I suppose the ubiquitous answer of "it depends" works well here too.

I'd say it depends on you as a lifter (your strengths and weaknesses), as well as your training objective.  It's a good alternative exercise to train your back if you don't have a SSB.  Actually, between Front Squats and Zercher lifts, you can train the upper erectors pretty hard.  If you're trying to train your legs (usually quads), I can see where keeping the reps down can help some folks.  But on the other hand, if your upper back is what is limiting you from high reps, it might limit you on low reps too.

For me, if I think of any reason to keep the reps down on front squats, it has more to do with breathing and bar position.  For me, it's very difficult to breathe on front squat.  And if I get past that, I tend to drop my elbows as I fatigue, causing the bar to slide down.  That is what usually limits me on front squats, but regardless of the rep count.

It's funny.  Mike has me do sets of 10 and 12 now and then.  I used to think that going over 5 reps in the front squat didn't work, until I actually tried it.  I remember somebody on another board posted about a question about doing 20 rep front squats, got laughed at, told it was impossible.  A few months later, he posted video of himself doing 20x315 in the front squat.  So I'm not sure that doing high rep front squats is bad, impossible, or a bad idea.

They definitely work the upper back.  They're hard.  But you also need that strong upper back for back squats, and this is a great way to work on it in your accumulation phases.

What previous poster said. Trying to do heavy front squats for more than 5 reps is IMHO a bad idea. You'll start leaning forward more and more and eventually either place way too much stress on your lower back or dump the bar. I like either 5x5 or 5x3 (5 sets of 3 reps) to rack up the volume.

 They're a great *assistance* exercise for PL, and are certainly less stressful than the back squat.

Front Squat for high reps are no good. Upper back becomes the limiting factor instead of leg strength.

They have enormous carry over for me, in fact, front squats and deadlifts are the only squat assistance I do. 

 But I do squat ATG and only do  400 @ 190...

Cheers!

I've never really done them before. Well, once or twice but not enough to really gain anything from them.

Anyone do them and have good carryover to their back squat, or is this something that would be better left as a higher rep exercise (8-15 or so)? Thanks.

Who: My name is Jerad. I live in Alberta, Canada.

What do you do: Employment - I work in the IT department for the Health Region in my province.

Powerlifting - Been training for ~ a year now. Best meet lifts are 495/330/451 @ 242 partially geared, IPF meets. Stumbled across Mike's video's on youtube and once I picked my jaw up off the floor I checked out the website.

What is interesting about you (everybody has something)? Nothing extremely interesting about me. I'm basically a huge nerd. Which may just work to my advantage. I am reading articles on strength gain, nutrition, recovery all day practically. Always looking for new ways I can improve my technique and strength.

Well, It's good to know that there is at least one other lifter (Bob!) who is also "psycho".

I reiterate Mike's question; when is it good to get psyched up, fired up, whatever you want to call it? Does it serve a positive role in training, or just create more stress to recover from? How about it's role in competition? How do you channel it into strength where you need it, and not just an uncontrolled energy release? I know it is draining and unsustainable, so when do you do it, if at all? C'mon guys, there are a bunch of experienced powerlifters here, so what works for you? What have you learned?

Sounds like you're on your own, psycholifter.

 J/K.  I've experienced the exact same thing on DL and DL variants.  There's defnitely something psychological about it, at least for me.  While I normally get that feeling only setting a big PR, I've had it on "smaller" lifts, depending on the circumstance.

Equipped Results:

http://nextlifter.com/OnlineScoreBoard/Arnold_Equipped.htm

Raw Results:

http://nextlifter.com/OnlineScoreBoard/Arnold_Raw.htm

Deadlift Results:

http://nextlifter.com/OnlineScoreBoard/Arnold_Deadlift.htm

Bench Results:

http://nextlifter.com/OnlineScoreBoard/Arnold_Benchpress.htm 

Big Mike went 405-275-372.5 for a 1052.5 total and the highest wilks of the meet. 

I'm a believer in becoming a "student of the body" as well.

Tom Meyer's, "Anatomy Trains" is a great introduction to anatomy from a fresh perspective.

Stuart McGill, "Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance".  Great stuff about the role of "core" in athletics.

Lyle McDonald - just about anything he's written on nutrition is top-notch.

Related to Mike's question, and I've been thinking about this thread for a bit anyhow.  I do want to say that my observations / theory are based upon my n=1 experience only.

I did a day/week of dynamic effort work when I was getting back into training, so, there I was a beginner.  I think it served a useful purpose:  I needed more volume on the main exercises to learn what I was doing.  However, doing more volume at a heavier weight and just grinding out the reps would have pushed me into overtraining.  So DE work gave me a nice way to have my cake and eat it too.

As far as what I focused on:  I focused on bar speed, plain & simple.