I find it interesting that you have hip flexor pain and don't feel it during front squats. When I had hip flexor trouble front squats were worse.
Flat out no. Back squats allow heavier weights and work the posterior chain/overall musculature to a much greater degree.
As others have pointed out there's a problem with your form. I'd suggest working out whether your more comfortable with a high bar or low bar squat then either sitting down with a copy of starting strength or booking a session with your nearest olympic lifting coach and learning how to do them properly.
Definitely high bar, i can't get the weight back that far for low bar, absolutely rapes my wrists. I'm trying to work on flexibility so i can go low bar, but in the mean time, i'll stick to high bar (or front squats). I've recently acquired a few flexibility/mobility videos, going to have a look through those see if i can work out what the issue is. In the mean time, might do one cycle of PPP on front squat and see how i go. Either that, or i just stick with the normal squat and hope that the relatively lighter weights in the first 4-5 weeks don't bother me too much while i try to sort this shit out.
Why? If there is no intention to put it over head, what does it matter. It doesnt help you lift more either.
First attempt at front squats today...with just the weight of the bar, I couldn't keep it from rolling forward. Tried a few variations on grip and where i was looking until my trainer said no 'that looks like shit' and we went back to the back.
Where was the bar resting? On your collar bone? upper chest?
In defence of Oliver, while a 115kg front squat is going to require a ton of glute strength, it's going to involve stuff all hamstring compared to a back squat, even a much lighter one than 115kg.
Now this is not so important for olympic lifters, when you're doing so many dynamic pulls and developing hamstring power that way. That, and the fact that the front squat is part of the clean & jerk, and actually part of the sport.
If your getting bad hip flexor pain from back squats then it's quite possible the cause is overactive/dominant quads or weak/inactive hamstrings. The two are reciprocal. Usually when someone says they have sore hip flexors from squatting it's not one of the true hip flexors (psoas), it's actually rectus femoris, one of the quads. In a low bar squat if the hamstring get loose at any stage, the rec fem pulls on the pelvis and produces tendonitis in the front of hip area. This exact problem prevented me from squatting for a long time. I'm still shit at squatting but I no longer get any hip flexor pain.
I suggest why front squats make everything feel better, is that the rectus femoris are getting a nice stretch at the bottom
Now, do you fix the underlying issue so that you can back squat pain free, which every healthy person should be able to do, or do you stick with what doesn't hurt, and potentially make the problem much worse by making your quads even more dominant?
Combining good mornings or RDLs or something for your hamstring won't necessarily do the trick either, because the quad doesn't do anything in those exercises. The hip flexor problem is when there is co-contraction of quad and hammy. Deep lunges, high weighted step-ups, ukrainian deadlifts off blocks or bulgarian split squats will train the hammies in that way, but I reckon if you can't back squat painfree, these exercises are likely to show up the same issues.
Short version, what NPR said.
There is only so much leg drive you can get from conv deadlifts, because you do have to start the lift with your arms locked out, which prevents you from getting as deep as you might like.
Have you tried just doing some stretching and foam roller work before and after. Also make sure your warm up is good.
Did I mention i deadlift sumo style? I think this incorporates a bit more leg drive (especially for taller blokes).
Yeah I have, although admittedly the last squat workout (when it was REALLY bad), i had an inadequate warm up. If I warm up really thoroughly, it should be ok, but obviously there is some underlying problem which is requiring me to do so. I'm going to work on mobility/flexibility quite thoroughly after finishing the last 2 weeks of this program
Powerbuilder, I was trying to hold it up to risk of choking me position just above the collar bone, it was the crossy armed version...
Apparently, I need to grow more shoulder first...
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