Front Squat to Bench

The front squat with the bar racked across the front of the shoulders forces the torso to stay upright from the first repetition to the last, and that is precisely its purpose. With the load in front, any forward lean sends the bar off the shoulders, so the exercise self-corrects: the quadriceps take more work than in a back squat and the upper back works constantly to hold position. Descending until you touch a bench adds an objective reference for depth, which is genuinely useful when you are learning the movement or when you want every repetition in a set to reach the same point. The bench is not somewhere to sit or bounce off: you touch it and stand back up. Wrist and elbow mobility is usually the first limit and deserves separate work.