Front squat problems (again)

Training
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Thank you for your input! It sounds like you’ve definitely got a lotttt of experience with that Bulgarian method. I wish I had both the time and the recovery capabilities to squat/clean/snatch 5-7 days per week. But I suppose if that’s the only thing that you’re doing, like you hinted at, it seems more than doable.

So did you pretty much stick with rep ranges that correlated with 75-85% of your max, then? You stated that you never really programmed, so just curious.

And yes, “owning” the weight has been huge for me, before moving up in weight AND reps.

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Yup, I found that out the hard way. I spend ~10 minutes before every lift doing some dynamic movements to get the blood flowing and the muscles warmed up, but yes, never static stretching on those lifting days. It’s probably a bad idea, but I almost never do static stretching.

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I most definitely am a number/strength chaser :flushed_face: . I completely agree with you here on making sure the CNS is good to go again…but as a said number/strength chaser, it’s difficult to know when I need to allow time for that “catching up”…ESPECIALLY if I’m overall feeling fine, physically and mentally (which is 97.5% of the time). I didn’t know about the 3-5 week mark, though, so thank you for sharing that! I will work to implement that in my program.

Also agree on limiting the reps on my working-up sets. Lately I’ve been doing 10 reps with the bar, 5 reps with 100 pounds, 3 reps with 125 pounds, 1 rep with 135 pounds, and sometimes just getting a “feel” for the weight with 150 pounds (as @TrainForPain suggested). I definitely don’t want to waste too much energy and time on those.

Yes, I am a lady and still menstruate regularly! I’ve only been consistently training for 2 years now, which is a huge difference to some of the people on here who have been training for 10+ or even 5+ years. But in those 2 years, I personally have never had any strength issues related to my cycle. Yes, I have bad days and good days like everyone else, but looking back at my training logs and where I’ve been at in my cycle, there’s not really a specific point in my cycle where I see a noticeable decline in gym performance…so not really seeing any correlation, I guess. My “good” days and “bad” days in the gym are pretty much dispersed throughout the month whenever. I’ve also never been a heavy bleeder, and mine last 3-4 days max. I definitely overexplained that, but all being said: yes for some women I agree that cycle syncing absolutely matters. I’ve never had an issue, so right now I just aim to do the best I can, no matter where I’m at in my cycle.

So higher reps worked for you for the front squat? I’ve never done good mornings before, but have done those reverse hypers! Thanks!

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Oh nice! Good to know! When that red flag week starts I can always feel it. I just pause everything and walk or do more cardio. The bloating is absolutely for the birds though lol.

What helped me was gathering as much observable info as I could. Sleep (how soon or how late i fall asleep), how does waking up feel, shifts in appetite or food cravings, bar speed, muscle cramps, headaches, are secondary movements either going up or staying stagnate, etc. It all seems like a lot but sometimes watching any repetitive changes or variations can be helpful, although not the rule.

Absolutely. Id pick an almost “too easy” weight to move or use as a working weight, and add 5lbs throughout whatever training cycle I was doing. At the end of that I would use a new working weight that was somewhere right at 10lbs heavier that what I started with. Id keep whatever rep and set ranges I had, and if I missed a set I’d stay there until that weight felt “too easy”.

The best example i personally have of this is the back squat. Throughout the first ehh…5-6 years I would always base most of what I do around a weight that moved easy. 135 felt easy somewhere around that time frame. Didn’t matter what scheme I had set up, that was always a marker for me. Now, some 10 years later I can crank out 25 reps with that same 135. 30 reps if I Absolutely wanna ruin my day lol.

But I also implemented the same thing with front squats.

Its not solely the high reps, but the high reps form a solid base. And you can plug in almost any movement you want. I see no reason to not experiment with the front squat considering back squats are like my favorite movement lol

I would suggest good mornings if, and only if, you can feel it help to strengthen the front squat. Good mornings helped my back hold that upright position in front squatting. But if you dont notice it translating to that, by all means disregard it.

