How Often Do You Squat?

I’ve gotta question about how many times you guys squat a week…and do you vary the weight or keep it the same during the week…I used to squat 3 times a week…similar to TBT. basically one day 5 reps, next day 8 reps, next day 15 reps. (mon, wed, fri)…so the weight changed a lot. NOW im squatting twice a week, and deadlifting the same on squat day…but I’m using the same weight…so I’f im doing 300x3reps, then i do that twice a week (pretty heavy)…is this too much heaviness…I kinda feel like i’m hittin 2 ME squats a week lol…im goin…290x5, 295x4, 300x3…and i do that twice a week…should i do that for one day…and then have another day thats a lot lighter or something??
Thanks

Some kind of squat 2 days a week.

Wheter it’s dynamic back squats, front squats, squats with chains, squats with bands, heavy back squats, high bar squats, or some variation of unilateral work.

Conjugate training for the win.

3x per week. Without excuses.

Tuesday. ME front squats
Thursday. ME OH squats
Saturday Dynamic back squats - 8reps per set (4)

Tuesday frt squats
1358
225
5
2453
260
2
2751
Thursday oh sqats
45
10
1355
145
3
1552
165
1
1751
Saturday back squats (oly, narrow, atg)
135
10
18510
225
10
275*10

I’m currently squatting twice a week, once front squats and once back squats. I work up to 3 heavy (not max) triples. I used to back squat 3 times per week on a 5x5 program. Depends on what I’m doing I guess, but almost always twice or more.

once a week i squat

[quote]dl- wrote:
I’ve gotta question about how many times you guys squat a week…and do you vary the weight or keep it the same during the week…I used to squat 3 times a week…similar to TBT. basically one day 5 reps, next day 8 reps, next day 15 reps. (mon, wed, fri)…so the weight changed a lot. NOW im squatting twice a week, and deadlifting the same on squat day…but I’m using the same weight…so I’f im doing 300x3reps, then i do that twice a week (pretty heavy)…is this too much heaviness…I kinda feel like i’m hittin 2 ME squats a week lol…im goin…290x5, 295x4, 300x3…and i do that twice a week…should i do that for one day…and then have another day thats a lot lighter or something??
Thanks[/quote]

I progress the weight until a goal, see my numbers above. I hit that goal this Saturday. I’d like to progress the weight some more until I fail. Front squats and back squats I will keep progressing because I can still complete the reps I assign to myself. when I do fail, I will switch from ME front squats to dynamic and dynamic back squats to ME. Starting at a weight that I can easily handle working up to a 4-8 week program that I might fail at (progressing 5*10 lbs per week). My OH squats are pretty maxed right now and I might just drop those down a lot real soon.

Your last question. You should answer that yourself because you will know pretty soon what you can and can’t handle as far as volume is concerned. Just see how you recover, how your body feels etc.

I’m happy to hear that someone else does legs 2 or more times a week like myself.

two times a week. One month max effort, next month DE, next ME…

My reps are going up, my weights are going up.

I think it works.

[quote]Kir Dog wrote:
I’m happy to hear that someone else does legs 2 or more times a week like myself.[/quote]

Oly back squat 3x5 heavy Tuesday, 3-4 triples Sunday with Tuesday’s top weight.

Front squat 5x3 heavy or light Tuesday.

Squat Snatches and squat cleans three times a week each.

I train quads every 6 days. My main focus is hypertrophy but I do occasionally venture into the 4-6 rep zone. It really pays to mix it up and that goes for exercises, rep ranges, and foot position. I usually use at least 2 forms of squats in every workout and I’ve been steadily gaining size and strength for the last 5 years.

Examples of typical quad workout.

Back Squats-
warm-up- 135/15 ,225/15, 315/12
working set- 405/10, 425/7, 440/5

Leg press- 4 sets X 14,12,10,10

Front Squat- 3 x 12

Dumbbell walking lunges- 15 steps per leg.

All sets except initial squat warm-up are taken to failure.

BUT you guys arent training like 90% and over for both of your squat sessions right? your training maybe one day heavier…and one day with 8 reps…maybe one day heavy, one day DE,…??

[quote]dl- wrote:
BUT you guys arent training like 90% and over for both of your squat sessions right? your training maybe one day heavier…and one day with 8 reps…maybe one day heavy, one day DE,…??
[/quote]

Yes I am, front squat (tues) and oh squat (thurs) are 90-95%. But the third squat day (saturday) for me is more like 75%.

It took some time to work my body into this training. I sprint 2x a week also so my CNS has gradually gotten used to and is accepting the abuse.

Yeah my 75% is 8 reps, I put 10 on there but that’s a mistake.

Can you map out your weekly training with rough percentages?

5 days

M 75%
T 60%
W 75%
TR 60%
F 80%

Squatting for triples. T,TR are 50% vol of MWF. Weight % of triples refers to 1RM.

[quote]dl- wrote:
BUT you guys arent training like 90% and over for both of your squat sessions right? your training maybe one day heavier…and one day with 8 reps…maybe one day heavy, one day DE,…??
[/quote]

When I first started Oly lifting I followed a training program off qwa.org. It had me doing front squats 2 x weekly and back squats 2 x weekly. In each of the sessions I would work up to a weight that was between 90-95% of my 1RM.

It actually worked very well and in 6 weeks I increased my back squat 10kg.

I have, however, backed of a bit from squatting and do it 2-3 times weekly at the moment, simply because my strength far outweighs my ability to perform the Olympic lifts.

Wheels

I have had the best success with both of the following;

1- Bill starr program -

mon- work up to max set of 5
wed- 3x8 with moderate weight
friday- work up to set of 3 with mondays weight +5lbs (use this weight the following monday)

This worked great but most of my other lifts stagnated. If I was happy with my upper body lifts and wanted to specialize in squats I would probably do this again

2- Squat tues/sat/tues -

Time constraints have made me adopt this training and its working well

tuesdays- work up to a max set of 3-6 reps

everyother sat- Work up to a max set of 8-12 reps, when I hit 12 reps I up the weight for the next session

This is working well with my schedule. I will probably drop the saturday squating once the tuesday weight start getting closer to my goal and focus on a deadlift of some sort

1 Heavy or Max effort day per week. 1 week I will squat along with heavy SLDL’s. the next week I will dead with barbell lunges. If I am not playing alot of basketball I will add another day of higher rep sandbag, dynamic effort or other squat, squat press, lunge complexes

i squat twice a week. one day for low reps; one for high reps. like one day i’ll do a 3x3 and the next maybe a 3x6. works pretty well.

Sounds good guys, i like this thread because now you guys can all look at eachothers training and maybe modify something to your liking or see something you like and use it. I’m defianetly taking that into considerations. Thanks guys.

Right now I’ve been squatting twice a week from a low (13 inches, roughly) box. One day “heavy” working up to 1-3 singles where I strain to get the lift. Thats on Monday. Then on Thursday I do it again with 8-14 doubles with about 135-155 for speed. I’m slow as cold molasses off the box, so that’s what’s up with the low weight.

I’ve found doing this I can get both those workouts in and stay healthy. Wether it’s form or overuse or whatever, I was having a hard time staying in top form trying to free squat heavy even once a week. My back would just get “tweaked out”. Now, putting my pull on the backburner and emphasizing the box squat I can stay in hard training.

Usually twice a week. I am doing total body workouts, olympic lifting twice a week and squatting twice a week (so I have one day where I pull, and then do an olympic squat variation, like front or overhead squat).

As long as I change my ME exercises, then I don’t usually have a problem with high intensity high frequency.