Kettlebell KB Goblet Squat vs DFSQ vs Zercher BB Squat

[Denys Carthusian]

Just working my way through the video demo by Fabio, Brett et al on the Zercher (noting the 6:00 and 8:00 positions) and note the Zercher I have not yet done, only the Goblet and DFSQ. Very curious what the experiences are of those who have done all 3.

 

[mar2safety]

My experiences with all three:
KB Goblet Squat - i like these as a warm up, to pry open the hips. Difficult to load these up vs. DFSQ or Zercher. I like to add pauses at the bottom to increase difficulty.

DFSQ - These light up my core big time, especially in the 8-10rm range. I don't have double KBs beyond 16s, so I end up having an uneven load, 20/24, or 24/28, etc. I've used these in a hypertrophy cycle (BuiltStrong), but haven't used them in a strength program.

BB Zercher - These are my 'go-to' heavy squat. I do not have a rack, so I either zercher from the floor, or I have the bar boosted up (24") on my two pyloboxes for the setup. I personally love zerchers for a few reasons. 1) great recruitment of the upper back, 2) super safe movement if you need to dump the bar, 3) minimalist setup (literally just a bar and weights needed). I'm tall, with long limbs, so I find Zerchers more comfortable vs. front or back squats.

 

[Antti]

They are pretty similar. The zerchers can be loaded heavy. That's why they're obviously the best.

 

[Ben Strong]

I utilized Zerchers and double front squats (DFSQ's) for my cycle of Fabio's Built Strong Minimalist (BSM) along with high bar back squats. I used the Zerchers for my medium squat pattern selection and the DFSQ's as my light exercise so these were the two exercises with the highest volume. I really felt like the Zerchers lit up my core and I could load these quite a bit heavier than KB DFSQs which gave me some nice squat gains. With the DFSQ I think my upper back is the limiting factor when I get to higher weights. I really like having DFSQs somewhere in my programming. I feel like they are great for building a strong and stable foundation for all the other kettlebell work. When I am not doing them regularly I just feel less zipped up and less cohesive during cleans and presses and the like, if that makes any sense at all.

 

[Denys Carthusian]

I utilized Zerchers and double front squats (DFSQ's) for my cycle of Fabio's Built Strong Minimalist (BSM) along with high bar back squats. I used the Zerchers for my medium squat pattern selection and the DFSQ's as my light exercise so these were the two exercises with the highest volume. I really felt like the Zerchers lit up my core and I could load these quite a bit heavier than KB DFSQs which gave me some nice squat gains. With the DFSQ I think my upper back is the limiting factor when I get to higher weights. I really like having DFSQs somewhere in my programming. I feel like they are great for building a strong and stable foundation for all the other kettlebell work. When I am not doing them regularly I just feel less zipped up and less cohesive during cleans and presses and the like, if that makes any sense at all.

That makes perfect sense. Back when I was running a Geoff Neupert program that was exactly my experience with relatively light DFSQ's (double 12kg and it really seemed to zip me up).