PAUSED FRONT SQUATS - HOW IT IMPROVES YOUR CLEAN

Front squats are tough.

Pause front squats?

Even tougher.

That’s exactly what our members were working on in class today.

Instead of simply squatting down and standing back up, the goal was to descend into the squat, come to a complete stop at the bottom, hold the position, and then drive back up.

That pause changes everything.

When you remove the bounce out of the bottom of the squat, your body has to rely on pure strength and control. Members have to brace their core, stay upright, and generate power from a dead stop. It builds strength in the exact position where many athletes struggle the most.

But pause front squats aren’t just about making the squat harder. They also help improve one of the most technical lifts we perform in the gym — the clean.

When you catch a clean, you usually receive the barbell in your lowest squat position. There’s often a brief moment where you have to stabilize, hold tension, and then drive up out of that bottom position.

Practicing pause front squats mimics that exact moment.

Members learn how to stay strong in the bottom, maintain a braced core, and then push powerfully out of the squat.

It might only be a three-second pause… but when you’re down there holding tension, it can feel like five minutes.

And that’s exactly why we train it.