Sergey Bondarenko (Russia, 450/510 lbs. @235+): Useful Articles, Q&A, Form Check etc

Dear friends,

As it looked like this question interested some of you, I publish here my squatting routine. That is definitely not the only one way to develop your leg strength and some may even find it not the best one, but it worked great for me and my trainees and I continue to use and teach it.

Week one - Mon

Maintenance Front Squats - 3 sets of 2 - 70-80% of your max front squat.

Week one - Wed

Maintenance Back Squats - 3 sets of 5 - 65-70% of your max back squat.

Week one - Sat

Loading Front Squats - 3 sets of 2 - 90-95% of your max front squat.

Week two - Mon

Maintenance Back Squats - 3 sets of 2 - 70-80% of your max back squat.

Week two - Wed

Maintenance Front Squats - 3 sets of 5 - 65-70% of your max front squat.

Week two - Sat

Loading Back Squats - 3 sets of 5 to 7 - 85-90% of your max back squat.
This one requires the weight to be set that way, so that your 5 to 7 rep will be really the last one. If you did not manage to make 5 reps in at least one of the sets, decrease the weight. If you did more than 7 in two or more sets - increase the weight. If you did 7 reps in every set - good, next training you should increase the weight.

Repeat

I leave some intervals from a weight selection (70-80% and so) because different people have different relation between their 1RM and 5RM for example. You will soon start to feel the right weight which gives you sufficient maintenance effect without overloading yourself.