Looking For a Program

[timetoball123]

@MarkKO

@timetoball123

So breakdancing is my cardio. I never get sore and it keeps me limber and lean. I can definitely just do it 2x a week since I’m just at a point it’s just for fun and I’m maintaining

Fair call. If you keep on top of it and make sure it doesn’t impact your recovery I don’t see how it could be an issue.

@timetoball123

Should I just front squat only? I read this Dan John article where he says fRont squat heavy but do back squats for high reps, so I should always fs first? I was thinking 315lbs @ about 175lbs. Is that doable?

I’ve never really tried to improve just one lift, so I don’t know but my gut say no. I honestly think you’ll be better off initially getting overall strong and then doing a relatively short (three months or so) front squat specialisation. I didn’t front squat much at all from around March 2015 from memory until around September 2016 (and even then it was just assistance for DL once a week) and in November this year I hit a 45 lbs PR. All that happened was I got stronger.

If you look at Oly lifters, who front squat very impressive loads, they train plenty of other lifts (including heavy squats and lots and lots and lots of back work) and only use front squats as assistance for their competition lifts.

There’s no reason you wouldn’t do well front squatting often, but I would think you would do better also squatting and deadlifting and pressing while doing plenty of work to make your back and abs strong. The limiter in front squats is pretty much always your upper/middle back. I doubt you would ever be able to hold enough weight in front of you to make your legs fail before your upper back. So, you’ll need to make that back strong AF, and generally that means making it bigger too.

So would you say this is a good approach?:

Months 1-3 (Jan-March)

Workout A
Back Squat
Bench Press + Pull Ups
Rows
Hanging Leg Raises
Dips

Workout B
Front Squat
Overhead Press + Pull Ups
Deadlifts
45 degree Back Raises
Curls

Do a ABA, BAB linear progression on all lifts. Maybe on my last set try to push it to past 5 reps.

Months 4-6 (April-June)

Workout A
Front Squat 5x5
Overhead Press 5x5
Deadlift 1x5
Core Work

Workout B
Back Squat 3x5
Bench Press 3x5
Rows 100 reps (Saw this in the Wendler sub forum)
Core Work

Workout C
Front Squat 5RM
Overhead Press 5RM
Power Clean 5x3
Chin Ups
Core Work

Months 7-12 (July-December)
The program that Christian laid out for me:

Front Squat Programming

As it was said, if your goal is double bodyweight rather than a specific number you need to stay light. Which means that you should stick to neurological based training. I also agree to set up gradual goals. You are doing 175 for 3 sets of 5 which puts your max at around 215-220lbs. Here’s an approach I would recommend. DAY 1 STRENGTH-SKILL (practicing being efficient at the front squat with fairly heavy, but not draining, weights) Week 1: 8 x 2 @ 165 Week 2: 8 x 3 @ 165 Week 3: 8 x 2 @ 17…