Hi guys.
I was wondering… How long will it take me to squat 500?
I’m not talking about powerlifting squats though. I was talking about something like this:
I had a 20-pound PR in one week. I used to only squat 345 last week, and today I did 365, to my surprise.
As far as my background is concerned, I’ve been lifting on and off for the past ten years. I used to squat 405 with a wide stance, low bar, 8 years ago. I also used to front squat 305 pounds, ATG, 5 years ago.
Thanks in advance.
I don’t know. A year? Two years? I’d say two years is realistic assuming you work on improving your technique, train consistently and don’t get hurt.
Not sure what the difference is between that and a PL squat though. I’ve seen plenty similar squats at every meet I’ve been at, apart from the pause. Is that what you mean, paused? Then train paused.
To MarkKO…
It’s the fact that I pause and the fact that it’s full range of motion at a narrow stance, with the bar on my traps instead of my shoulder blades.
Why the change to high bar narrow stance squats, are you planning some olympic lifting.
Who knows?Pick a training style,follow it,make adjustments as you move forward and you’ll most likely get there
I think as MarkKO said,2 years is a realistic assumption
As long as it takes to squat 500?
Impossible question to answer.
If you can commit to juicing up and eating an entire pizza every night for dinner you will have it in 12 weeks.
Depends on every individual , but if you’re really serious about it , consider the 100 straight squatting days that T-Nation posted yesterday. Also , why are you gripping the bar like this ?
I agree with that pizza statement. By the fourth day I feel as strong as ever
Not sure what it is, but I always feel supercharged if I eat pizza before squatting. Same for cheeseburgers and deadlifts. Haven’t found the superfood for benching yet…
I’m not trying to be a dick here, but I don’t think you will ever squat 500 pounds. Not because you don’t have the potential, because you probably do, but because your squat has been stagnant for nearly a decade. That tells me your training is lacking some fundamental keys to progress.
If you were to depart from whatever methods you’ve been using for the last 8 years and dedicate yourself to doing the things necessary to squat 500 pounds, I think you could do it in less than a year.
FWIW, I squatted 365 for the first time on 4/14/14 and 495 for the first time on 2/16/15. So it took me 308 days.
I kind of agree with this more because of the comments about full ROM and powerlifting squats. That says to me OP has made up their mind about what a ‘real’ squat is (which in itself is pretty ridiculous). That’s usually a sign of ignorance or stupidity, and results in any method or idea that doesn’t fit within that paradigm being rejected out of hand. Do that and you miss out of all kinds of methods that could be real game changers.
If it matters to you to squat deep with a particular stance and bar position, cool, that’s your thing and if you’ve got the structure to do it you’ll be fine. If your body isn’t built to squat that way and you force it, best case scenario you’ll miss out on how much weight you can put on the bar.
I always figure with any lift a massive part of getting strong at it after learning the basics is to find the best way to do it for you. That might not always be how you envisaged or wanted it, but it comes down to whether you want to move more weight safely or move weight in a certain way regardless of how well you can do that.
TL;DR if you close your mind to possible ways to do something, you may find it hard or impossible to achieve what you want.
He’s putting all the IPF snobs to shame with his depth.
What would you recommend me to do, exactly?
Maybe ask Amit Sapir for advice in his squat thread. At a minimum, you should probably make some adjustments to volume, intensity and frequency plus some hypertrophy work. We know nothing about your programming so it’s hard to say what exactly.
Just a thought, but touch and go bench carries over to paused bench, so maybe regular squats will carry over to pause squats. You will probably need to squat at least 550-600 to get a 500 pause squat though.
I ran a full-body 3x5 for a few months after I hit 365 and then switched to 5/3/1 full-body, which I ran for 9 months or so. I was on the last week of my 5th cycle of 5/3/1 full-body when I squatted 495.
So to make a specific recommendation, you could consider running something like 5/3/1. I’ve made progress on both full body and upper/lower splits with 5/3/1. Or you could pick any other number of proven progression schemes. No matter how you lift, you will need to consistently eat to support your goal of squatting 500 pounds.
I’m sure Amit Sapir could give you some fine advice. There is no rule against asking him. He started a thread for just that.
Thanks. I’ll go ask him for advice.