So would you say I just go in and work up to whatever I feel for that day?
(This is all just my opinion, I’m sure there will be others who disagree).
Honestly, even if you do that for ~200 days straight as a natty, you’ll eventually struggle to progress. The iron gods smile kindly on those who squat frequently, but the reality is that we are still mortals who will always require adequate rest in order to progress.
If you’re enamored with the idea of squatting every single day, for it to actually be effective, you’re gonna have to routinely take it easy, like going consecutive days of low intensity + low volume. Your joints will thank you for it more than your muscles.
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First of, thanks for the props.
Look, if it’s something you’re really itching to do have at it by all means. Personally, I think it’s one of those training ideas that has a degree of appeal because it kind of sounds cool if you’ve got a hard on for squatting but which is a really pretty terrible approach in practice.
For one, I don’t know of a single person with a massive squat who squats every day. I think plenty of big squatters squat very frequently, but more along the lines of four times a week, not daily.
Second, yes, absolutely, you mentioned changing up what squat you do, what reps, loads, etc. You’re still making your body squat under load every day though. Plus, with all that variation of so many factors how exactly are you planning on progressing your squat(s)? For that matter, how is your squat going to improve? Just because you make your butt drop down below your knees without your heels coming off the ground a bunch of times every day in no way equates to getting more plates on the bar.
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I recommend looking at juggernaut training systems on YouTube. There’s a couple videos in particular on the Bulgarian method there and they talk about squatting every day. Might give you some ideas.
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The issue I see is that virtually all the rep scheme you mentioned can be used as part of an intense lifting session. The trouble then is that you might just be wasting time if you don’t use appropriate load for the rep scheme. There’s little point doing 8x3 if the load isn’t heavy enough to make the the rep scheme make sense. But if you are using a weight that’s heavy enough to make sense then I don’t think it’s a very good idea to follow that with heavy singles or 5x5 the next day, since those three all sort of merge into the same general idea of true strength building. God help you if you try a real 20 rep squat the day after doing a real 8x3.
And I don’t see the point of doing goblet squats just to say that you squatted that day.
There are also other ways to squat frequently- the Olympic lifts. Technically doing the front squat and overhead squat portion of the clean and jerk and the snatch don’t count as squatting due to the loads used. But you are still going through the squat motion.
So why not just do the Olympic lifts daily or almost daily and structure a strength building squat program around it?
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@isdatnutty, I appreciate the compliment, although please note that your list includes a bunch of competitive strongmen, a couple competitive powerlifters, and one random dude who barely has the heaviest squat and deadlift at a CrossFit gym. One of those things is not like the others, lol.
Some excellent replies thus far.
I did “daily deadlifting” about a year back and saw excellent gains (DL went from 405 to 500 in six months), and this spring have done “daily squatting” with a side of deadlifts (riding that to a 410 squat and 565 deadlift as of this writing). So I will endorse high-frequency squatting, with several caveats, some of which have already been mentioned.
Caveat 1: Keep daily volume low. From what I understand of high-frequency work, the beauty is that each individual session is actually rather easy. You follow my training log, so you know that a lot of my sessions are basically just singles and doubles with escalating weight up to 1 top set for the day. That’s the only way you can squat at high frequency. Daily squatting with 5x5 and 8x3 is going to beat the hell out of you, and it kinda defeats the purpose of high-frequency work, which is to accumulate volume through frequency, if you will.
As Evolv said, I think this works best if you can auto-regulate. Have a standard warmup that you go through - say, 3x135, 3x155, 3x175, 2x185, 2x205, 1x225 - and then decide based on how 225 moved whether you’re good for more that day. Some days you may kill it after 225; some days you might do 1x5 at 225; some days you might go up to 245 and hit a double; etc. After awhile the weights will just start to nudge themselves upwards.
Again, check out my log. I’ll go 2x135, 2x185, 2x225, 2x275, 2x315 (my litmus test for how that day will go) and decide from there. If it’s a good day I might go 365, 385, 405. If it’s not a great day, I might just sit at 315 and do four or five doubles there.
