I’ve been training using westside principles for around 8 months now and finally figured out how to increase my bench, and deadlift has also increased steadily, but my squat is stuck. I would really like to hear anyone’s comments on the way I set up my squat routine as I feel a little lost right now. I’m ordering a suit and wraps but right now I train only with a belt. (no access to ghr, reverse hyper or anything but a straight bar)
Speed day (typical)
- wide box squat with purple bands while waving the bar weight of 185, 205, or 225 for 12, 10, and 8 sets, respectively.
- typically use romanian deads at 275 for 3 sets of 8 (sometimes go to 315 for 6’s) if not used on de day I’ll use this one as an assistive on me day.
- followed by pull throughs, leg raises and standing pulldown abs. etc…
Max Effort Day
- I use shoulder width box squat (pr 375) or sumo deads (pr 455) for max singles or actual wide stance squats for max doubles (355) or triples (335) (feel I have to squat for my form and to become more comfortable). Occasionally, max conventional dead (pr 500).
- Lately I’ve been doing gm’s second until I feel good enough to use it as a max exercise. right now I’m at 245 for 3 of 3 (no belt).
- leg raises, pulldown abs
Sometimes I throw in higher rep Zercher squats or freeweight hack squats at the end of either work-out if I think I need additional work.
Thanks in advance for any help.
How much is your competition squat?
ok i see a few things i think we could do to jump start the squat…looking at your squat numbers i put you at around 415-450 or so fully suited competition squat when youl earn your suit…takeing that into account lets go ahead and cut down on the number of dyanmic sets your doing and use a tope end week of 8 sets as your deload week…you can use a 3 week wave like this…week 1- 235 + purple band 6x2…week 2 - 245x3x2 + purple band + add in 3 for more heavy sets a set sof 2 at say maybe 275 and then 2 singles going as heavy as you can without failing…on the 3rd week deload with 50%+purple band & 8x2…this will allow you to handle heavier weight at the top and still get speed out of the bottom and also get used to near max weights with competiton form…now the next thing i can say is to cut out the wide stance box squating on max effort day and replace it with good mornings…bm
Ok thanks for the help. I’ll be getting my suit in a couple of weeks, right finals are done. When you said to work up to heavy singles, that’s still with bands, right? Also, is box squatting period on max effort day not going to do me any good, or should my stance just be in even closer than shoulder width.
As far as gm’s go, I will start doing them on me day. Would it be a good idea to, for example, do them starting at the bottom sometimes, while other times just doing them normally? Also, what are good assistives after gm’s, would zercher squats or something work.
yea thats the idea with the gm’s do them sometimes normal both arch and rounded, and sometimes suspended (from the bottom)…box squating on max effort day should be with a close stance and to a low box 10-12 inches high it is basically a ass to the grass squat and sit more straight down with these you dont have to sit far back like with normal box squats…bm
Should I use a belt for max good mornings, or just do them raw?
I do my me gm’s raw but I dont see why you can’t use a belt. Right now I like to do rounded back gm’s for time afterwards but I think anything like glute-ham raises, pullthroughs, rdl’s would be good assistance…
use a belt when you get close to your max sets…probally the last 3 max effort sets use a belt…bm
Alright, thanks for the help. I’ll give these ideas a try and hopefully get my squat up. I’ll probably be entering my first full meet sometime this summer in the 90kg weight class and am looking forward to it.