[quote]pulphero wrote:
Okay, this is sort of a thread hijack but is right in line with what the OP is curious about.
I love lifting and if I could have a valid excuse to get into the gym every day I’d do it.
I also admit I’ve been a low volume guy for a long time. However, I’m not thinking my way (which is hardly “my” way) of 5x5 pull monday squat wednsday and push friday is the only way. Not at all.
What I’m curious about is this (and I mean just curious, not I’m trying to make an argument): The daily squatting thing has been in vogue for awhile now. If it were a haircut it’d be the mullet in 1988. I also understand that the great lord Bulgarians were using it, so it has an obvious long history.
However I have a suspicion. Lifters like to lift. Give 'em plan A which has 'em lift 2x per week and make progress or plan B which has them in the gym twice a day, 6 days a week for the same progress and they’ll choose plan B simply because they get to justify being in the gym more often.
So my question is, now that the daily squatting has been around long enough to evaluate–are daily squatters Far out squatting the 1 or 2 times per week (like Westside style with ME & DE days) guys. Are higher squat numbers being put up at meets than those who followed (as an example only) Fred Hatfield’s way or the Texas Method?
Not an argument–I’m thinking of trying this myself. What’s stopping me is the thought that if you’re just going to end up with the same result why not spend less time in the gym (not to be read as “don’t bust your ass when you are there”) and do other stuff with your time?[/quote]
For most people, greater-frequency training is going to make recovery between individual sessions over time. If you’re on a movement-based split in which you’re performing each movement only once per week, of course, you’re going to need more time to recover from that movement; most people who I know that train this way complain of DOMS after most sessions, but they also have a good chunk of time with which to recover.
But too many people confuse “greater-frequency” with “harder” or “more intense,” like TS here. You can squat once per week and need that entire week to recover, and you can squat every day and see your strength atrophy. I’d imagine everyone on this forum could probably squat the bar for one repetition daily, and doing so would qualify them as an “every-day” squatter; but this clearly wouldn’t improve the squat max of most every trained individual.
Generally speaking, you try and do as little as possible while still making progress; you try to “optimize” your results from training by not doing any unnecessary work. But squatting X number of days isn’t necessarily more difficult, since volume and intensity aren’t even being factored in. Yes, Westside has you squatting once per week (in addition to a DE session), but that one session usually has you attempting three high-intensity singles (90%+). That program pushes more high-intensity work because the total volume isn’t as high as a higher-frequency program. And for a multi-ply lifter, it would be difficult to run high-frequency training while in gear, so the conjugate method is a necessary adaptation to the conditions of geared training.
To answer your question about who’s putting up the biggest numbers, some are high-frequency guys and some aren’t. There are still many ways to achieve world-class status, and high-frequency training is not a necessity. In general, top (raw, at least) squatters will be squatting more than once per week, but then you’ve got someone like Stan Efferding who squats heavy once every two weeks.
People get too caught up in what others are making progress doing. Strength training is a long process: experiment on yourself and discover what your limits are. Do the work necessary for you to get better.