That’s the 531 Deep Water template, surprised you hadn’t heard of it!
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I’ve definitely considered doing BBS followed by BBB in the same workout before. I don’t think even I’m stupid enough to add SSL on there too.
Edit: although it is only one extra set, how hard can it be?
I’m thinking about writing a daemon that’ll send me an email once per month on a training day to start incorporating challenge workouts. This could be one.
I’m more than happy to offer suggestions. I’ve certainly done some stupid shit in my time.
I remember there being a Crossfit Christmas Challenge to do on the 24th of December. The rule was to pick 24 exercises. On the first one, you do one rep, on the second exercise you do two reps, and so on until the 24th exercise with 24 reps. Talk about choose your own adventure.
I work in retail, so 24th is a no go for me. Chris used to run a 365 challenge to be done between Christmas and new years in which the challenge was to do 365 reps in a workout. It was recommended to split them between an upper body and a lower body.
Obviously some smartarse had to go and do a single set of 365 reps
Thanks for the comments. I probably am being too analytical about it and should just keep at it with 5s PRO + 5x5 FSL for at least another cycle or two. I realize that I’ll probably always have this technique breakdown at heavier weights, regardless of what “heavy” means absolutely. It just sucks because I foresee myself already plateauing again soon because it’s cyclical – once I hover around 135-145 pounds, I always have to reel back my TM due to these issues. It’s been like that for years. I don’t care about being skillful with heavy weights, but I’d like to think that those numbers would go up eventually… I will be trying the belt squats for assistance anyway, so I won’t change too many variables at once. Hopefully those + more practice will add up.
Regarding the slight technique improvement, I think watching a lot of videos on how Max Aita coaches the squat has helped. Just different cues.
Maybe a change in mindset would be the best thing for you. This sounds like you’re priming yourself for (and expecting) failure. Nothing wrong with being realistic, but I think you’re talking yourself out of progress here.
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What cues are you using? What cues are you thinking about trying? Max has a different build from you (presuming you have long femurs) so your squat won’t look like his. Not saying you cannot get things from it, and quads may certainly be limiting long term but I’m guessing that if you squat to your strengths your squat will look more like this,
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What do the strong people that read this log think? I have the same form issue. If I squat more like Max Aita I need to use significantly lower load but if I squat like I normally do I have zero quad sensation whatsoever. Best to continue squatting with the technique that allows the greatest load and hamme quads with assistance or adjust technique on main lift. Trade a momentary regression for (hopefully) better potential long-term? In my case hip impingement is more likely with Max Aita style as the slightly narrower stance sometimes has my femur banging against my hip.
Honestly it sounds like the issue I had when I was running 5/3/1- I’d always feel very strong and get good reps until I get to the point where I’m hitting actually “heavy” weights and then collapse.
I think at one point I was squatting 255lb for a rep max of 8 and then failed miserably the next cycle- managed only a 265lb for a rep max of 4 or something. I forget; it’s been a very long time and before I restarted logging here.
Double progression allowed me to break out of this plateau a bit- reset down to 205lb and tried to hit 25 reps in as few a set as possible. This typically meant I’d work up to the point where I’m doing 1x12, 1x13. Once I can hit that I’d go up 10lb and start from 4x6.
This worked really well, actually. I went from dying with 225lb to dying with 285lb within a span of 7-8 months. Stopped it because my right knee got injured. Rarely ventured past 285lb at that point because I’d keep tweaking my right knee or injuring something else because of being an idiot (most recent one being cleaning 165lb and then… catching it wrong and effectively busting the same freaking knee), but I’ve always found that I can build back up to doing 275lbx6-10 with just a bit of focus, so I think the double progression really helped out with breaking through the plateau I was in.
Point being- maybe try changing programs? Go see what interests you.
WOW. This looks so much better! Really, it does! Good job!
Don’t worry about perfecting technique in just a short amount of time. It’s a very long process. The greats, and even the strong ass people in this forum have to tweak things every now and then.
You reached the recommended reps, right? Just go ahead and increase your TM. Form will break down a bit, but that’s the point of progressing. The FSL weights are light for a reason. It’s to allow you to get in more reps without breaking form even if you’re already fatigued from the topset. That’s more practice NOT doing the squatmorning.
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Right, but from what I’ve seen not everyone Max coaches has the exact same build as him. I saw a video where some of his lifters had the same problem as me – though arguably relatively more subtly – and how he would cue them mid-session to use the quads more. Learning from a successful expert who has dealt with the same issues as oneself is ideal. But if that expert does a good job identifying and alleviating an issue without having experienced it first-hand, I don’t think that’s a terrible alternative.
I can fish for the videos I watched recently when I get home later
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@magick Thanks for the insight. Sounds about right, and especially as I am already much better at reps than higher intensities. I do believe very much in the 5/3/1 principles, and it works well for my other lifts. So I think I’ll stick with it a couple more cycles and go from there. But I’ve read good things about double progression like you mention, so something to think about.
@whang Thanks, I’m trying! Yeah, I’ve been able to hit 5 reps on the top set every week, though of course they get uglier as weeks progress. I’ll increase the TM and try to benefit from the FSL weights increasing a touch and introducing belt squats
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I personally think base 5/3/1 (whatever the hell that means at this point… I guess percentage-based training?) is amazing for people who are very much in tune with their body and personal limits in relation to weightlifting.
For those who are still trying to figure out what their body can handle and train themselves to truly see what their body is capable of, I think it is subpar. And I personally think I am validated in thinking like this because the 5/3/1 Forever books has a SHIT-TON of programs that, as far as I can tell, don’t have much in common besides the same skeletal structure + Wendler no longer advocates rep maxes for beginners.
I really like his beginner prep school program and the concept of super-setting and giant-setting things though, to the point that virtually everything I do is a weird hybrid mishmash of those things.
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Sorry, just remarking so you can remain concious of it. FWIW, CT has a long femured bobsleigh athlete that coincidentally is very quad dominant to the point where it’s impeding his olympic lifts so it’s possible to squat more upright with our build. @aldebaran I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but Gab does share our morphology,
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Yeah I talked about him. I squat like him actually, it feels much more natural and consistant to me ahah
Surprised your quads haven’t blown up more! But it’ll happen, it just takes longer when femurs are longer.
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Depends on your goals.
If you want to squat more than squat however you are strong even if it looks a bit funky or is a bit inefficient.
If you wanna get big than throw in some variations or if your quads aren’t being adequately worked even with front squats then use hack squat/leg press.
Could do a blend of approaches too. Technical cues useful but can only go so far. If you tweak your technique and accumulate a lot of volume under your unique individual technical breakdown threshold then u get the best of both worlds
No need to apologize; discussion is good. Thanks for sharing the video. Gives some hope. I honestly think I also fell for the (in my opinion) overhyped posterior chain meme when I first started lifting. Did tons and tons and tons of GHRs and RDLs. As a result I never struggled with deadlifts once I could get them off the floor. More importantly, the latter probably excessively engrained pushing back the hips and minimally extending the knees.
So yeah, no one in this video has this body type. But I find it helpful.