Excellent points here. I ran the StrongFirst “Daily Dose Deadlift” program last year for my first big chunk of deadlift progress, but that was actually deadlifting five days a week (not seven) and most of the workouts were “six singles at 75 percent” with an occasional (1 or 2 per week) foray up to 85-90 percent. Rather than “daily squatting” I think the OP should embark on a program of “high frequency squatting” - four days per week (M-T-Th-Fr? M-W-F-Sun? he’ll figure it out) with most of them as punch-the-clock sessions (as described above), and maybe one real ball-buster per week.
Some people might reasonably ask “Why do this if you could get the same training benefit from two really intense squatting sessions per week?” My answer (which is not necessarily right, but it’s an answer) is basically that a) high-frequency, low-volume makes the individual sessions feel easier - my workouts are around 30 total reps, usually done in 30 minutes, and I genuinely look forward to every one (whereas some people dread squat day or deadlift day) and b) some of us, for whatever reason, just like it. I’m fortunate enough to have a job and life that allows time to train every day, and when I leave the office, I need that quick dance with the iron to unwind from the day. It’s cheaper than therapy.
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Those sound like fighting words, Mark. 
In all seriousness high pulls are really good for traps, and the oly lifts are really good for explosiveness, and general athleticism, but if you just want to get big and have tons of static strength then there are better things you can be doing. I’m personally a lot more flexible, explosive, and athletic compared to my powerlifting days despite being heavier.
It’s actually kind of hard to get really good at Olympic lifting while being jacked, since the press was removed it produces more of the ‘track and field’ body type. Both because having tons of static strength naturally isn’t the body type that is good at the sport and because you don’t need freakish amounts of upper body to be good, though upper body strength does help (look at the russians, and chinese) if you can find the training capacity and time to fit it in.
Dunno, if someone likes doing snatches and clean and jerks then they can do it. If doing lateral raises and dieting is someone’s thing, they can do it. Kipping and vomiting, squatting bench and deadlifting, lifting and carrying weird, heavy things, etc. Whatever makes people happy.
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Thanks for all the responses guys. I’ll answer/reply to all of them this evening.
I did have a question though.
Since I will be snatching and c&j on top of squatting how should I adjust things? Or should it really be low volume high frequency just as well?
I honestly wouldn’t squat daily. A medium weight medium volume day, low volume low weight day (front squats), and low volume high weight day are pretty standard for people who don’t need to pack on tons of leg strength. You are already going to be doing a ton of upper body hypertrophy work, and maybe cut if I read your log properly. If you really want to add more lower body work, then do pulls, they can be really good teaching tools for the lifts and they are really under programmed in my opinion. Other wise just do your daily lifts, squat a few times a week to something like the texas program, and do 'dem curlz for da gurlz.
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I look at as something I’d want to try out for once in my life. Worst case scenario it doesn’t work the way I hope, best case scenario I learn a lot about myself along the way and my squat technique gets very dialed in.
I think some days I’ll push it and some days I’ll take it easier. But I’ll have a “minimum” I need to hit every day. And over time my hope is that minimum gets higher and higher.
It’s not something I’d do forever, but I think for a 6 month period it’s worth a shot to see what happens. If it doesn’t then I’ll go back to something that i know for sure works like Texas Method.
I also had this idea to use the Texas Method but on the other days just do singles and doubles for what I feel that day. So lets say I do 225x5x5 on Monday. Then Tuesday 185 starts feeling heavy to me. I’ll just do a few doubles at 185 and cal it a day, etc.
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I watched a few last night. I think I got 2 ideas on how I want to progress.
I’m still trying to build up leg strength to have the strength to hit my goals on my olympic lifts. I figure do more technique work and build strength and once I get to my strength goals just maintain strength and go all out on the Olympic lifts.
So @ActivitiesGuy thank you for all your input. @Evolv you can chime in too but I had 2 plans of attack for this daily squatting.
Plan 1: Do the Texas Method, but on the other 4 days do some doubles singles of a weight that starts to feel heavy.
