I’m working with two lower body assistance days right now, one paired with squat and one with deadlift, and I’ve been debating about how to pair them for maximum efficiency and, of course, gainzzz .
On day 1 the primary assistance move is a hinge (specifically RDLs) and on day 2 the primary assistance move is a squat (either front squats or SSB squats). My debate is which one to pair with my main, competition movement.
On one had, if I pair squat with RDL as the main assistance and deadlift with the front/SSB squat as the main assistance, then I’m upping the frequency of working both the squat and hinge movement patterns to twice per week, which seems like a positive. On the other hand, if I pair squat with front/SSB squat and deadlift with RDL, then I’m doing more to reinforce my main lift of the day. The other concern is that by fatiguing each movement pattern twice per week I might negatively influence the main lift - for instance if I do squats with the RDL on Monday, then I’ve already fatigued the hinge pattern before I do deadlifts later in the week which might negatively affect my deadlift session? Or am I overthinking that?
What do you guys think is the optimal way to pair them?