High Frequency Squating and Strongman

Training Powerlifting
1

I have been reading a ton on HFT and coaches such as John Broz. I have been pondering how this type of training such as squatting multiple times a week could carry over to Strongman… I started lifting as a mostly Olympic lifter so I have some experience with squatting up to 6 times a week. I stopped training with my Oly coach and started doing squats only once a week once I started Strongman seriously as I was advised that squatting more than twice a week at most would be complete over kill for Strongman.

I really enjoy squatting multiple times a week I just feel better and feel my squatting technique and speed is much better. I am going to post a very rough draft of my idea please give your opinions…

Day1- Front Squats up to make ME single. Drop 20% of that weight and perform singles till speed has left the lift.
Work Push Press or Dips and Triceps strength.

Day2-High Bar Back Squats-5x5 nothing to failure.
Work Pulling Muscles from Rows, Chins, Curls, and posterior chain.

Day 3-off

Day 4- Front Squats ME Triple. Drop 10% perform Triples.
Work Push Press or Incline Press and Shoulder Strength.

Day 5- High Bar Squat 8 sets of 2-3 with 50-60%1rm focusing on speed.
Work Light core, biceps, and light posterior chain.

Day 6- Events mainly moving events and Axle and Log Clean Technique

Day 7- off

My stats
5’7"
200lbs

300lbs Front Squat
255lbs Push Press
455lbs Deadlift
13 reps Chins with just body.

2

I don’t see why squatting heavy several times a week would interfere with SM training. Squatting to a max might interfere with other heavy training that has carryover to SM like deadlifts and events, but I think Dan John said, “If it’s important, do it everyday.”

3

Dan John advised to perform said ‘movement’ every day. Interperet how you will.

4

[quote]Field wrote:
Dan John advised to perform said ‘movement’ every day. Interperet how you will.

[/quote]

I interpret it to mean, “Do it every day.”

5

Ok awesome I am going to give it a about a three month trial. I will post what ever results I might or might not get from this.

6

I think if you approach it slowly and listen to your body you should be fine. I like squatting heavy on my DE day and as long as I’ve performed my main work of the day, I generally have some extra workouts later in the day or the next day, if I know it’s not going to hurt me so much that I won’t get better by the next day. Extra workouts currently involving lots of bodyweight stuff and strongman events.

IMO, as long as I have my 4 ME/DE days and performs optimally, it doesn’t matter what extra work I do.

7

From experience, squatting multiple times a week will kick your ass in the negative way.

I’ve strained my lower back multiple times due to over exercising the posterior chain. This has happened to me on a handful of occasions due to ego. So I’ve learned, training the back generally is a 2 training day task for me. 1 for Event Day, and 1 for Lower Body/Lower Back day. When I start on my 3rd day, for my pressing, if I’m standing and stabilizing, game over.

So based of my history, I’ll Squat heavy 1 session and leave the rest to Event work. This has can include farmer’s tanks, super yoke, stones, axle/log, etc.

Best advice I’ve heard is “listen to your body.”

8

I thought I was the only one to try something like this…i used the outline from john broz about max squating every day(max being for that day) and incorporated it into my stromgman training. With the squating I rotated between front, back and hack squats, my squat numbers did go up but the carry over into strongman was a lot greater…the front squats mos def helped me with stones, kegs and log set up the added strength also carried over into yoke and farmers.

The main thing was to never tax your self beyond your bodies recupritive ability and post workout supplemention was paramount(protein,creatine,bcaa, waxy maize) supra restoring your muscles as quickly as possible is a major factor…

9

I’m sure you could squat 2-3x a week if you made at least one of the days a light day. However, squatting as much as you want to would likely be detrimental as the entire posterior chain is loaded heavily on many of the events.

10

Suntzu- that’s the same outline I am following for the most part, I have not trained events since starting this but, hopefully I will see what you did in stones and log as those are the two events I struggle with most.

11

Reed those were the same are the ones I had problems with and I gotta say that squating(especially front squats) frequently helped me alot plus it help build strength in my hips and stablizers for yoke and farmers. Following Broz outline the key is to get to your daliy max(what ever it is that day based on how you feel and your strength levels) in as few reps as possible never taking yourself to failure…

12

i think is very good that you are front and high bar squatting cause these loads the quads more , and spares the back a little , if 4 times a week is to much you could try cutting it down to 3. I like your outline though:)

13

Youll get plenty of leg work if youre training strongman the correct way! Plus it will only fatigue you for actual events, pressing and deadlifting which is way more important then squats in strongman. You dont need to squat more then once a week in my opinion.

14

[quote]MPYC wrote:
From experience, squatting multiple times a week will kick your ass in the negative way.

I’ve strained my lower back multiple times due to over exercising the posterior chain. This has happened to me on a handful of occasions due to ego. [/quote]

I do extra work between sets to balance things out, i.e. pull-ups/rows between sets of bench, weighed abs between sets of deadlifts. I find that if I decrease the amount of such work, I start getting shoulder and lower back problems quite fast. Is it possible that you just didn’t do enough such work to compensate for the heavy lifting?

Also, I do all the lifts with as perfect form as possible. By “due to ego” do you mean that you sacrificed the form?

Reed, I am currently employing a similar training style for my squats and bench press. I throw in some deadlifting in the mix but I’m not ready to do it more than once a week yet.

I rotate squats like this: high bar full squat, full front squat (mostly to bring up core and upper back up), some single leg weighed squats (for more core and glute activation work).

I do a similar thing for bench press: bench press, floor press (to work on a middle-of-the-way sticking point, and overall upper body pump), weighed dips (for triceps strength).

If I did deadlifs like this, I would rotate them like this: regular deadlift, snatch grip (double overhand grip) deadlift, deficit deadlift (to help with my sticking point at the bottom).

This is my second time around doing this kind of thing. I find that my recovery is tough at first but then it gets easier as the weeks go by and bodily adaptations take place. I’m 6’2". The first time around I put quite a bit of weight on my lifts roughly (50 pounds on the major lifts in a few months). My stats were

Weight - 225
Bench -305
Full Oly Squat - 375
Parallel low bar squat - 425
Full Front Squat - 325
Deadlift - 495

This second time around I’m roughly at

Weight - 205
Bench - 275
Full Oly Squat - 355
Full Front squat - 305
Deadlift - 465

I expect these numbers to raise up quite a bit as I continue doing this kind of training.

15

The have many ways to develope your arms first you will exercise everyday then your arms will be developed.