Squats...should I taper or grind or do something intelligent..

[DIR]

Recent training history
squat workout today was 325x5 then 315x2x5.
Recent tested "max" of 365. Definetly had at least 10 lbs in the tank maybe 20. Was not a true ball buster 1 rm.
Have been shooting for squat and deadlift 2 times per week doing linear prog on both. Deadlift is 355x2x3.Sometimes my lower body workout only happens once per week.
Sleep is shit.....diet needs total revamp. Too much booze ECT.

My goal is 405 for at least a single in the next 2 -3 months. I think it is realistic but I'm at a point right now where the weights are starting to feel heavy and I probably can't progress 5s for that much longer.

Sure switch to triples and then back offs but I have been here before and always get fucked up.....HALP!

[cole]

The next step would be to pick an intermediate program such as TM or HLM. I think an increase in volume would be more effective than switch ing to triples.

[simonrest]

I would take a good look at The Bridge from the Barbell Medicine guys. I think that will provide a good increase in volume at lower intensities over the next 8 weeks, and give you an intro to RPE, plus a new stimulus. If you like it you can get into more RPE based stuff from either Jordan or RTS, and if you don't at least you learned something and probably put some weight on your squat anyway.

[Cellist]

From my own experience, whatever that's worth, going to 4x/wk upper/lower split, and tapering after LP (rotating rep ranges) did nothing for my squat after LP. I never lifted before in my life, started with 135 lbs and during my LP I never tested 1RM. The only sets I did for less than fives were failed at 270 after which I reset (more than once). For me the last rep of a 5RM is harder to grind than a triple or singe so the first time with those weights felt different, but I didn't need 6 months to get used to that "feeling," its just heavier on my back and I need to tighten up my upper back and keep my chest up. Objectively after the first walkout with a weight at 90% of my 1RM I learned nothing and made no progress. My squat finally started moving over a period of months in which I went to a program like @simonrest describes, which was three days and I was squating every workout, so higher frequency, higher volume and lower average intensity, (the opposite of a taper) although continuing heavy singles for practice.

P.S. For squats, on the new program, I used variations which, for me anyway, had a couple benefits. At the same time I was getting more volume at lower intensity, which I could recover from but might have helped me build some muscle, paused squats and tempo squats were helpful for training balance and tightness during different stages in the movement.

[DIR]

Thanks for the responses.

My gut tells me to up frequency or at least keep it @ 2 times per week squatting. I don't think falling into the trap of squatting 1 time per week will do me any favors.

I do like the idea of doing a single often and following it with volume work.

[Wilhelm]

*this is just me taking a stab at these issues*

I'm doing my heavy(er) singles on what i'm calling my intensity day for squats.
After i run up to the single, i do just a 3X3 at my work weight.
These are definitely not max efforts. I'm actually on a deload for the singles as well.
I just want to stay in touch with what is heavy for me, and hopefully reach my old PR (still not a max effort) at a stronger level.

I've started doing this because i was getting beat up squatting heavy sets twice a week, and i'm doing it on the day closest before deadlifts to be fresher for those.

But i had already dropped to 3s as i came closer to peaking as well.

On my "volume' day, i'm doing 5X3 work sets and 5X3 drop sets at lower percentages.

I'm on a deload overall at this point, so i'm looking to time things to coincide with my actual (short) peak phase before my meet.
i have a general idea about how that will work out, but just have to monitor things as it plays out.

If you're getting overly beat up, and the last reps are breaking down though, you have to address that somehow.

With the addition of drop sets, my volume is up from before. I'm just trying to mix volume and intensity going forward.
I have no sure idea if this is "best" but it seems so far to be balancing out my fatigue while still working hard for me.

[d0uevenlift]

I would take a good look at The Bridge from the Barbell Medicine guys. I think that will provide a good increase in volume at lower intensities over the next 8 weeks, and give you an intro to RPE, plus a new stimulus. If you like it you can get into more RPE based stuff from either Jordan or RTS, and if you don't at least you learned something and probably put some weight on your squat anyway.

