How Often Do You Squat?

Not really sure where this should go but this looks like the best place.

Ive worked my way up over the past year to a 2x bw squat (440 @ 210) and so Ive decided to go on an explosion phase to try and get my hops up. At 6 foot even I can dunk but just barely, nothing special and I feel like with the limit strength Ive built up I have the potential to jump higher, seeing as Ive never worked on reactive/elastic strength before. My main concern is that I dont want cns fatigue to slow me down while Im working on plyometrics and speed work. I can recover fairly quickly but still after a session of squats over 400 lbs my hops/speed is shot for at least 48 hours.

Has anybody found a good amount of time to rest between heavy sessions that maintains all of their limit strength yet doesnt leave their cns fried all the time? Once a week seems alright to me but Im wondering If I could maintain it with maybe even less than that. Every 9-10 days??

Maybe I dont need to go into the 90% 1rm so often and lower %s could maintain just as well if I do them more often? Consider that there will multiple jump/speed squat and olympic lifting sessions along with plyos throughout the week.

obviously the best way to find out is to experiment myself but experience/knowledge is greatly appreciated.

I’ve read that squatting once every 10 days could be enough to maintain strength. I think I read it in a russian book about weight lifting. There were some more variables as well as the intensity, and the level of the trainee, but basically I think once every 7-10 days should be enough to maintain strength at your level. There are many ways to go at it. Personally I think spacing squat workouts that far apart is a bit odd. I would think the sorness would be bad after each session, but more frequent sessions will lead to less soreness.

Good luck in finding what suits you best.

I squat 3 times a week, and twice a workout on 2 of those days.

Sunday - heavy squat + heavy partial to pins
Tuesday - Front Squats (3-5x3)
Thursday - volume squat (wk1 5x2, wk2 6x2, wk3, 5x3, wk4 4x4) + bottom up squat from pins

Best suited IPF squat, 651lbs
Best raw IPF squat, 518lbs

180lbs bw

Adventor, why don’t you do some squat reps once or twice a week after your plyometric/jumping routine? Something like 3x3 at 80% should maintain your current squat quite well…

4-6x a week.

All to max.

Best raw squat 220 kg to full depth.

hey Marc its Alfuh from BK, you crazy SOB squatting that much!

I squat twice a week, one DE or RE and one ME

To address the question though: to just maintain strength I would think arnoud has a good idea … after the plyos (or oly lifts) hit a few sets of low reps around 80-85% 3x3 a handful of doubles … something along those lines

Start doing jumps before you squat. If you have 2 lower body sessions, do Back Sq/Front Sq in one and Deadlift in the other, during the squat session, do a vertical jump before the squats, and the Deadlift session do broad jumps. Lift only maintenance heavy for the squats.

[quote]Dave.P wrote:
hey Marc its Alfuh from BK, you crazy SOB squatting that much!

I squat twice a week, one DE or RE and one ME

To address the question though: to just maintain strength I would think arnoud has a good idea … after the plyos (or oly lifts) hit a few sets of low reps around 80-85% 3x3 a handful of doubles … something along those lines[/quote]

hey lad how life?

[quote]IrishMarc wrote:
4-6x a week.

All to max.

Best raw squat 220 kg to full depth.[/quote]

I have been upping my frequency on squats a lot to see how that works.

Are you basically hitting a max single everyday? What does your volume look like on a daily basis?

2-4 times per week, depending. I did smolov and was squatting 4x per week, right now I squat once and box squat once.

Once every nine days. 5/3/1 3d/wk.

OP, my training is not all that applicable to your situation, but when I squat its 2X a week. One DE/RE day and the other is an ME day. They are also on Monday and Friday to allow for recovery. Perhaps 1 session for lower body to focus on your explosive training, and the other session to focus on ME/RE work. Just make sure they are spaced far enough apart to allow for recovery. You might still be able to do DE work after the explosive training though.

I like the idea of doing them after. I think Ill try that for a bit.

Right now I squat usually 2x a week both pretty heavy along with alot of oly lifts and occasional jump squats. 3 lower bodies a week.

Heavy squat Friday’s, and DE squat on monday.

I will never understand the reason behind pin squatting, anderson squating, or squatting really heavy more than 1 time a week, but hey to each its own I guess.

[quote]Super Mario Bros wrote:

[quote]IrishMarc wrote:
4-6x a week.

All to max.

Best raw squat 220 kg to full depth.[/quote]

I have been upping my frequency on squats a lot to see how that works.

Are you basically hitting a max single everyday? What does your volume look like on a daily basis?[/quote]

Daily max fluctuates quite a bit, work up to a heavy double or single with some volume work at the end.

Typical sets x reps (from thursday)

110kg x 5
130kg x 5
150kg x 2
160kg x 2
185kg x 2
205kg x 2
180kg 6x2

[quote]IrishMarc wrote:

[quote]Super Mario Bros wrote:

[quote]IrishMarc wrote:
4-6x a week.

All to max.

Best raw squat 220 kg to full depth.[/quote]

I have been upping my frequency on squats a lot to see how that works.

Are you basically hitting a max single everyday? What does your volume look like on a daily basis?[/quote]

Daily max fluctuates quite a bit, work up to a heavy double or single with some volume work at the end.

Typical sets x reps (from thursday)

110kg x 5
130kg x 5
150kg x 2
160kg x 2
185kg x 2
205kg x 2
180kg 6x2 [/quote]

Neat, thanks. I read through that whole John Broz thread a while ago on bodybuilding.com and that seems like it is very similar what he is doing with his lifters. (not 17x per week or whatever like he says but similar, lol)

on 5/3/1 since october - squatting twice a week
now on smolov 4 times a week - shooting for x2 bw 220kg

Twice per week. Kind of like Westside but no box squats:

Speed work- free squats in light briefs and belt; 8 to 10 doubles with about 50-60% of max bar weight plus about 150 lbs of band tension.

Max effort work- free squats in various levels of gear, wraps on heavy sets; work up to a max single, double, or triple; alternate bars, chains, etc each week

Two to three times per week. Most times when squatting 3x per week 2 squats are done in the same workout sheiko style.

Every fucking second I am not deadlifting or benching.