I am interested in seeing the differences in lifts from people. The front squat and good morning relative to the backsquat.
I am 145 lbs 5’4 here and i stopped back squatting and deadlifting about 2-3 weeks ago.
i switched to front squatting and good mornings since i read it can increase my B squatting.
I have been seriously training for 4 months now. Still weak, and my 6 reps for 3 sets with backsquat was at 230 and deadlifting was at 245 when i stopped.
My good mornings recently are at 5X5 at 155 and front squats with cross grip 5X5 at 175-185. im just excited to see what my back squatting will be in a 2-3 weeks.
It is good to mix things up and both front squats and good mornings are great exercises, but you may not be that happy when you switch back to regular squats mainly because those exercises are normally used in conjunction with back squats. I mean you can substitute them in for a week or something but it is unusual that a person trying to improve their back squat would not back squat for any length of time. The back squat is a relatively high school movement and high skill movements require a lot of practice.
The good news is that given the weight you are lifting you are basically at the beginner stage with squatting, so doing those exercises may have a good carryover. My advice for the future would be to continue to back squat (a minimum of once a week every week) and then add in front squats and GM’s to help supplement that work. If you are consistent with squats and work pretty hard you should see serious gains in 6-12 months (like 100 lbs +). Good luck with your lifting.
I disagree, to a point. At this stage in his lifting, it is likely that dropping the back squats completely will not hurt him at all. He might need to get back to them for a week before he starts to see gains, but it won’t be that big a deal. It becomes a much bigger deal as you get more technically proficient and move bigger weights.
I ditched back squats completely 4 weeks ago when I switched to a power/reconditioning phase. It’s been probably 6-7 weeks since I squatted heavy. I did this because I was forced to lay off, and because my front squat and power deficit was so god-awful in comparison that it needed to be brought up. I think it is going to pay off for me in this case, but I would not normally suggest it. This guy should be ok though, even if it takes a week or two after starting back squats to really see the difference.
im only taking a break from BS’s and Deadlifting for 4 weeks while i work on new exercises which include:
-Overhead squats(90-100 lbs LOL yes weak)
-snatch-grip deadlift(need chalk as grip fails at 180)
-Power clean and push press (115)
-front squats and good mornings like previously stated.
i truly appreciate the info since it only excites me even more.
I disagree, to a point. At this stage in his lifting, it is likely that dropping the back squats completely will not hurt him at all. He might need to get back to them for a week before he starts to see gains, but it won’t be that big a deal. It becomes a much bigger deal as you get more technically proficient and move bigger weights.
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With beginners it is tough to know exactly how they will respond. I agree it is an interesting issue, and I personally find the carryover effect from one exercise to another when you don’t do the exercise you are testing to be very interesting.
When I first read his post I got the impression that he had laid off from squats for like 4 months and was coming back, after rereading it I think he is only taking a few weeks off so it might not be that big of deal. I guess I just haven’t found anything to help out squats like squats.
Are you the Aragon who was involved in the EFS nutrition roundtable?