This is what I'd do, too. I'm not a fan of smashing my head into the wall with intensity and OP is already pretty beat up.

[DIR]

@simonrest
Yes I gave thought of going to bridge. I'm hesitant to go straight rpe because I know myself and worry that I would under work myself.

[cwd]

@VikingCellist. re: 4-day split after novice & lacking squat frequency, I include light squats on upper days. I.e.

Mon: squat light, bench heavy, press medium, chins
Tue: squat heavy, deadlift medium
rest
Thu: squat light, press heavy, bench medium, chins
Fri: squat medium, deadlift heavy
rest
rest

The main benefit of the light squat days was to keep my technique sharp -- I really have a hard time keeping my lowbar squat technique clean enough to not screw up my hips. Lots of sets at easy-to-manage weights helps.

[simonrest]

@simonrest
Yes I gave thought of going to bridge. I'm hesitant to go straight rpe because I know myself and worry that I would under work myself.

I had the same fear doing it for the first time and it didn't really happen. If anything I tended to overshot the rpe. I found the calculator really helpful and accurate.

[perman]

@simonrest
Yes I gave thought of going to bridge. I'm hesitant to go straight rpe because I know myself and worry that I would under work myself.

The way to counter this to write out your planned sets in advance using percentages and only use RPE as an adjustment tool.

For instance, let's say your squat 5RM is 300 lbs, and you plan to do a session which has Comp Squat 5@6, 7, 8, 8, 8.

You would then look up 5@8 from this chart:

Since 5RM = 5@10 which is listed as 0.863 on the chart, meaning your 1eRM is 300/0.863 = 348 lbs. Looking up 5@3 on the chart, you get 5@8 weight of 348/0.811 = 282 ~= 280.

Using the thumb rule of 5% ~= 1 RPE which is 14 lbs ~= 15 pounds, you then have a scheduled warm-up of 5s to top sets of
5*250@ probably around 6
5*265@ probably around 7
5*280@ probably around 8
and you adjust based on the 5% thumb rule if you're either too low or approaching @9.

RPE is more of a method for adjustment than an allowance to do what you want.

[KOTJ]

The next step would be to pick an intermediate program such as TM or HLM. I think an increase in volume would be more effective than switch ing to triples.

Don't do TM.

[Cellist]

@VikingCellist. re: 4-day split after novice & lacking squat frequency, I include light squats on upper days. I.e.

Mon: squat light, bench heavy, press medium, chins
Tue: squat heavy, deadlift medium
rest
Thu: squat light, press heavy, bench medium, chins
Fri: squat medium, deadlift heavy
rest
rest

The main benefit of the light squat days was to keep my technique sharp -- I really have a hard time keeping my lowbar squat technique clean enough to not screw up my hips. Lots of sets at easy-to-manage weights helps.

Back then, about a year ago, I had heavy squats on Tues and light on Friday, which was my deadlift day. With just the one session of DL, I was doing 3 sets across and SLDL as a variation and still got stuck around 1RM 340, 5RM 308. So yes in retrospect, tweaking like that to squat and deadlift more frequently and increasing volume by adding sets at a lower intensity would have been a necessary alteration for me if I stayed on that template, but with my limited experience, I decided to redo my advanced novice stage on the template from IZZY, which has a progression protocol, so I could learn how to track and autoregulate fatigue.

[MattimusMaximus]

I would 2nd that advice to use the percentage chart together with RPE to better gauge the work you’re going to do or shoot for on any given training day. I just started using it myself and I have found it extremely useful!

I too would not do traditional TM although I’m doing an Andy Baker variation of it which looks nothing like the original and I’ve tweaked it a lot... so nvm it’s not TM at all lol. I hear HLM is better and I did vanilla TM when I switched to intermediate... it was awful, do not do this!