It’s just a little tweak. Might save you some grief.
Good stuff, I’d look up Dan John’s ‘Big 21’ also -similar but not so drawn out/3 weeks. (+start very light)
A tip I got from Brian Alsruhe is to keep your head looking straight forward or slightly down for the entirety of each rep. This helps keep the elbows high. As soon as you look up, your elbows will drop.
Thanks. That is a nice tip indeed. Will try it out soon.
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Anything Dan John gets my attention. Thanks RampantBadger it looks like a fun one to try sometime!
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Just read Kelso’s book and will be starting The Purposeful Primitive at some point today as I find the time. So far I am enjoying your book club. Thanks for the recommendations!
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Been a bit since I posted progress for this experiment with front squat singles. Finishing up this week of 305lb 15x1 tomorrow and then starting 310 3x1 on Monday. It has been going well and I am feeling much more confident with front squats in the 300’s. There have been a few days I have decided to take off here and there due to an angry left knee and/or right shoulder. You guys called that! Seems like one day off was usually enough to get me right back on track and I have never needed more than two in a given week. Also never needed two in a row off. I am hopeful I will beat my previous 1RM (330lb) but will wait to see. Planning to cut the program short to 17 weeks instead of 20 and then retest a 1RM before moving on to different training. This will line up better with my other plans for the next training cycle. Depending on the outcome I may do this same thing for press in the next 17 weeks.
Couple things I have found important / useful so far:
Brian Alsruhe had some of the best ideas in a YouTube video where it mentioned to basically choke yourself with the bar. Get it up high on on your throat rather than resting it down further on your upper chest. That 2” of space really makes a difference when trying to maintain that front rack position in the hole. It also helps keep the bar over your center of balance.
The other useful thing I pulled from his video was the idea that if you can back squat a weight then the only thing holding you back from front squatting it will be your abs, obliques and upper back and it won’t be your leg strength. This seems so obvious to me now but the thought was beyond my comprehension before now. This pops into my head each time the weight feels heavy in the hole. Just need to stay tight and push my way through it.
The other thing I have found beneficial is concentrating on keeping the bar path over center of my foot on eccentric and concentric. I stopped worrying about dipping forward in the hole and instead just focus on staying balanced with the bar held high on my throat and pushing with the legs. Seems to be getting the job done so far.
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Maxed out on Front Squat today. Previous 1RM was 330 lb and after doing the Steve Justa Front Squat singles nearly everyday since December I was able to increase my 1RM to 360lbs.
325 and 345 felt really easy so I went into 365 with a lot of confidence and got stuck about 1/2 the way up. I was fighting it, and getting no where but also not losing any ground either, for what felt like 10 seconds before giving in and dumping it. At least it came out of the hole fast before grinding to a halt.
I attempted 360lb a few minutes later after getting my mind around what just happened on the last attempt. It was a bit of a grind near the top of the movement but came up fine. Odd thing is I expected to totally miss these Front Squats in the bottom position rather than struggling near the top half. That would have been in keeping with my previous failures on this lift. Maybe weak quads or I just burned myself out getting up from the bottom. I dunno but at this point I am looking forward to working on back squats again as I haven’t done any since the end of November so I could focus on this…which is very unusual for me.
Conclusion:
+30lb on Front Squat in 16 weeks of effort.
Will likely try the same thing in daily morning workouts with Press now in my next training cycle and give these knees a break. If nothing else, I like the mental discipline this “programming style” builds upon having you do something EVERY DAMN DAY.
As a final note, my other training during this period was 5/3/1 using Press, Front Squat, Swiss Bar Press super-setted w/ Pendlay Rows, and TBDL super-settled w/ Farmer Carries as my main lifts.
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Strong work, keep it going
I may have to repeat this experiment again soon.
The Russians do something simulare to this but starting at 90% with weekly increases at 7 singles every day
I read Thibaudeau’s “Bunch of Skilled Singles” ($10 on Canadian kindle) a year or two ago. Covering some of the same territory, it gives a highly pragmatic schema for using 30-70 sets of singles (of main lifts and accessories) to build strength. I had some success with Thib’s system. It’s a lot of work but easy to recover from (relatively, given the fact it is both pretty high weight and volume).
Thib’s mentions Justa’s book briefly (also $10 on Canadian kindle). I read it yesterday and enjoyed it. Justa likes to do “strength endurance” challenges every month or two. I like this as well - I’ve done 1000 pull-ups, 500,000 pounds of Viking presses (of moderate range), or climbed (on a rope pull machine) for two miles. Justa has done far crazier things and they are entertaining to read about. I did not know there was even a name for the “hand and thigh” lift.
Justa offers several novel programs. Some are lifting daily for 365 days a year. Maybe twenty years ago such a program might have helped; these days lifting every other day, or even less, pays bigger dividends. Still, it is nice to read about iconoclastic views and I much enjoyed his book.
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