I squat 325x3 now, and want to get 405x1 before the year ends. I have been lifting since June but progress has been slowing down considerable. I currently train four days a week, one day each for bench, deadlift, squat, and overhead press. I usually do 3x5 on the main lift for the day with some more 5s backing down in weight, 3x8 on a second barbell acessory, then 4x10 on some small lifts like rows, DB presses, lat pulls, etc.
I don’t have any sort of programming but to add weight to the main lifts each week, and to the accessories based on feel. The plan is to go through this phase of ‘bodybuilding’ through accessories then launch into 531 or some other undecided program to stick to through 2015. I did a 5x5 at first but squatting heavy three times a week was causing too many stalls when I got into the high 200s, lowering the frequency busted me through the plateau.
So I have set a 405x1 goal to hit by the end of December, and since I’m clueless on programming, I have no idea how to optimally reach that goal. I can attempt adding 10lbs to my sets each week, but I think that will have be stalling at such low frequency. I do low weight front squats after deadlifts on Wednesday, but that’s been a recent addition to learn the form rather than a stimulus that will realistically assist the squat.
I could add another day with varied reps so that I could squat 3x5 early in the week, then do 5x3/3x3 later in the week adding 10lbs, then next week attempting to so that same weight for 3x5 and continuing the cycle. I really don’t know what else I could do. I deadlift 3x5 on Wednesdays, so maybe I should scale that back to one top set if those extra two sets could be influencing recovery.
Maybe a shot at Smolov Jr., but it is seriously intimidating, and I would like to keep deadlifting once a week. I do realize that squatting more will help my deadlift too.
So what’s going to be the most optimal way to add that much to squat in a short period? It’s a tough goal to set but I do feel like it’s possible for me in this beginner/intermediate stage.
Pick one of the many programs that are on this site, follow them as written and eat everything that isn’t nailed down, and I bet you get damn close to 405.
I’m going to squat 405, “damn close” is not good enough, hah. I am a little set in my routine because I have a training partner and have been making progress, but I’m wondering if there are ways to optimize my training for this particular goal, or running a squat specific program alongside my other work. I press on Monday and Thursday, and deadlift on Wednesday. I squat one day on the weekend. I’m open to holding back on deadlifts to progress the squat, and adding more squats probably on deadlift day. I am doing front squats that day, but those are light because it’s a difficult movement for me.
So concerning my squats, I’m doing one day a week, 3x5 and sometimes 5x3 if I’m having a sluggish day and not hammering out reps. I take 3-5 minute breaks. I then do lying leg curls and leg extensions for 4x10 at doable weight, nothing too difficult. I’m not really feeling these accessories but they are easy to get done in a fatigued condition.
The changes I’m considering are to drop deadlifts to one heavy set and maybe even drop some accessories, then do 3x5 squats. On the weekend, add 10 pounds and do 5x3 with some back accessories that got removed from Wednesday. I won’t do the leg extensions and leg curls anymore. I also do back work on my pressing days, so that’s not getting neglected.
I looked over the Russian squat program and since it’s two days a week, that could easily be added into my routine. The excel sheet doesn’t look like it’s adding as much to my 1RM as I want, but it looks interesting.
Then again, I could be overthinking everything, and should keep squatting once a week adding five to ten pounds and progressing at the rate I have been, which does put my estimated 1RM over 405 if I don’t stall. This may good enough but I’m open to seeing how others would train if they wanted to attempt adding 50-60lbs to their squat in two months.
I recently just went from 335x3 to 405x1 in about a month. I just went in, hit an all out top set of 3, dropped the bar weight by 10% and did a 3x3. I tried to hit a pr top set every week and if I didn’t get a pr I’d add 5-10 lbs on my back off sets and throw in a 3x3 of front squats too. I don’t actually know how much of it was actual strength gains and how much was just trying harder though…
But if your attitude is really “I’m going to squat 405, “damn close” is not good enough” I don’t think you’ll have any issues
[quote]tylerkeen42 wrote:
I recently just went from 335x3 to 405x1 in about a month. [/quote]
Hells yeah. That’s awesome.