Also…if you like you start a training log if you havent already!

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Thank you for explaining all of this! By secondary movements, are you referring to lifts other than compound lifts? How often do you “expect” (for lack of a better word) these movements to go up? On a weekly basis, bi-weekly, etc.? For me personally, I’m often at the same weight for months before going up in weight. Like leg extensions for instance, I’ll start off doing 6-8 reps and work my way up to 12 reps at the same weight, and once I can get those 12 reps for each set, then I’ll go up in weight. But progress is verryyyy slowww…kinda like this for those leg extensions for instance:

Week 1: 3x8

Week 2: 1x9, 2x8

Week 3: 1x9, 1x9, 1x8

Week 4: 1x10, 1x9, 1x8

So that’s already a month of being at the same weight. And I’m not upset about it as long as I’m able to increase reps, but like I said, is my progress supposed to be that slow? Maybe some other people can comment on this as well!

I do notice that some days my bar speed is slower, some days it’s higher. I’ll have to start paying attention to that a bit more.

I do feel that with heavier front squats, it’s not a matter of my leg strength but more so keeping my torso upright and engaging my core. I do exercises like rows and lat pulldowns to keep my back strong and to stay upright, but never thought of good mornings! Interesting…I will try that! Thank you!

Also, kind of off topic, but: do you know how much muscle a female intermediate lifter can gain within a year, given that she’s consistent, keeping up with nutrition/recovery, and seeing progressive overload? I know that muscle growth slows down the more advanced you get, and I know that a lot of it also depends on genetics. I guess I’m just curious how slow of a gain we’re talking (perhaps people can comment on this as well)

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There are so many factors that come into play here, it’s hard to tell.
5-6lbs? Maybe more if you’ve got stellar genetics or are taking enhancements.

But this requires hypertrophy based training, as muscle recruitment is the goal.
So your front squat and focus on powerlifting is not helping. I feel like there’s an echo in here :slightly_smiling_face:

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I do agree that this required hypertrophy training…butttt at the same time, I don’t see why you can’t do both hypertrophy and strength training?

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*requires

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I don’t see why you can’t do both hypertrophy and strength training?

Because they require different training demands, and we can only recover from so much stimulus at once. This is why there is such a thing as periodization.

Hypertrophy training increases strength potential: strength training realizes that potential. A muscle can only get so strong before it needs to get bigger in order to have more strength potential. So we do hypertrophy training, make the muscle bigger, and then realize it’s potential some more.

And somewhere along that cycle, we also do some GPP cycles, because those are good too.

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You can do an okay job at both when you do them at the same time.
Or you can do really well at one or the other.

Newbies get the benefit of getting strong and big fast regardless of their training style. Your lifts sound like you are not a newbie… may be time to be more specialized, or take comfort in half-speed gains in both strength and muscle.

Elites, particularly in powerlifting, tend to do blocks of training where they will switch between hypertrophy and strength styles, as strength training does not add much size, and hypertrophy does not add much strength… so they periodize their training, because you need both to get stronger.
Bodybuilders tend not to need powerlifting/strength training blocks because we’re just slowly beating the logbook and our progression is not 30% form based.

If you insist on strength training, then I recommend periodizing your training… say 3 months strength, 3 months hypertrophy, rinse and repeat.

I have no disagreement with what @T3hPwnisher said, only that GPP is useful all the time - but very hard to recover from alongside strength or hypertrophy based training. Most bodybuilders just do light cardio for cardiovascular health and nutrient partitioning… GPP is a great way to eat muscle if recovery isnt very carefully monitored.

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Ohhh. That actually makes a lottt of sense now. Thank you for dumbing it down for me lol.

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Ahh I see. Correct, I’m not really in the newbie phase anymore, so perhaps I’m not used to progressing so slowly.

If I continue to want to do strength training like you suggested, and if I follow that periodization…do I do 3 months strength for ALL my lifts during those 3 months? And 3 months hypertrophy for all lifts as well? I’m thinking things like leg extensions, leg curls: do these need to be trained in that low rep high weight range in the strength period?

