Zercher squat: the bar in the crooks of your elbows, the setup and the sets

The Zercher squat holds the bar low and in front of you: in the crooks of your elbows, close to your body, with your hands together. It's a front-loaded squat like the front squat, which holds the bar on the front of your shoulders, and the goblet squat, which holds one weight at your chest, but the load sits lower, at about the level of your lower ribs.

No study has tested it by name: a PubMed search of titles and abstracts for "Zercher" returned no records. So this page gives the setup and the hold as practice, and borrows the evidence from front-loaded squats, labelled as such. The squat checkpoints themselves are on squat form.

How to set up and squat

1. Set the bar in a rack at about the height of your lower ribs, so you can take it without curling it up.
2. Step in close, bend your elbows, and slide the bar into the crooks of your elbows, forearms pointing up, hands together or fists close. Keep your upper arms close to your sides.
3. Stand it up and take two or three short steps back.
4. Feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned out a little.
5. Brace hard before every rep. The bar in front pulls you forward, so ribs down and upper back tight.
6. Squat straight down between your heels, torso upright, as deep as you can keep that position. Your elbows finish between or just in front of your knees.
7. Stand up by pushing the floor away, chest leading, and breathe at the top.

Taking the bar from the floor in the crooks of your elbows is a different and harder lift. Start from the rack.

Making the hold comfortable

A common complaint is the bar pressing into the arms. The fixes below are setup and practice rather than studied:

• Pad the bar. A bar pad or a thick towel folded around the middle of the bar spreads the pressure.
• Cover your arms. Long sleeves add a layer.
• Keep it in the crook. If the bar slides toward your forearms, it presses on less padding. Bend your elbows hard and pull your hands toward your chest.
• Get the rack height right. Curling a bar up from too low a rack makes the hold harder to set.
• Start light. The hold is new; give it a few sessions before the weight climbs.

What a front-loaded squat changes

These studies used front squats, a dumbbell front squat, a bar built to move the load and two back-squat bar positions, not the Zercher hold. They show what holding a squat's load further forward does:

• More trunk muscle activity. In 26 healthy men aged 18 to 35, a front squat done with 75% of their back-squat weight produced more activity in three of the trunk muscles measured, two at the sides of the abdomen and one back muscle, than the back squat.¹ In 30 adults, 12 men and 18 women with an average age of about 48, a dumbbell front squat was among the exercises with the largest rise in abdominal-wall tension, alongside the Romanian deadlift and the leg press; that study did not compare load positions.²
• A more upright torso. In 18 adults, 10 men and 8 women, a specially built bar that moved the load further forward reduced both how far they leaned and how far the pelvis tipped forward; the demands at the hip, knee and ankle stayed generally similar.³
• Where the bar sits shifts the work. In 28 experienced men at 50 to 70% of their max, a high-bar back squat produced more leg muscle activity and a low-bar back squat more trunk muscle activity.⁴

In these studies, a front squat went with more trunk activity in one study, a load moved further forward went with a more upright torso in another, and hip, knee and ankle demands were generally similar in that bar study. That's a reading of front-loaded squats. The Zercher holds the bar lower still, and how it shares the work hasn't been measured.

Zercher squat vs front squat vs back squat

No study has compared the Zercher squat with either barbell squat, so the choice is practical. If the front squat's rack position won't work for you yet, the Zercher keeps the load in front without it. If your arms give out long before your legs, go back to the back squat for the heavy work and keep the Zercher as a second squat.

How deep to go

As deep as you can keep your torso upright, your heels down and the bar in the crooks of your elbows. A 2021 meta-analysis of 16 studies found that full-range training built more strength and more lower-body muscle than partial reps.⁵ The research on depth is covered in full on squat form.

The common faults, and a fix for each

• The bar sliding down your forearms. Bend your elbows harder, bring your hands together and up, and lighten the bar until it stays.
• The upper back rounding. The bar pulls you forward. Brace before every rep, lead the way up with your chest, and drop the weight if your back keeps folding.
• Elbows crashing into your knees. Widen your stance a little, or keep your elbows slightly in front of your knees at the bottom.
• Heels lifting. Sit down between your heels rather than forward over your toes.
• Depth that shrinks as the weight climbs. Keep the depth and let the weight wait.
• Squatting through something that hurts. Sore muscles the next day are normal; anything sharp or lasting isn't. Stop, and see a doctor or a physical therapist.

Sets, reps and where it goes

• Three sets of 5 to 8, stopping with a rep or two left. The hold tends to give out before the legs on long sets, which is why the reps stay low. (How to judge reps left.)
• As the main squat or a second one. The American College of Sports Medicine's 2026 position stand found strength was enhanced by two to three sets and by doing an exercise at the beginning of a session.⁶ Put it first if it's your main squat, or second after a back squat or a box squat on a lighter day.
• Add weight in small steps, and reps before plates. A heavier bar is a bigger change for your arms than for your legs. (Progressive overload covers the options.)

If you'd rather not plan it alone

The Zercher hold takes a few sessions to get comfortable; deciding whether it replaces your back squat or sits beside it, and how heavy each should be, is the part a page can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts are built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: pad the bar, set the rack at the height of your lower ribs, and do three sets of five Zercher squats with a light weight at your next leg session.