Are there any downsides to not doing the back squat and just doing the front squat?

[beq1991]

I was having back pain off and on for months last year and it took me a while to narrow down what might have been causing it. The pain always seemed to be triggered by leg day and I eliminated exercises like the back squat, RDL, conventional deadlift, seated leg curls, and basically anything that I thought could hurt my lower back back for a while. I have not had any back pain since I changed my routine around and I'm wondering if it's because I stopped doing back squats. My best guess is that it wasn't just the back squat, and that it was probably a combination of the back squat and the other exercises I was doing on that day.

This is what my lower day routine looks like:

Front Squat 3x5
RDL 3x8
Hack Squat 3x5
Prone Leg Curls 3x10
Calf Raises 3x12
Abs

I do this routine twice a week following an upper/lower 4 day a week template. Is there any reason why doing the front squat twice a week would be a bad idea?

[Xpiro]

In the past I’ve subbed out back squats for fronts for maybe a month at a time for the same reason, then gradually re-introduced them until I was sure that my back was responding well before getting back on them regularly. I’ve had to do this twice, but lately things have been going well (knock on wood ofc) so I’ll be keeping on back squats for the foreseeable future. You could try that before making any definitive changes. Naturally, make sure your form is solid. I learned to squat without a mirror during my rendezvous with front squats for example, helped a ton.

[DrunkenMoron]

I'm with you OP... Took me a few years to understand my body just wouldn't accept the back squat. No matter the positioning of the bar, angle and positioning of feet. 90 degrees, ass to grass... I'd always end up with a discomfort.

After 6 months of not training legs I went back with the approach of just doing leg press for a few weeks ( till I got back to somewhat max strength )

All seemed ok.. Added additional workouts in the following weeks till last for best squats. Sure enough again it triggered lower back pain.

Substituted for front squats eventually but even so I tend to not exceed a certain weight depending on how if i open the workout with squats or finish.

I've just accepted that squats dont sit well with me.

[beq1991]

I'm with you OP... Took me a few years to understand my body just wouldn't accept the back squat. No matter the positioning of the bar, angle and positioning of feet. 90 degrees, ass to grass... I'd always end up with a discomfort.

After 6 months of not training legs I went back with the approach of just doing leg press for a few weeks ( till I got back to somewhat max strength )

All seemed ok.. Added additional workouts in the following weeks till last for best squats. Sure enough again it triggered lower back pain.

Substituted for front squats eventually but even so I tend to not exceed a certain weight depending on how if i open the workout with squats or finish.

I've just accepted that squats dont sit well with me.

I'm wondering if part of it is my body type. I'm tall and have long legs, which apparently the high-bar squat is better for, but I never felt comfortable using the high-bar squat, believe it or not. I gravitated toward the low-bar squat, which felt more natural to me, but I've read the low-bar squat is worse for tall folks like me because it's harder to get the bar aligned with the rest of your body the way it should be when your legs are longer.

[FurtadoZ9]

Even if there are negatives to only doing front squat (without knowing what you're training for), it's better than not squatting at all. Either way you're staying away from an exercise that would otherwise be causing pain.

Front squat will allow for less loading and less hip / posterior involvement.

[HanleyTucks]

If a person has pain during a lift, absent any previous injury in that area, almost all the time it's technique. We know you don't have coaching because you're asking questions here. Post up a video so we can look at your technique.

It doesn't matter if you just front squat, after all if you can front squat it you can back squat it, the reverse is not true. But you should front squat because you want to, not because you can't back squat without pain. If it's a technique issue, that can be corrected, and then you'll have a free choice about what you do, and not be restricted by pain.