Dchris's Grappling with Age

Squats
10x135
10x135
3x225
3x225
3x275
1x315
1x315
3x315

Platz Squats
3x10x135

Broad jumps and squat jumps
2x10

Below is the first set of 315.

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@MarkKO anything glaring that stands out as an issue with the above set?

Hey, not @MarkKO, but you may want to discuss your goals with respect to this squat. The Ripplestiltskin crowd would find many issues with them

If you’re powerlifting, other than a bit high, probably fine.

BTW, baseball starts soon - Go Beavs.

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I would probably bring your stance in a fair bit or point your toes out around 45 degrees or more and do a buttload of glute, quad and hip work because your knees are coming in.

Ideally, bring your stance in to around shoulder width or a bit wider. Focus on pushing your knees out while sitting back and pushing them out as you come back up.

Depth is IMO just OK for training or if you’re unable to keep your pelvis locked in any deeper, but straight red lights. I’d work on getting to parallel thighs at least.

Going too narrow has hurt my lower back a bit. I’ll give it a shot next squat session, I’ll also try toes out more. What would you suggest for working the glutes, hams and hips? I’m a bit limited on equipment to just KBs and barbells.

I can never tell how deep to go. Am I close?

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To grow big legs and strong enough to squat 405 easily.

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Monday night
1 mile jog

Incline Bench
10x135
10x135
5x175
3x185
3x185 - Felt weak today but decided to go for 205
1x205
2x205
1x205
28x105 - Guillotine style

Lat Pullovers
4x12

Cauliflower crust pizza for dinner

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I’ve seen the cauli crust pizza at Freddy’s… How was it??

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Fred Meyer? Are you a PNWer?

It was great! I think this was from Trader Joe’s. I highly recommend using pesto for the sauce.

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Yep, I’m in Pdx metro.

I’ll have to give one of those crusts a shot.

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Ok. Lucky they aren’t mutually exclusive.

How narrow is too narrow? Your stance right now is really pretty wide so you could bring it in a fair bit and still be squatting with a medium/wide stance.

The other thing that jumps out at me is that if you’re more likely to irritate your lower back with too narrow a stance, you may be having issues keeping your pelvis stable so it tucks under you and puts strain on your lower back. That would also make sense given you have difficulty telling when you’ve hit depth. Both a problems I used to have. You may also not be setting up as tight as you could.

I definitely think you would benefit from bringing your stance in, to around shoulder width or a bit wider. I’d also suggest spending around eight to 12 weeks squatting to a box set at depth (you’ll need to go around three inches deeper, BTW). I found that that was a massive help with both learning what depth feels like as well as getting my bracing right to eliminate buttwink. Apparently goblet squats can help squatting overall, but I’ve never used them so have no idea.

Squatting with a narrower stance will probably help leg growth a bunch. Wide as you, you’ll get a strong set of hips and probably decent glutes but little to no quad development, and pretty mediocre hamstring development. Even bringing your stance in some you’ll probably benefit a lot from lunges, split squats, front squats and possibly RDLs too. Kettlebell swings might help your glutes fire, which would very likely go a ways to remedying your buttwink too. Some ab work won’t hurt either.

It probably wouldn’t hurt to squat twice a week either, and focus most of your work on technique for a while. When you say you want to squat 405 lbs easily I’m guessing you mean you’re looking to be able to get it on your back and knock out at least a triple any day of the week without issues?

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Then, IMO, @MarkKO’s advice is good, obviously. You need to get greater depth in order to use more muscles over a longer ROM to develop more strength and hypertrophy. So, narrower stance, toes out, more depth, you know, what he said.

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Just wider than shoulder width is about where it would start to hurt my back. I’ll bring it in just wider than that and see how it feels.

This is really helpful. I can’t visually tell what correct ‘depth’ is. I can certainly figure out 3" lower. haha.

My current set-up has been 531 style: Squat, Bench, DL, OHP. Albeit, not following his program.

Would you suggest something along the lines of:
Back Squat
RDL
Split Squats
Lunges

Bench and OHP (now combined)

DL
Front Squats or TBDL
Squat Technique

I’ll back my squats off quite a bit at first and just focus on hammering the technique. I really couldn’t care less what I squat, I’m in my garage solo haha.

Ya, exactly. Being able to know I’ve got three any day of the week would be pretty ideal. I’d like to do that with just sleeves and belt. I don’t have any goals of ever competing in powerlifting.


Straightforward and too the point! Ha.


Morning Workout
Hang Cleans
2x10x135
DL
2x10x225
Back Squat (narrowed stance, toes out)
2x135

Trying to give some of the cues from MarkKo a shot. Hardly any weight on the bar, just going for feel.

Breakfast this morning. Leftover Lamb and two eggs. Lunch will be just lamb and parmesan crisps.

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I reckon the 531 setup is fine, just squat after deadlifts. There’s your second squat day.

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Tuesday Night

Back was a bit tight so held off on deadlifts.

Hangcleans
10x135
10x135
5x155
3x175
3x185
0x205
.5x205 - Ha! One elbow was able to get under it. That counts right?

Ring Pull Ups

Rows
50x185

If I actually sat under the cleans or tried to get under it at all 205 would of been easy. I was pretty much heaving the weight up and trying to catch it with no effort.

Wednesday Morning
DL
10x135
10x225
10x225
6x295
6x295

Kinda got distracted with the market this morning. I made a nice 28% in the first ten minutes of trading.

Breakfast is bacon and eggs. Lunch is a bit out of my control. I was asked to join slmeone at a chamber lunch.

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Wednesday Evening
Deadlifts
10x135
10x135
10x225
10x295
2x345
1x345

Front Squats
3x10x135

Goblet squats
AMRAPx80lb KB

Edit: I wish I deadlifted 995

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Me too :disappointed:

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Friday morning
OHP
3x3x155

Cleans
5x3x185

SGHP
3x10x185

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Saturday - Monday
Had friends come up for a friendcation. Didn’t really lift and ate and drank too much.

Tuesday
5x5x225 Squats

Wednesday Morning
200KB Swings
20 Pull Ups

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