My max right now is 365 and I simply have it my head that I’m a 405 squatter and anything less just fucking pisses me off. I feel like my form is just now coming together and I’m ready to start smashing some weights.
Smolov Base, Switching, and Intense phase, coupled with a substantial calorie increase, will yield the best results in the shortest amount of time if your sole goal is to jack your squat with a Nitrous boost by years end. Hands down. I ran the program as an over 40 lifter, any youngster in good health with access to enough food should be able to complete it easily.
[quote]tylerkeen42 wrote:
I recently just went from 335x3 to 405x1 in about a month. [/quote]
Hells yeah. That’s awesome.
My max right now is 365 and I simply have it my head that I’m a 405 squatter and anything less just fucking pisses me off. I feel like my form is just now coming together and I’m ready to start smashing some weights.
[/quote]
Nice, just stick to it and I’m sure you’ll get there. I do think it helps that I always used wraps before and with the wraps hardly ever failed 405. So even when things got hard I just had it in my head that I didn’t fail squat singles at 405. I think there’s a lot of people who do a ton of research on nutrition and programs and never stop to think that maybe its their head thats the problem and not the program.
“He who who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right” -Confucius
Are you opposed to using a belt, if you’re not already using one? If you’re not already (properly) using one, this could take you to 405 very quickly. I never squat above 335ish without one.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
Smolov Base, Switching, and Intense phase, coupled with a substantial calorie increase, will yield the best results in the shortest amount of time if your sole goal is to jack your squat with a Nitrous boost by years end. Hands down. I ran the program as an over 40 lifter, any youngster in good health with access to enough food should be able to complete it easily. [/quote]
Do you mean to do base switching and intense while cutting out the other stages of the program? It looks beyond brutal, intimidating really but maybe that’s exactly what I need. I eat 3600 minimum calories at a little over 200lbs, sometimes I eat more. I can easily jack that up for an intense peaking program.
I have to go down to FL for a 5-day trip this week. Come Monday I’m going to start hitting the squats hard and frequent, maybe Smolov, maybe Jr or something else. I’m doing U/L everyday until I leave, hammering 3 rep sets of heavy squats and bench, pyramiding down.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
Smolov Base, Switching, and Intense phase, coupled with a substantial calorie increase, will yield the best results in the shortest amount of time if your sole goal is to jack your squat with a Nitrous boost by years end. Hands down. I ran the program as an over 40 lifter, any youngster in good health with access to enough food should be able to complete it easily. [/quote]
Do you mean to do base switching and intense while cutting out the other stages of the program? It looks beyond brutal, intimidating really but maybe that’s exactly what I need. I eat 3600 minimum calories at a little over 200lbs, sometimes I eat more. I can easily jack that up for an intense peaking program.
I have to go down to FL for a 5-day trip this week. Come Monday I’m going to start hitting the squats hard and frequent, maybe Smolov, maybe Jr or something else. I’m doing U/L everyday until I leave, hammering 3 rep sets of heavy squats and bench, pyramiding down.[/quote]
There’s 4 phases to Smolov: introductory, base, switching, and intense. Most people (me included) will tell you the introductory phase is unnecessary if you are in decent squatting shape already. My advice is to run the full program, and I consider the introductory phase to be an “optional” part of the full program. Smolov is the gold standard for squat-peaking programs.
Google around for Dragon Door, Joe Skopec and Smolov. Skopec has a good calculator, but the caclualtor does have a mistake on one of the intense phase days IIRC.
Smolov is a great option or you could try daily maxing with back off sets. My initial thought was smolov, but daily max squatting will give you confidence with maxing and it gives you about 60 opportunities to squat 405+ before 2015.
The thing that helped me reach 405 was to squat more frequently. Add another squat day during the week. However on another note, I recently just finished a training program called smolov. About six months ago I completed the smolov “jr” program, which is the first three weeks of the full program and reaped some squat strength gains.
I just finished the program today, and set a HUGE PR.The program is 13 weeks long (hard and brutal) and it practically forces your squat to go up. Before the program I was stuck at 440x1 as a grinder max. After the first 3 weeks of the program, you are to max and enter it in the spreadsheet. I got a PR of 500 LBs (yes only after three weeks.)
