Front Squats.

Unless you use these as a warm up for cleans / power cleans
then no. Use whatever, hold it however to keep the weight
across the shoulder fronts.

I'd suggest working on your shoulder/wrist mobility until it becomes comfortable to use a clean grip unless you have some sort of old injury which prevents you from doing so.

 

When I first started doing them I had to use straps or a cross grip but after about a year of doing them 1-3 times a week I can get 3-4 fingers under the bar in a clean grip depending on how warmed up I am.

33 years of doing them with my arms crossed, all good.  Now I am learning to let the bar ride the fib.  I like how that sounds.  Ride the fib.  That is short for the fibulator(ipod rig) in my upper chest.

tip...
...when the wt gets heavy focus on driving the elbows up
and forget about pushing with the legs. This exercises
is so much about posture (imo) and once you start to let
the weight crush you, you'll round forward, lose that
groove, fight the weight from falling out, shift forward
onto toes, overload knees, etc. all bad things. sit
back, keep that ribcage expanded, and it'll stay right in
the groove you need for heavy lifts.

every rep, i think about driving those elbows straight
towards the ceiling. has helped me more than once on a
heavy one when you start to fail and round
forward...drive elbows up, regain posture, and push
through it.

Silverback wrote: .  Now I am learning to let the bar ride the fib.  I like how that sounds.  Ride the fib.  That is short for the fibulator(ipod rig) in my upper chest.

Myles is the only guy in the world that would use his fibulator to help with front squats. That's freakin classic right there. 

mike pockoski wrote: tip... ...when the wt gets heavy focus on driving the elbows up and forget about pushing with the legs. This exercises is so much about posture (imo) and once you start to let the weight crush you, you'll round forward, lose that groove, fight the weight from falling out, shift forward onto toes, overload knees, etc. all bad things. sit back, keep that ribcage expanded, and it'll stay right in the groove you need for heavy lifts. every rep, i think about driving those elbows straight towards the ceiling. has helped me more than once on a heavy one when you start to fail and round forward...drive elbows up, regain posture, and push through it.

 

Tried this yeasterday.  Huge help!

Soul Eater wrote: The racking of the bar on the shoulders is extremely important for oly lifting for regular training use what ever grip you like. If you have big biceps your rack could be poor and you will be focusing more on keeping the elbows up. And fighting the spine. Big biceps no beuno for front squat according to most Olympic lifting coaches. Look at top weightlifter's relatively small arms in comparison to other strength sport's athletes.

Here here!