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Front Squat Research

This research was conducted as part of Mike Bawol's Masters Thesis at Dalhousie University. Mike's project was co-supervised by myself and Dr. John Kozey.

The primary goal of the project was to characterize the constraints that are imposed by an athlete's anthropometry when they are attempting to execute a front squat according to NSCA guidelines. Athlete specific anthropometry is entered into a kinematic model. The motion of the model is optimized to perform a technically correct front squat while descending to the lowest possible depth.

This front squat is optimized to maximize squat depth based on the constraints imposed by an athlete's anthropometry. This athlete has long femurs and a relatively short torso. If they squatted lower, their center of gravity would pass behind their heels and they would fall. In order to squat lower, they would have to move their knees out passed their toes. Flexing more at the hips is not an option, since this would require tremendous arm strength to prevent the bar from moving forward off the clavicle.
This front squat is optimized to maximize squat depth based on the constraints imposed by an athlete's anthropometry. This athlete's torso is 15% longer than the one above. All other segments are identical. The longer torso allows for a deeper front squat. Squatting lower moves the hip joint further behind the heels, but the longer torso keeps the system center of gravity (strongly influenced by the bar weight) inside the base of support without flexing more at the hips.
This video compares the top two simulations in a side-by-side view. The horizontal lines make it clear that only the torso length has changed.
The squat tempo's were modified so that the bottom of squat position was reached simultaneously in both simulations.
This simulation shows the raw output from the Matlab program used to determine the lowest depth for the athlete with the short torso in first video shown above. Notice that, at the bottom of the squat, the X-coordinate of the center of gravity is at the back of the heels, the knees are directly over the toes and the hips cannot be flexed anymore without the athlete supporting a tremendous amount of weight with the arms.
This simulation shows the output of an algorithm used to check the results of the optimization shown in the previous video. In this simulation the trunk and shank angle are set to their maximum values (constants) for the entire squat. The program then steps through all possible thigh angles and records the model's geometry the moment before the center of gravity passes outside the base of support. The segment angles and center of gravity location for this checking simulation should match the optimization in which the model performed a true front squat motion.