Front Rack
Front Squat Strength Standards
The front squat is the honest squat, because the bar falls off the moment your torso does. Enter your bodyweight for your beginner to elite front squat figures, see where your best sits, and check the number against what you back squat.
Find Your Front Squat Level
Enter your bodyweight, pick your sex, and put in your best lift. Everything below updates as you type.
What the Front Squat Really Measures
Quads and upper back, judged together.
In a front squat the bar rests across the front of the shoulders, held in a clean grip or crossed arms, and your torso has to stay upright for the whole rep. That shifts work onto the quads and demands that the upper back holds a rigid position under load. The lift ends the instant your chest drops, which is what makes it self-limiting: there is no grinding out a rep with a good morning like there is in the back squat.
Most people find that the front squat is limited by something other than their legs. Wrist and shoulder mobility decide whether the rack position is even available, and the thoracic spine decides how long it holds. That is a feature rather than a fault. A front squat number is a combined report on leg strength and postural strength, and it moves when either one improves.
Where These Numbers Come From
Eighty-five percent of your back squat, at every level.
Every figure on this page is 85 percent of the back squat standard for the same bodyweight and sex, drawn from our strength standards page. That proportion is the one most lifters and coaches converge on, and it holds up across the range because the front squat and the back squat share almost all their mechanics and differ mainly in bar position.
Keeping the proportion flat rather than tapering it is a deliberate choice. Unlike a machine lift, the front squat does not give beginners an artificial advantage that disappears with practice, so there is no reason for the ratio to drift between levels. If your own ratio is well under 80 percent, that usually points at the rack position rather than at your legs.
| Level | Share of the back squat standard |
|---|---|
| Beginner | 85 percent |
| Novice | 85 percent |
| Intermediate | 85 percent |
| Advanced | 85 percent |
| Elite | 85 percent |
These standards are estimates derived from typical ratios to the main lifts, rounded to the nearest 5 lb. The bench, squat, deadlift and overhead press figures they are built on are the bodyweight-ratio approximations published on our strength standards page, which are aligned with widely used references in the strength and conditioning field including ExRx.net. Nothing here is measured lab data, and no table anywhere else has been copied. Treat every figure as a target to aim at, not a verdict on you.
Front Squat Standards for Men
Estimated 1-rep max including the bar, by bodyweight.
| Bodyweight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 110 lb | 70 lb | 115 lb | 140 lb | 210 lb | 255 lb |
| 130 lb | 85 lb | 140 lb | 165 lb | 250 lb | 305 lb |
| 150 lb | 95 lb | 160 lb | 190 lb | 285 lb | 350 lb |
| 170 lb | 110 lb | 180 lb | 215 lb | 325 lb | 395 lb |
| 190 lb (your bodyweight) | 120 lb | 200 lb | 240 lb | 365 lb | 445 lb |
| 210 lb | 135 lb | 225 lb | 270 lb | 400 lb | 490 lb |
| 230 lb | 145 lb | 245 lb | 295 lb | 440 lb | 540 lb |
| 250 lb | 160 lb | 265 lb | 320 lb | 480 lb | 585 lb |
Front Squat Standards for Women
Estimated 1-rep max including the bar, by bodyweight.
| Bodyweight | Beginner | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 110 lb | 45 lb | 70 lb | 105 lb | 150 lb | 185 lb |
| 130 lb | 55 lb | 85 lb | 120 lb | 175 lb | 220 lb |
| 150 lb | 65 lb | 95 lb | 140 lb | 205 lb | 255 lb |
| 170 lb | 70 lb | 110 lb | 160 lb | 230 lb | 290 lb |
| 190 lb | 80 lb | 120 lb | 180 lb | 260 lb | 325 lb |
| 210 lb | 90 lb | 135 lb | 195 lb | 285 lb | 355 lb |
| 230 lb | 100 lb | 145 lb | 215 lb | 315 lb | 390 lb |
| 250 lb | 105 lb | 160 lb | 235 lb | 340 lb | 425 lb |
A Worked Example
Reading a front squat against the back squat you already have.
A 190 lb man at the intermediate standard back squats 285 lb, so his intermediate front squat is 240 lb and the advanced target is 365 lb. If he front squats 205 lb for five clean reps, the estimate is about 235 lb for a single, which puts him just under the intermediate line.
Now compare: 235 divided by his 285 lb back squat is 82 percent, a little short of the 85 percent this table expects. That is a useful piece of information. Rather than adding weight, his next block is probably better spent on rack position and upper back work, because the back squat says the legs are already there.
What These Standards Cannot Tell You
Depth, grip and mobility all sit inside the number.
The front squat is unusually sensitive to how you hold the bar. A clean grip, a cross-arm grip and straps all change how securely the bar sits and therefore how much you can hold in the bottom, and a lifter switching grips can see the number move by ten percent without any change in strength. Pick one and stay with it if you want the standard to mean something.
Depth matters just as much, and it is easier to lose here than in a back squat because the upright torso makes a high stop feel normal. These figures assume the hip crease passes below the top of the knee. If you are stopping above parallel, you are comparing a different lift against the table.
More Tools
Estimate your max, then check the rest of your leg work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about these standards.
How much should I be able to front squat?
At 190 lb bodyweight the intermediate front squat is about 240 lb and the advanced mark about 365 lb. At 140 lb an intermediate woman is near 130 lb. Enter your own bodyweight at the top for all five figures.
What is the average front squat weight?
Most men who squat regularly sit between the novice and intermediate rows, which at 190 lb bodyweight is an estimated single of 200 to 240 lb. Fewer people train the front squat than the back squat, so the average front squat in a commercial gym is lower than the strength of the people doing it.
What percentage of my back squat should my front squat be?
About 85 percent, which is what these tables are built on. Ratios between 80 and 90 percent are common. Well below 80 percent usually points at the rack position or upper back rather than at leg strength.
Why does my front squat fail when my legs feel fine?
Because the upper back gave up first. The moment the thoracic spine rounds, the elbows drop and the bar rolls forward, and the rep ends. That is the front squat working as intended, and it is why it is such a good diagnostic lift.
Does the clean grip or cross-arm grip matter?
It can change your number by around ten percent. A clean grip holds the bar more securely for most lifters once the wrists allow it. Whichever you use, use the same one every time you test.
How are these front squat standards calculated?
Each level is 85 percent of the back squat standard for the same bodyweight and sex, rounded to the nearest 5 lb. They are estimates derived from a typical ratio between the lifts, not measured test data.