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You’ll have to get very strong and get a bunch bigger. I’d suggest aiming for a 400 lbs front squat at 200 lbs bodyweight. Breakdancing would need to take a back seat, maybe once a week tops.

Here’s the first thing: a double bodyweight front squat is a big lift by any standards. It means your whole back is strong as shit, your legs are strong as shit and your abs are strong as shit.

Here’s the second thing: anyone with a double bodyweight front squat has made it their primary focus to be strong, not breakdance.

I absolutely think you can achieve this, but only if you do the necessary work. At a guess, maybe three years if you focus on that and nothing else. Could take a bit longer. You’ll probably reach a double bodyweight squat much faster, because you won’t be limited by your upper back.

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I havent used that approach -I can kind of see what he’s getting it at but he’s written a ton of content over the years so theres bound to be contrary stuff here and there.

One thing he talks about a lot is punch the clock workouts/“they cant all be gems” ie you cant and (dont have to) kill yourself in the gym every session and always be pushing for small PRs.

-To hit big goals its going to take time no matter what,so some times you just need to keep turning up and bank a lot of moderate workouts before you go for large jumps and balls out record breaking sessions

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Thank you for the advice. So breakdancing is my cardio. I never get sore and it keeps me limber and lean. I can definitely just do it 2x a week since I’m just at a point it’s just for fun and I’m maintaining all the skills I’ve developed.

So I’m willing to put in the work, but how do I setup my program or a program for the first year. Should I just front squat only? I read this Dan John article where he says fRont squat heavy but do back squats for high reps, so I should always fs first? I was thinking 315lbs @ about 175lbs. Is that doable?

You are absolutely right! I’m guessing it’s just being consistent over time and setting up “minimums” that I can hit on any given day?

Fair call. If you keep on top of it and make sure it doesn’t impact your recovery I don’t see how it could be an issue.

I’ve never really tried to improve just one lift, so I don’t know but my gut say no. I honestly think you’ll be better off initially getting overall strong and then doing a relatively short (three months or so) front squat specialisation. I didn’t front squat much at all from around March 2015 from memory until around September 2016 (and even then it was just assistance for DL once a week) and in November this year I hit a 45 lbs PR. All that happened was I got stronger.

If you look at Oly lifters, who front squat very impressive loads, they train plenty of other lifts (including heavy squats and lots and lots and lots of back work) and only use front squats as assistance for their competition lifts.

There’s no reason you wouldn’t do well front squatting often, but I would think you would do better also squatting and deadlifting and pressing while doing plenty of work to make your back and abs strong. The limiter in front squats is pretty much always your upper/middle back. I doubt you would ever be able to hold enough weight in front of you to make your legs fail before your upper back. So, you’ll need to make that back strong AF, and generally that means making it bigger too.

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Yeah pretty much

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So would you say this is a good approach?:

Months 1-3 (Jan-March)

Workout A
Back Squat
Bench Press + Pull Ups
Rows
Hanging Leg Raises
Dips

Workout B
Front Squat
Overhead Press + Pull Ups
Deadlifts
45 degree Back Raises
Curls

Do a ABA, BAB linear progression on all lifts. Maybe on my last set try to push it to past 5 reps.

Months 4-6 (April-June)

Workout A
Front Squat 5x5
Overhead Press 5x5
Deadlift 1x5
Core Work

Workout B
Back Squat 3x5
Bench Press 3x5
Rows 100 reps (Saw this in the Wendler sub forum)
Core Work

Workout C
Front Squat 5RM
Overhead Press 5RM
Power Clean 5x3
Chin Ups
Core Work

Months 7-12 (July-December)
The program that Christian laid out for me:

This program likes it would fit the bill as well:

With the only additions being core work every lifting day and to add in more back work?

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This would work very well indeed. No need to add anything either. Do it exactly as written and you will get excellent results.

So last question I have before I decide on what program I’m going to follow for 2017.

How should I go about eating? I’m sure I need to eat more. I counted using “Eathismuch.com” yesterday (was a typical day) and it seems on average I get:

178.1g Carbs
87.2g Fat
160.8g Protein
2134.9 Calories

Since I’ll only be breakdancing 2x a week and doing lifting 3x a week I’m guessing I can stay at my current calorie intake?

I read this article and this seems along the lines of what I already follow. Based on what I’ve read on these forums, it seems more people don’t eat enough than eat more than they need to. For the last 8 years of my life my meals have mainly been:

breakfast: 2-3 eggs, cup of oatmeal, 2 bananas, glass of milk
lunch: chicken/beef, rice, veggies
dinner: fish, rice, veggies
snacks: almonds, peanut butter, reeses pieces (I’m a fiend for them lol)

Weekends I really end of eating a quick breakfast like pb&j and milk and I eat out like pizza, chinese buffet, etc and I drink every saturday night (usually like 4 beers). I think me breakdancing 2hrs 6x a week has really allowed me to get away with eating unhealthy on weekends.

Any advice on the food side of things?

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You’d probably want to stay around maintenance to start with, and then go up slowly depending on whether you recover well or not.