So lets say Monday I do 225 for 5x5. Then Tuesday 185 starts to feel heavy, I would just do a 2-3 sets of doubles at 185. Then Wednesday I would do my FS 3x3. Then Thursday I’d Back squat but lets say 205 is where it starts to feel heavy. I would do a few singles. Then Friday is a 5RM day lets say I do 245x5. Then Saturday lets say 185 again feels like a truck, I would do a few singles and call it a day. Then Sunday lets say 225 is where it starts to feel really heavy, do a 2-3 sets of doubles or singles and call it day?
Plan 2: Truly auto regulate all 7 days. Just go up to what feels “heavy” and do a few triples, doubles, singles. And as I do this my daily “minimum” would increase.
DAY 48 of 365
Wednesday June 21st 2017
SNATCH
135x3
135x3
135x3
135x3
135x3
155x3 (Snatch Pull)
155x3 (Snatch Pull)
155x3 (Snatch Pull)
BACK SQUAT / AB WHEEL
185x10
205x6
225x3 / 10
225x3 / 10
225x3 / 10
225x3 / 10
225x3 / 10
BENCH PRESS / BB ROWS
185x5 / 135x15
185x5 / 135x15
185x9 (PR!) / 135x15
155x12 / 155x8
NG CHIN UPS / DIPS
50 reps each
KEG CARRIES (I don’t know how much they weighed)
50ftx3
NOTES: Everything felt good today and moved. I’ve squatted 3 days in a row now my god lol.
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Have you ever seen a program called:
“Hopkins Football 2000 Summer Lifting: Upperclassmen by Bill Starr”?
Starr was a National Champion weighlifter and powerlifter during the same year, back in the 60’s. He was the Real Deal.
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Never heard of it until now. Just looked through it. I’ll add that to my list of programs to try at some point in my life. Looks fun! Adding 100lbs to your final set on any lift sounds tough as hell lol.
Took the words right out of my mouth. Although, I never found high pulls did much at all for me traps. Probably wasn’t doing enough of them, or doing them badly, or both.
You seem to haver super stubborn traps 
the calves of your upper body ay?
Tell me about it! They just don’t grow.
I would highly recommend reading a book, in which you can find on the internet, called “Squat Every Day,” by Matthew Perryman. It is not a typical trianing/workout book, it is mostly a fantastic dive into high frequency training, both scientifically, historically, and experimentally.
I absolutely would not combine any type of of other training program with daily squatting (in terms of the squatting movement, do what you want for the other lifts). In other words, don’t do Texas Method AND Daily Squatting for your squat. Bad ju-ju. Don’t do it. Very bad idea. The best way I have found, and it is probably what you’ll run across with most people whom have done it successfully, is the auto-regulaton route.
The way it works is that (like @ActivitiesGuy mentioned) you will do your standard warm-up. I personally found success with using triples. So I would start into doing triples and work up to a heavy single. The heavy single would vary greatly on the day, one day I might hit 450, the next day only hit 320. That is called your "Daily Max."The goal every day is always to just get in there and simply squat the bar. If the bar feels good, throw 135 on there. 135 feels good, throw 185 on there-- and so on… You do this until you hit your Daily Max.
You never, ever go 100%, balls to the wall. The mind set is learning to train with low arousal. So, in other words, all of your sets should be super chill and confident. If you have to psych yourself up, turn up loud music, and get amped-- the weight is too heavy. You want to own every weight you lift with confidence. It sounds crazy, but I was lifting over my initial 1RM like it was a joke after only a few months of daily squatting, because you get that good at lifting at high percentages-- but you have to be very smart and disciplined about it.
So a typical progression might look like:
45 x 10-15
135 x 5-8
185 x 3
225 x 3
275 x 3
315 x 3
345 x 3
365 x 1, feels fast
395 x 1, solid and fast
415 x 1, felt okay
435 x 1, felt good, but much slower than last set, best stop there
350 x 5, felt in the mood to do a back off set today
I did triples to help build volume, without having a lot stress on the body, it worked. Over time you can experiment with a back off set here and there, then I would experiment with sets of 5 or 8, and so on. You can even do pauses, or just squat the bar and call it a day. You can be creative, but YOU HAVE TO KEEP THE HEAVY LIFTING VOLUME LOW, especially in the fist few months. and since you will be doing the olympic lifts with it too.
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Doing a year of too heavy rows will fix that
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I shall live in hope
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