I maxed earlier today, and hit another huge PR of 545!(This is after the full 13 weeks) Also note i was extremely dedicated to this program, I began sleeping a lot more and also drastically increased my food/creatine intake which I think played a huge part in this program. At first I didnt like it because I was not able to deadlift for 13 weeks but i had fun incorporating some upper body work 2-3 a week after squatting (usually bench, ohp, dips or skullcrushers etc) I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PROGRAM FOR YOU AS IT SOLVED THIS PROBLEM FOR ME (except my goal was to get to 495).
VERY brutal program but very effective. Make sure to foam roll your life away. It is an easy spreadsheet to find online but if you cant I have it saved and will gladly email it to you.
Also switching from sports authority wraps to slingshot wraps helped a little bit. hope you reach your 405!
Man this is a fantastically brotastic thread lol. Just a quick question about what happens when you don’t squat 405 by the end of the year? will you die or something? I don’t mean to rain on every ones party but why not hit some slow steady progress? Whats really wrong with that?
with a 3rm at 325 your max is somewhere around 355-365 and my guess is its probably at the low end at best. maybe just focus on squatting 365 first then 375 and so on. just start 531 now and don’t worry about your max progressing so fast because honestly no one really cares if you squat 405 at over 200 its just not very impressive. Just focus on adding 5-10 pounds every month or two and you’ll have a much more impressive squat in 2 years then if you try to make very large jumps in short time periods.
[quote]badwolf42 wrote:
Man this is a fantastically brotastic thread lol. Just a quick question about what happens when you don’t squat 405 by the end of the year? will you die or something? I don’t mean to rain on every ones party but why not hit some slow steady progress? Whats really wrong with that?
with a 3rm at 325 your max is somewhere around 355-365 and my guess is its probably at the low end at best. maybe just focus on squatting 365 first then 375 and so on. just start 531 now and don’t worry about your max progressing so fast because honestly no one really cares if you squat 405 at over 200 its just not very impressive. Just focus on adding 5-10 pounds every month or two and you’ll have a much more impressive squat in 2 years then if you try to make very large jumps in short time periods. [/quote]
I agree and disagree. I agree that it is important to mainly focus on steady progress, but I disagree with the idea that he should just not worry about this goal he set for himself. His goal is very reasonable, it is not like he is saying, “help me add 200 pounds to my squat in 2 months!!!”, 40-50 pounds in 2 months can be done.
No, no one else will really care if he hits 405 except maybe his friends and family that he tells, but anyone who lifts for anyone else is an idiot. Setting goals is not about anyone else, he wants this for himself because it is important to >him<.
[quote]badwolf42 wrote:
Man this is a fantastically brotastic thread lol. Just a quick question about what happens when you don’t squat 405 by the end of the year? will you die or something? I don’t mean to rain on every ones party but why not hit some slow steady progress? Whats really wrong with that?
with a 3rm at 325 your max is somewhere around 355-365 and my guess is its probably at the low end at best. maybe just focus on squatting 365 first then 375 and so on. just start 531 now and don’t worry about your max progressing so fast because honestly no one really cares if you squat 405 at over 200 its just not very impressive. Just focus on adding 5-10 pounds every month or two and you’ll have a much more impressive squat in 2 years then if you try to make very large jumps in short time periods. [/quote]
I agree and disagree. I agree that it is important to mainly focus on steady progress, but I disagree with the idea that he should just not worry about this goal he set for himself. His goal is very reasonable, it is not like he is saying, “help me add 200 pounds to my squat in 2 months!!!”, 40-50 pounds in 2 months can be done.
No, no one else will really care if he hits 405 except maybe his friends and family that he tells, but anyone who lifts for anyone else is an idiot. Setting goals is not about anyone else, he wants this for himself because it is important to >him<.[/quote]
It might be possible especially if he spent the last two or three months increase work load and muscle mass which it doesn’t sound like. otherwise increasing a true max by 50 pounds in two months is exceedingly difficult. The risk of reverting to bad form and ultimately getting hurt just to hit a number a few months sooner really doesn’t justify the risk. goals are very important but only thinking 1-2 months in advanced will really prevent true progress.
