machines, a hack squat run at 1.5 reps trains the same deep-range quad work.
- What does the 1.5-rep front squat do that a normal front squat does not?
- It doubles the time in the bottom, where the quads are longest and the trunk works hardest to keep you upright, so it builds size and positional strength from a fraction of the load. Lifters who fold forward coming out of the hole get honest feedback from it. It is a poor choice as a heavy strength lift, since the format caps the weight, and the wrong pick if your front rack is the limiting factor: fix the rack position first, or every set will end at your wrists and shoulders.
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