Once a Week for Squats?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I’m trying something new for legs and I read somewhere about squatting heavy but just once a week. I’ll start looking through some other threads on the site but is this pretty standard or nuts. Maybe I’m not working them hard enough but a week to recover seems excessive …

2

It sort of depends on what the volume of the rest of your leg routine looks like. If every day you squat you do lunges and hammie curls or something, you really could be fine with one day a week. If it’s just squats, you could conceivably crank that up to three times a week with no more than like 5 sets each workout. Again, there’s a lot of other variables, though.

3

Make sure you curl in the squat rack afterwards

4

[quote]gatesoftanhauser wrote:
Make sure you curl in the squat rack afterwards[/quote]

with a 5 lb dumbell in one hand and a cellphone in the other

5

It also depends on how long you’ve been squatting and how heavy you lift. Someone who squats 400+ can’t squat as frequently as a newer lifter squating 100-200lbs

6

For years I trained legs once per week, no more than 6 total sets, often as few as one or two.
I’m certainly no monster, but achieved (at one point) 28" thighs at 5’10" 220lb, 640lb full squat, 700+ parallel and 405x23 reps full squats. I did however deadlift on a separate day, some leg work there as well.
It’s all about the effort, ESP on squats…

7

[quote]cyph31 wrote:
gatesoftanhauser wrote:
Make sure you curl in the squat rack afterwards

with a 5 lb dumbell in one hand and a cellphone in the other[/quote]

.

8

Frequency frequency frequency frequency.

9

With a workout like 10x10 your not going to be able to squat more than once a week or once every six days max. Or if you do a couple heavy sets you could lift them 4 x a week. Or you could go somewhere in between. Take your pick.

10

[quote]LiftSmart wrote:
Frequency frequency frequency frequency.[/quote]

Smolov ^^

It should have fine print that states, DO AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Words really cant describe the brutality this program delivers. (And Im only on the 2nd week!)

Something much more doable for the masses is Bill Starrs 5x5 M-H-L schedule. Or perhaps squatting 3 times a week alternating different forms of squats each session (Front, OH, Back, Zercher, etc…)

11

Once a week is plenty for a natural trainer. Squats tax the CNS heavily. Let yourself recover.