You’re sitting around 155 lbs now. Your maintenance window will be between 14 and 17 times your bodyweight, so between 2170 and 2635 calories per day. You’re most probably reasonably lean because you’re barely scraping the bottom end of your maintenance calories on average. The breakdancing will affect that too, of course.

In terms of breakdown, because you’re quite lean you’ll probably do well with higher carbs and lower fat. A good split is 0.8 to bodyweight in grams of protein, 20% of your calories from fats and the rest carbs.

So if we split the difference and say your initial calorie allowance is 2400 calories, it would look like this:

Protein 155 grams/620 calories
Fat 53 grams/480 calories
Carbs 325 grams/1300 calories

That’s pretty close to what I’m on in a deficit at 2500 calories around 205 lbs - I just eat more protein and less carbs.

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Thank you man! I appreciate all your feedback during this process. It’s been really helpful!

So I know what I need to do for the next 3-5 years. But I know 2017 will be the most important year because it will set the foundation for the rest of the years.

Eating is actually the easiest thing. I won’t change my diet for now, but once I hit a point that I feel like I’m “stalling” I’ll start adding in one extra meal or a heavy shake and go from there.

So for the program I’m going to do 5/3/1. This endeavor is going to take me multiple years anyway, so there’s no reason to rush it. I’m sure I’ll be much stronger than I’ve ever been after 1 year and I’m sure my body (especially my legs) will look much different. The thing that appeals to be about it is no matter what’s going on in my life (all we all know, the unexpected always comes up) the program can morph from 2 day to a 4 day without actually changing the program itself.

I’ll start with one of the 3 day templates (most likely full body) and after a few cycles I’ll change it up. I think you are right, in the beginning I’ll just get overall strong and not worry so much about my FS numbers. Then after 1 year, I’ll start shifting my focus more towards getting the FS up until I actually hit my goal of double body-weight.

Main Program - 5/3/1 full body template
If I hit a busy week - 5/3/1 2 day template
If I realize I can hit the gym more than 3 days a week - 5/3/1 4 day template

Then when I’m closer to my FS goals, I think I’ll switch to the template that Thibs posted for me. I think I’m ready to roll now, don’t really have to think and just do!

THANK YOU TNATION for helping me out!

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Happy to help.

Going with 531 to start is a good call. You’ve got your ducks in a row now, so like you said its just a matter of doing.

Good luck!

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Thank you!

So my last question is: how do you think this template looks:

workout 1
-back squat 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-bench press 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-rows, dips, abs

workout 2
-front squat 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-overhead press 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-chin ups, push ups, abs

workout 3
-back squat 3x5
-incline bench press 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-deadlift 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-curls, abs

*I put the DL at the end of workout 3 because from what I’ve read it seems that after deadlifting you don’t have energy to do much else. So curls and abs would take less than 10 minutes.

One and two look fine to me, but three doesn’t. I’d just do one and two, then one again with deadlift replacing squat. Benching twice a week isn’t a bad idea. If you’re worried about DL being tiring don’t do FSL, just do 5s Pro.

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I wanted to really focus and get serious about my goals so I went out and bought the following:

-squat stand (with pull up bar)
-370lbs worth of bumper plates (55,45,35,25,15,10)
-20kg barbell
-lifting platform
-ab wheel

local supplier here in CO called repfitness.

I can’t afford to buy a bench press for a quite some time because I spent all my xmas money and my wife will kill me if I spend anymore. I probably will have to wait until next xmas to buy some more stuff for my home gym.

Now not having a bench, how can I adjust the program? How do you think this looks:

workout 1
-back squat 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-clean and press 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-barbell row
-push ups
-abs

workout 2
-front squat 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-overhead press 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-chin ups
-abs

workout 3
-deadlift 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-push press 5/3/1 (5’s Pro + FSL)
-barbell row
-curls
-abs

I’ll be working out in the AMs by myself.

That’s a commitment right there with all the kit.

I would change it slightly and go press on day one, floor press on day two and press again on day three. On day three maybe don’t do FSL for press though. Don’t worry about doing an exercise twice a week, especially a pressing one. They tend to do well with added volume. I’d also swap the barbell row and chins on days two and three. Barbell rows after DL would not be pleasant, but chins would be awesome because they’d help your spine decompress.

You’ll get a lot better at pressing, which is awesome. The floor press will be close enough to bench so that when you start benching you’ll be ahead of the game.

You might want to start a training log here as well. People will pop by and you’ll get some decent advice.

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Thank you man! I appreciate all your feedback! I’ll make the slight adjustments and start a log! I’m excited to get started!

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One day a week I would backoff the heavy pressing or drop it all together or your shoulders will get really pissed off.
Say the ‘Workout 3’ I would do pressing much lighter/for volume like 4x15 or 5x20

This is slightly advanced but a great template with no benching, for further down the line:

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You’re made very good choices, my only advice would be this, considering your goals and situation:

Start with 5’s pro + FSL

Use limited volume only, doing high volume is not what you need. Build your capasity slowly.

Good luck!

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