Hey guys. my squat has recently stalled out. i am a relative beginner and to be honest, up until now, my squat training has mostly consisted of working up to a max single for each day and adding atleast 5 pounds each time through linear progression.
I’m now stuck at 345X1 and am wondering what you guys feel is the best rep range for getting past this. I know, i know i can hear it already - “just get stronger”, “eat, eat eat”. well i can assure you i am eating enough and i wish ‘just getting stronger’ was that easy.
I was thinking of moving to doing triples for a session followed by doubles on my next session and singles on my third session and then repeat the cycle with a goal of hitting new poundages in each rep range each week. do you think this would work or should i just get on a trusted program?
either way, any respectable input is more than welcome.
oh by the way, i am curious as to what i should do once i have worked up to a max weight for that day’s rep range. should i a) stop (move on to accesory work), b) back off like 10 percent and rep out. c) stick to that weight and try to get a few more singles/doubles/triples, whatever the day calls for.
A “relative beginner” can make progress for quite a while by just working hard at basic movements like a squat, but any particular set/rep scheme will eventually run out of gas. In particular, constant max 1’s is pretty mentally challenging and hard on the Central Nervous system. Change it up significantly for a while (2’s or even 3’s are not that different from singles). Try a month of 3-5 sets of 5-6, or a month of front squats.
Singles every time you squat can beat you up. You need to take a week to deload. Go light and recover and then come back after a week and start training heavy again, maybe with a higher number of reps to get more volume and practice. Try 3-5 reps for max effort work for a while. As always choose good accessories, eat more, and sleep.
[quote]coolusername wrote:
alright thanks guys, i’ll start eating rather than just eating. should fix things.[/quote]
Not to be a dick but when you say “trust me I’m eating enough” it’s a big red flag for most people that you may be but probably aren’t. Throw out your diet and prove that statement if you are going to make it.
[quote]coolusername wrote:
alright thanks guys, i’ll start eating rather than just eating. should fix things.[/quote]
Not to be a dick but when you say “trust me I’m eating enough” it’s a big red flag for most people that you may be but probably aren’t. Throw out your diet and prove that statement if you are going to make it. [/quote]
No one eats enough. If you ate enough, you wouldnt have time to lift because it would cut into your feeding schedule too much.
I love triples. Usually just shy of max triples (could get 4-5 on last set if you went AMRAP) and a down set for good measure if you’re up for it. Should probably take off a lot more than 10% though and shoot for 10+ reps. There are many ways to do things of course. Eating extra on squat days helps, too.
I stalled out at the same weight doing the exact same thing. Take a break from the heavy singles. Use other types of squatting for a few weeks and come back to it. Hit goodmornings hard and try CT’s ramping method, it helped me recover easy from those ME sessions.
