Quads of Steel

You’ve heard us throw around the term ‘posterior chain’ and talk of its importance in strength development as well as overall health, but CrossFitters as a whole tend to neglect its counterpart: the anterior chain. Yes, the CrossFit booty is quite a nice byproduct of posterior chain work, but those looking to improve olympic lifts (and their OHS for the April Challenge), will want to give the quads, iliopsoas and abs some love too.

Greg Everett wrote an article called  The Prodigal Chain, that talks about this deficiency and how it affects our lifts. Before we go further, though, it’s important to breeze through an (over)simplified breakdown of the back squat vs the front squat.

Back Squat (low bar)

• forward torso lean
• greater hip flexion
• posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes and spinal erectors)

Front Squat

• upright torso
• greater knee flexion
• anterior chain (quads, iliopsoas, abs)

So, because of the difference in body angles, different muscle groups are recruited to execute the lift.  Ever wonder why your hams and glutes are sore after back squats while your quads are fried after front squats?  If this is the case, then you are more than likely doing the lifts correctly.  However, since we’ve been focusing on a linear progression for the last few months, some of us (including me) have developed a dominant pos chain. So when we get stuck in a front squat, we end up recruiting the stronger muscles and inadvertently dump the weight because our hams and glutes shoot our hips up first.

So, unless you’re training specifically as an Oly Lifter (anterior dominant) or Powerlifter (posterior dominant), we will be striving for a delicate balance between the two.

WOD 04.06.10

Bench Press 3×5
then,
rds:
4 rds:
5 Thrusters
10 Good Mornings
100m Sprint