just a quick question to anyone who has achieved these numbers , how many years training did it take you to get there? and generally speaking what methods did you use.
These numbers are my main training goals,(currently I’m miles off, by about 150lbs on each lift) and I’d like to get a general idea of how long it might take to get there , though I realise of course everyones is different.
For me it took roughly 12 years,and my strength in these two lifts did not really go up until I gained a large amount of muscle. The main method that helped me achieve this was “Super Squats”. Utilizing a set of 20 rep squats three times a week in total body workouts. As well as eating as much as possible.
After graduating high school (where I lifted pretty regularly but really didn’t know anything) it took me 3 years to hit the squat and 5 years to hit the deadlift.
During that time I followed a variety of programs usually with a once or twice a week frequency. I did some Westside but most of it was off a once a week split, pretty similar to the split I outlined here:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1460447
Good luck with your training
I actually had these numbers, just backwards. I had 6’s in the squat and 5’s in the deadlift.
It took me about 7 years of really hard, INTELLIGENT lifting, to get there. I focused primarily on westside, and as such, I really only trained the squat, dead, and bench ( I was a powerlifter after all). I did NOT do any curls, calf raises, lunges, cable tricep extensions, etc. I focused on my goals, and I trained to get them.
Eating as much as I could get my hands on also proved very helpful. Good luck on reaching your goals man…
Respect
I appreciate the honest and in-depth answers.
Yeah, I’m in the 6 years hard, intelligent training range now, hope to hit it sometime this year.
Like Day I’ve achieved 6Squat and 5Dead. Main thing that helped was Westside training and abandoning quad squatting in favor of developing my posterior chain aka a big ass.
thank you for all the responses folks, I appreciate it. personally I’ve been training since I was a kid but only “hard and intelligent” as you say for about 1 and a half years. If I can get my squat from 350 too 400 this year and my dead from 425 to maybe 450 I’d be fairly happy. I’ve never used westside before, just simple full body or upper body lower body splits with the bare minimum of exercises to get the job done.
My concern with westside would be that I’m not strong enough to get the full benefit from th speed days, any thoughts on this anyone?
A lot of people jump on Westside before they are ready.
One of the bigest things speed days do is provide a day that your knees, shoulders and back don’t get 600 pounds dumped on them.
If you haven’t reached the point where your joints (for me its shoulders from squatting mostly) just can’t take the abuse, you might do better on a different program.
yo Zack, you should change to the power squat, if you haven’t already, and read these.
[quote]liftergary wrote:
A lot of people jump on Westside before they are ready.
[/quote]
True story.
And alot of people that swear by training the posterior chain already have damn strong quads and their hams and glutes are weak, relatively.
Zack, I used Westside while in high school for the better part of 2 years. I wasn’t “strong” by most standards but I benefitted from speed squats, not so much benching. However, I saw great results switching from a speed day to a repitition day, maybe something you might want to look into. The WS4SB was and is one of my favorite programs.
For those of you squatting 600 and deadlifting 500, was that in gear? Kind of odd to have a raw squat 100lbs higher than your deadlift. Just curious.
[quote]Jared111 wrote:
For those of you squatting 600 and deadlifting 500, was that in gear? Kind of odd to have a raw squat 100lbs higher than your deadlift. Just curious.[/quote]
I’m not one of these people, but it could be a number of things. It could be a grip issue. It could be that the squat was trained harder over the course of time. It could be the person is shorter and stockier and better built for squatting. I guess i don’t find it as odd. Maybe someone else will chime in.
I squatted 500 at the end of my sophomore year in high school, but the deadlift is a ways off. I’m at about 465 right now.
yeah, the heavy day/ rep day thing is somethin I’ve used quite a bit to good effect. cheers for the response.
[quote]Jared111 wrote:
For those of you squatting 600 and deadlifting 500, was that in gear? Kind of odd to have a raw squat 100lbs higher than your deadlift. Just curious.[/quote]
Well there are two kinds of gear ;). I assume you meant PL gear though. Wearing only a belt my max was/is 565. In a belt, knee wraps and a single ply Inzer Power Pant I hit 625 in January [off the other kind of gear]. My Squat suit no longer fits me. I plan to do a full PL meet in July. I’d love to hit 700 on the Squat.
Probably need to get a bit stronger and find the right suit [Metal?].
For Deadlift the only gear there really is is a belt. I pulled 515 just last week my all time PR. [Now that was on the other kind of gear as well though.] Previous best was 505 last November.
I’m in my 4th week of a 12 week cycle [Test & Deca]. I have yet to take a max squat on the latest cycle, as I alternate ME movements every 2-3 weeks between Squat, Dead, GM and RDL.
So yeah wearing only a belt my Squat is higher than my dead. Two main reasons IMO for this are [1]my abs are too weak. My sticking point is absolutely the floor. Anything I get to my knee cap is going all the way up. [2]I still need to get faster. Speed IMO is much more critical for the dead than the squat. Also while I have a nice wide spread the floor squat. I still deadlift conventionally.
My sumo pull is only in the mid 400’s probably because I can never get comfortable over the bar and rarely do the movement. I know doing sumos more is probably exactly what the doctor is ordering but… oh well.
I hit the first one pretty quickly…senior yr of HS, so I guess about 3 1/2 - 4yrs.
The DL…now that’s another story. I think it was 8 or 9 years. My DL has never been my best lift, so I’m proud to haved worked to that level.