Thank you for explaining this so nicely!

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This is nearing the end of my knowledge with respect to powerlifting goals as I stopped caring about them when I realized I couldn’t chase two rabbits. I outsourced some of this information.

To my understanding, competitive powerlifters go through 3 phases of macrocycles…
a. Accumulation (hypertrophy) 6-8 weeks
b. Intensification (base building/strength) 4-8 weeks
c. Realization (peaking) 3-6 weeks
d. powerlifting meet
e. 1-2 week deload
f. repeat

So this is going to have limited applicability here, unless you decide you want to start actually competing (which is the exact moment I realized my powerlifts are pointless because I’ve no interest in competing, so why do them at all?).

But lets assume you’re going to compete in powerlifting, because further tailoring it towards a 50/50 split of goals really is chasing two rabbits. So priority: powerlifting

Accumulation (hypertrophy) 6-8 weeks

Primary goal: Build muscle mass, increase work capacity, address weaknesses, and add body weight if needed (bigger muscles = bigger potential for strength).

Training:

  • Higher volume (more sets/reps/total tonnage).
  • Moderate intensity (60–75% of 1RM on main lifts, 70–85% on accessories).
  • Rep ranges: 6–12+ (sometimes up to 15–20 on accessories).
  • More exercise variation: Competition lifts (squat/bench/deadlift) + hypertrophy-oriented accessories (high-bar squats, pause benches, deficit deadlifts, rows, leg presses, close-grip bench, etc.).
  • Frequency: Often 4–6 days/week with more total sets.

This is the “building” phase where lifters often eat in a caloric surplus and gain some body fat along with muscle.

Intensification (base building/strength) 4-8 weeks

Primary goal: Convert the new muscle and work capacity into maximal strength on the competition lifts.

Training:

  • Lower volume, higher intensity (75–90%+ of 1RM).
  • Rep ranges: Mostly 3–6 on main lifts, some heavier doubles/triples.
  • More specificity: Heavy competition-style squat/bench/deadlift (or very close variations); accessories are reduced in volume but still target weak points.
  • Progression: Heavy singles/doubles start appearing toward the end.

Realization (peaking) 3-6 weeks

Primary goal: Reach peak strength for the meet (maximal 1RMs) while recovering fatigue.

Training:

  • Very low volume, very high intensity (85–100%+ of 1RM).
  • Heavy singles become the focus, with lots of rest/taper in the final 1–2 weeks.
  • Minimal accessories.

I left out training frequency on the intensification and peaking phases as they are tailored to the athlete, but most are in the 4x per week range.
I’d aim for squatting 1-2x per week, benching 1-2x per week, and deadlifting 1x per week as a general recommendation, though.

If you arent on a training system for your powerlifts - get on one.
Juggernaut, sheiko, candito advanced, empire barbell, westside conjugate, etc.

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@badgerbabe1223

OR just YOLO it and do 3 months hypertrophy (powerlifts with higher reps included and assistance work), then 3 months strength (powerlifts with limited assistance work).

The first option is optimal for strength. The second if you really aren’t interested in competing and just want to be strong and look good naked (both of which are possible with hypertrophy methods alone).
:slightly_smiling_face:

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Gagh I apologize for the late reply. Thank you for laying all of this information out for me!

That is quite a long cycle with a lot of different components. You are correct that I don’t want to compete in powerlifting, so following this regimen seems like a moot point. However, I may someday want to do competitive powerlifting. Just not right now or in the near future! Mad respect to anyone who does.

That being said, I like your idea of doing 3 months hypertrophy and then 3 months strength. I do value both hypertrophy AND strength training, and I find both enjoyable. I like doing heavy work with sets of 3 reps, and I also like doing moderate work with sets of 8-12 reps. So the second option sounds like the best of both worlds to me. Thanks again for your advice and insight!

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